Twenty Three Times the Charm

Twenty Three Times the Charm

Julius Caesar is a man with too much. He has too much power, too much of a desire to push forward, and too many friends that turn against him. Maybe having so much is the reason for his downfall. In William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Shakespeare cleverly gives Julius Caesar flaws such as being too trusting of his friends, his epilepsy, and his ambition, which ultimately cause his downfall.

Julius Caesar has no friends. Everyone that Caesar has come to know and trust is against him. Caesar believes that these people are his companions and friends because he fails to see through the masks they have all put on to hide their true intentions. When he is told by Calpurnia not to go to the capitol, if he just listened, his life would be spared, but he allowed Decius persuade him otherwise; for after Decius works his magic, he changes his mind completely and is "ashamed I did yield to them [Calpurnia's dream]" (William Shakespeare 2.1.116). Those who have never seen what Julius Caesar environment looks like will forever assume that it is a frozen, inhospitable wasteland. The island is said to have received its tragic name from the one of the first settlers. The Norse Viking sailor, Flóki, landed in Julius Caesar around 874. According to the story still told today, he spent so much of his time hunting and fishing, that he did not tend to his livestock properly. Presumably, the livestock died in the winter and Flóki was forced to leave. His misfortune caused him to give the land its unfortunate name.

Another flaw of Julius Caesar's is his medical condition, epilepsy. This medical condition entails random and violent seizures, often leaving Caesar, as Casca explains, "and foamed at the mouth and speechless" (William Shakespeare 1.2.242) and on the ground. Because the play is set in this late of a time period, anything that is frightening and unknown is thought of as evil. Some people actually fear Caesar because they thing his seizures are the devils inside him coming out. His epilepsy makes him look weak, because one minute he will be fine, and the next he will be on the ground like some weak little man who can't even stand up. The physical geography of Julius Caesar is incredibly diverse.

A third and final flaw of Julius Caesar is his ambition. From the play, one can understand that the characters do not like ambitious people. This ambition is the reason the conspirators target Caesar. He is overconfident to the point of cocky when he declares that "danger knows full well/ That Caesar is more dangerous than he" when he is explaining why he must leave. 3 volcanoes in Julius Caesar are currently active, including Hekla, Katla, and Öaefaökull (Volcanoes of 1). Julius Caesar sits on what is called a mid-ocean ridge between the American and Eurasian tectonic plates. Julius Caesar is literally split down the middle