Julius Caesar: Symbols

Symbols are shown in red text whenever they appear in the Plot Summary and Summary and Analysis sections of this LitChart.

Omens

The presence of omens and prophecies in Julius Caesar lends an air of the supernatural to the cold political machinery of Rome. From the Soothsayer’s warning, to the storm, to the birds that presage Cassius’s defeat, major events in the play seem inevitable, as if decreed by the Gods. Then again, things may not be as fixed as they seem—does knowing that the next day is the ides of March help make up Brutus’s mind? And Cassius bases his suicide on a mistake—the bad omen was not accurate until he made it so by killing himself.

Body, Blood, & Pain

In Julius Caesar, the human body echoes the body politic: the conspirators call Caesar’s autocracy a sickness that must be cured; the sleepless Brutus speaks of a rebellion in his body mirroring the rebellion he plans; and Calpurnia’s dream about Caesar’s bleeding statue is reinterpreted to mean that Rome draws its life from Caesar, as if his health were synonymous with the city’s. Physical strength and weakness is important too. Portia courts pain as a means of proving her worth, and Caesar’s great power is contrasted by infirmity—he’s epileptic and partially deaf.

Rome

Because of its advanced culture and military might, Rome represented the world in microcosm. The lives of its most prominent citizens represented all human actions, and had far-reaching consequences for all of Western Civilization. In Julius Caesar, the principal characters seem conscious of this, scrutinizing their own actions as if the balance of history upon them were palpable. At times, they seem deliberately to make their speech or actions overly dramatic—even hammy—as if they were aware of their presence on a stage that the whole world would turn to for all time.