Julius Caesar

The events of Julius Caesar happened long before William Shakespeare decided to write about them. His account is not factual because he wasn’t there and cannot be sure of exactly what happened, but his account is indeed accurate based upon his knowledge. The dialogue may never have been said, the words may have never been uttered, but the events conveyed did follow through. Caesar was murdered by a group of conspirators led by Brutus and Cassius in real life and in Shakespeare’s play.

Shakespeare wrote three types of plays: comedies, tragedies, and histories. I consider Julius Caesar to be both a tragedy and a history. It is a tragedy because the main character/protagonist dies and it is a history because the events accounted for actually occurred. Therefore I consider the play to be some sort of a history textbook, but much more interesting.

Many people ask why do people have to study history since it is about a bunch of dead people and about events that have no relevance to our lives since they happened so long ago. So why do we study history? Shouldn’t we be looking toward the future instead of back in history? Well, history is only studied for one sole reason.

History is studied so the same mistakes are not made again in the future. It is used to show people how stupid they in fact were and are and it is used so it doesn’t happen again. Has this always worked? In the 1920s there was a war called World War I, and then in the 1940s there was another war called World War II. Between those twenty years, didn’t the Germans learn anything? They were defeated in WWI, so then they had to go and start WWII? I don’t understand since this is supposed to be the lesson of history.

People have also said many times that history doesn’t repeat itself. That is definitely not true since I just proved it above. Genocide in this world has occurred many times over and is occurring now. When will people ever learn? That is why we study history and why we study Julius Caesar. Shakespeare doesn’t want the modern day world to be making the same mistakes as Brutus, Cassius, or Caesar. He purposefully portrays their tragic flaws and highlights them for the readers to see, and then he shows how these flaws can backfire. He’s trying to teach us the lesson of not to have these flaws and if we do we must rid ourselves of them.

Not one character in Julius Caesar was perfect because they all had outlined flaws. The events would not have existed if they just knew how to control their flaws, but of course they didn’t and conflict flew. People were killed here and there as if they didn’t value the meaning of life. Some actions were made selfishly and imprudently, people were overestimated and others were underestimated, and the ending was never a fairy tale.

Now if we, the modern world would just learn from others mistakes instead of making our own mistakes, the world would be such a nicer place for all of us to live. How many school shootings have there been in the past 5 years? More than the number of years that have passed. Why didn’t these middle class white males learn? One after the other and the list keeps growing. If the world can take a lesson, history won’t be wasted.