Stormy Signs

1. Stormy Signs New Characters:Cicero: a Roman senator and orator Cinna: a conspirator against Caesar In Act I, scene iii, a terrible storm is brewing outside, symbolically reflecting the growing conspiracy afoot to murder Caesar. It is the night before the ides of March, and a terrible storm is raging. BUT- The storm outside isn't anything of the ordinary type; it's raining fire! What's more, is there is a lion roaming the streets, a man with a flame the size of twenty torches.

2. Casca’s Response Fear He is terrified by the storm. His fear causes him to think the storm is an omen that nature is warning them about their intent to kill Caesar and his fear of the storm signifies his fear of killing Caesar

3. Cassius’s response Exhilaration When he sees lightning, he puts himself right in its path, daring it to strike him, perhaps, or just to absorb its power and energy. He does not fear the storm, just as he does not fear killing Caesar. He is confident and perhaps arrogant as well.

4. Conniving Cassius Cassius says “I know where I will wear this dagger then: / Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius” (I.iii). Ideas of right and wrong are closely tied to masculinity, as well as to tradition. Notice that Cassius is still only strongly hinting, rather than directly stating, that they should kill Caesar.

5. Conniving Cassius Cassius says “I know where I will wear this dagger then: / Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius” (I.iii). Ideas of right and wrong are closely tied to masculinity, as well as to tradition. Notice that Cassius is still only strongly hinting, rather than directly stating, that they should kill Caesar.

6. We need Brutus on our team! This scene highlights the difference between the other conspirators and Brutus: While they suspect that their plans are ignoble, and are complicit in Cassius’s trickery, Brutus must be “fooled.” Also, getting Brutus involved is essential to fooling the people, since everyone knows that Brutus is so morally upright.

7. Moral Obligation to um…Murder? Cassius says that Caesar could never have risen so high if other Romans were not so weak, and that Rome is “trash” if it will “illuminate / so vile a thing as Caesar” (I.iii). Phrasing it in terms of slavery and weakness makes it seem like a moral duty to kill Caesar. Cassius continues gradually changing his description of Caesar from “immortal,” to equal, to weak, to “vile.”