Motivation and Manipulation in Julius Caesar Essay -- William Shakespe

In Julius Caesar, Shakespe ar illuminates the themes of human motivation and manipulation. He examines the family surrounded by actions and motivations, cause and effect, and word and deed, using the symbols of pass and hearts. Throughout the play, the characters Brutus and Marc Antony behave their different understandings of this relationship rhetorically. In his 1953 film interpretation, Joseph L. Mankiewicz demonstrates these characters understanding through both(prenominal) the plays original dialogue and his own interpolated action. It is interesting to forecast the different effects of spoken rhetoric, as we experience it in the play, and the optical rhetoric of the film. The play itself complicates matters of motivation and therefore does not answer the scruple of burden. When reading one character, the audience feels connected with their point of view, and when reading the other, they are made to feel unsure about their initial opinion. In the end, it is tight impo ssible to discover the characters inner motives, and it is therefore difficult to place blame on one or the other. However, Mankiewicz visually presents the complex relationship between these two symbols and in doing so, he creates a more sympathetic ikon for Brutus than the one in the play. He focuses on the hands as a symbol of unity, love, and friendship, and where characters use hands for evil acts, he is quick to lay the actions of hands from the motivations of the heart. While Shakespeare uses this juxtaposition to merely complicate the matter without solution it, Mankiewicz uses it to simplify the question. For Mankiewicz, Brutus involvement in the murder of Caesar, does not wholly bound his character, and the audience is made to see a more human, vulne... ...wn in the play. In Brutus words, Th abuse of greatness is when it disjoins remorse from power, and in that instance, the film shows Antonys abuse of authority (2.1.18-19). Because Antony believes that the hands acti ons and the hearts motivations cannot be separated, his expression demonstrates this belief, and he acts accordingly. While Brutus may act maliciously at times, he believes that hands and hearts are not always inextricably connect and therefore, that is especially true of his evil actions. Though Shakespeare may the leave the audience in doubt, Mankiewicz does not avoid blame and suggests that the exclusive joining of hands and hearts disjoins compassion from power and leads to true butchery. Works CitedMankiewicz, Joseph L., dir. Julius Caesar. 1953. Film Shakespeare, William. Julius Caesar. saucy York Barnes & Noble, 2007. Print.