By dramatizing and manipulating history, composers exemplify how intrapersonal conflict leads to internalized vacillation and uncertainty, emphasizing the impacts of conflict to engage the audience. Shakespeare first introduces the audience to Brutus’ inner conflict at the beginning of the play, “Than that poor Brutus, with himself at war”, he describes himself as ‘poor’ and ‘with himself at war’ revealing his internal conflict to the audience. Shakespeare uses third-person language to pressure them to sympathize with Brutus.
Brutus’ intrapersonal conflict is also evident in his soliloquy. Through the use of an analogy, “It is the bright day that brings forth the adder; … Crown him? … I grant, we put a sting in him, That at his will he may do danger with.”, his comparison of Caesar to a poisonous snake depicts him as a person who will no longer have compassion for the people of Rome if he gains too much authority. Similarly, he expressed that Caesar should be thought of as a “serpent’s egg… which, hatched, would as his kind grow mischievous… and kill in him the shell.” The use of animal imagery symbolizes the fear that Cassius has successfully struck inside Brutus. Shakespeare skillfully influenced the audience and Brutus to have conflicting views on Julius Caesar, with the assistance of Cassius’ effective rhetoric and denigration of Caesar.
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Shakespeare emphatically engages with the audience as Shakespeare casts him to appear as a narcissistic person. His egotistical view of himself is more conspicuous in the opening scene where he is seen with a great crowd following him. Throughout the play, Shakespeare intricately characterizes Caesar by having Caesar say “Caesar turned to hear”, the use of the third person emphasizes his self-inflated view of himself, and parallels Caesar with Brutus. Additionally, Brutus’ cognitive dissonance is augmented in the scene of Caesar’s death, Shakspeare emphasizes a sense of closeness and intimacy between Brutus and Caesar, by altering history to have Caesar utter his dying words, “E tu, Brute? Then fall Caesar.” to Brutus. Shakespeare appeals to the audience’s sense of pathos by having his dying words be spoken in Latin, the language only Caesar and Brutus spoke, it makes the ordeal more personal to Brutus and forces him to question if stabbing Caesar was the most ideal option.
Shakespeare reinforces the idea of Caesar’s narcissistic manner by manipulating history and using a hypophora when he says, “Then fall Caesar”, indicating how Caesar has accepted his own fate. Although the audience had a sympathetic connection with Caesar, it also alienates the audience and causes them to question Caesar as he still hangs onto his egotistical self by referring to himself in the third person, “Then fall Caesar.”, rebuilding the audience’s abhorrence towards Caesar. Therefore through the characterization of Brutus as a misinformed idealist, doubtful of the genuine danger that Caesar poses to Rome, Shakespeare proficiently investigates the interpersonal conflict while additionally engaging with the audience.
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