Julius Caesar Act 2 Scene 1 Summary Brutus is in his orchard. It is night and he calls impatiently for his servant, Lucius, and sends him to light a candle in his study. When Lucius has gone, Brutus speaks one of the most important and controversial soliloquies in the play. He says that he has "no personal cause to spurn at" Caesar, except "for the general," meaning that there are general reasons for the public good. Thus far, Caesar has seemingly been as virtuous as any other man, but Brutus fears that after he is "augmented" (crowned), his character will change, for it is in the nature of things that power produces tyranny. He therefore decides to agree to Caesar's assassination: to "think him as a serpent's egg, / Which, hatched, would as his kind, grow mischievous, / And kill him in the shell." Lucius re-enters and gives Brutus a letter that has been thrown into his window. The various conspirators — Cassius, Casca, Decius, Cinna, Metellus Cimber, and Trebonius — now arrive. Cassius proposes that they all seal their compact with an oath, but Brutus objects on the ground that honorable men acting in a just cause need no such bond. When Cassius raises the question of inviting Cicero into the conspiracy, Brutus persuades the conspirators to exclude Cicero from the conspiracy. Cassius then argues that Mark Antony should be killed along with Caesar; Brutus opposes this too as being too bloody a course, and he urges that they be "sacrificers, but not butchers." It is the spirit of Caesar, he asserts, to which they stand opposed, and "in the spirit of men there is no blood." When the conspirators have departed, Brutus notices that his servant, Lucius, has fallen asleep. At this moment, Portia, his wife, enters, disturbed and concerned by her husband's strange behaviour. She demands to know what is troubling him. She asserts her strength and reminds Brutus that because she is Cato's daughter, her quality of mind raises her above ordinary women; she asks to share his burden with him. Deeply impressed by her speech, Brutus promises to tell her what has been troubling him. Portia leaves, and Lucius is awakened and ushers in Caius Ligarius, who has been sick, but who now declares that to follow Brutus in his noble endeavor, "I here discard my sickness." They set forth together. Analysis While the reader has been led to believe in Brutus' strength of nobility, there is a touch of weakness in the self-delusion he must create before he can join the conspirators: Brutus feels that murder is wrong and so must find a way to justify his actions. It's not for personal reasons that he will do it, but for the general; that is, for the good of the people of Rome. He generalizes about the effects of power and ambition and anticipates the damage that Caesar will do when he gains the crown. He has to admit, however, that Caesar has not yet committed any of these wrongs. Brutus has to convince himself to kill Caesar before he has the opportunity to achieve his ambition; that is, he will "kill him in the shell." The final element of his persuasion comes from an outside source. He responds to the call of the people without knowing that the call is false. The letters that Cassius has penned have been discovered in Brutus' closet; he reads them and is persuaded by them under the same harsh and distorting "exhalations of the air" that light the conspirators' way to Brutus' doorstep. By that light, one can see that Brutus is as tainted as any of the other conspirators. Brutus, although he has decided to be one of the conspirators, knows that what they plan is wrong. "O Conspiracy, / Sham'st thou to show thy dang'rous brow by night, / When evils are most free?" (emphasis added). But being a man of his word, he is committed to the plan. After a brief, whispered discussion with Cassius, Brutus takes on the leadership of the group, and when Cassius calls on the group to swear to continue as they have planned, Brutus stops them, and begins by a sort of negative persuasion to fix their resolve and establish himself as leader. "No, not an oath!" he says. If their motives are not strong enough, an oath will not help them to accomplish the deed. Only cowards and deceivers would swear, and to swear would be to taint what they do. This is how Brutus convinces his men. He creates a void, takes away what Cassius says, and then fills it with his own voice. By stripping away the words of an oath and by replacing that oath with images of valiant Romans, their very blood carrying strength, nobility, and constancy, Brutus inspires his men and establishes himself as their leader. Caesar, therefore, is not alone in his ambition. This image of nobility disappears rather abruptly as the conspirators return to the details of the plan. What about Cicero? Should they try to get him on their side? He carries a lot of weight. Perhaps he'd be useful. Maybe they could claim him as the author of what they do and spread some of the responsibility around. Brutus points out that Cicero is too much his own man and will not follow anyone, and so he is excluded. Next, they must decide what to do about Mark Antony. He is a powerful and dangerous foe, but Brutus is doubtful, not wanting to murder for the sake of killing and even regretting that Caesar's blood must be shed. Blood imagery begins to replace the lightening and flame that dominated the earlier part of the scene. It is as though a bloody rain follows the rumbling warnings of thunder. By means of this fluid image, Shakespeare moves easily between all the connotations that blood offers. The conspirators are up to no good, yet they attempt to lend credibility to what they do by calling on their noble Roman ancestry — their blood — in order to spill Caesar's blood. By this bloodletting, they believe they will regain the masculinity and strength that the state has lost. By penetrating Caesar's body, by exposing his weakness and effeminacy, Romans will be men again. Just as interesting is the image of blood that Brutus' wife, Portia, brings to the stage. As the conspirators leave their home, Portia sees "some six or seven, who did hide their faces / Even from the darkness." She knows something is very wrong. Brutus hasn't been sleeping well and is drawn from bed "to dare the vile contagion of the night." Her husband attempts to put off her questions but she, among all the characters of the play, seems most able to cut through the darkness and see the truth. "No, my Brutus, / You have some sick offense within your mind." Portia represents strong Roman womanhood, yet can still only be defined in terms of the men around her. She points out that she is the daughter of Cato, a man famed for his integrity, and the wife of Brutus, and for these reasons Brutus should confide in her. Portia's credibility is described in the images of blood. She is Brutus' "true and honourable wife / As dear to [him] as are the ruddy drops / That visit [his] sad heart." The meaning of this bloodletting is two-fold. First, the audience is meant to remember the Greek myth of the birth of Athena, the goddess associated with both war and wisdom, and who is sometimes described as having been born of the thigh of Zeus. Second, one sees that it is a woman who bears the marks of true Roman nobility. The selfwounding in her thigh is a sort of suicide, an act valued by the Romans as the ultimate sacrifice in the face of dishonour. Portia's honourable bloodletting, then, suggests that the male characters in the play, even though they call on their ancestry and on the ideas of strength and honour, do so in a dishonourable cause. Still, she is a woman, and even though she is "so father'd and so husbanded," she is unable to stem the flow of blood that the conspirators have begun. Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow: EXTRACT 1. Lucius: I will, my lord. [Exit.] Brutus: It must be by his death; and for my part, I know no personal cause to spurn at him, But for the general. He would be crowned. How that might change his nature, there the question. It is the bright day that brings forth the adder, And that craves wary walking. (i) Where does this scene take place? Who is Lucius? What has he been asked to do? Answer: The scene takes place in Brutus’ orchard in Rome.