Tuesday, June 25, 2013

How do lines 63-69 (Act 2, Scene 1) of Julius Caesar reflect Brutus’ inner conflict and the overall conflict building in Act 2?

Here are lines 63-69 of Act 2, Scene 1:



Between the acting of a dreadful thing
and the first motion, all the interim is
Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream. 
The genius and the mortal instruments
Are then in council, and the state of a man,
Like to a little kingdom, suffers then
the nature of an insurrection.



The lines assert that, between doing something dreadful and planning it ("the first motion") - everything in between is like a hideous dream, a "phantasma". Man's faculties and abilities are in council - to decide the best course of action - and the "state" (of course, can mean the "nature" of something - the state of the weather, for example...) of a man undergoes a serious change.


There are lots of ways in which the ideas in this speech reflect conflicts within the play.


Firstly, what is the difference between doing something and thinking it. The assassination of Caesar might seem a good idea in the planning in the orchard scene (Brutus, you'll note, decides that the assassins rise against the "spirit of Caesar", which he claims has nothing to do with blood) - but the assassination seems rather difference when, after killing Caesar, there is blood all over the floor and chaos in the capital.


Secondly, the problem of controlling events: the way the body and the "state" of man reacts to the idea in the head shows the uncontrollable changes that can spring from an intellectual idea. In the same way, the "good idea" of the assassination produces all sorts of uncontrolled events in Rome.


And thirdly, the dream-like atmosphere of the play itself. Re-read the description of the supernatural storm, and think about the soothsayer and Caesar's ghost in Act 4. Might the whole play be a "phantasma"?

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