How Does Shakespeare Create Corruption In Julius Caesar

Assignment:
The works of Shakespeare and Dickens

Introduction

Julius Caesar takes plays in the ancient Greece, and the plot is based on the assassination of Caesar himself. Caesar returned to Rome from war. As the citizens honor him, an alliance was formed between the senators Brutus and Cassius. They shared a dread if Caesar would become corrupted from all the power and as a result, they plotted the death of him. They stabbed him to death and on his funeral the truth were set free. A man called Antony turned the people against the conspirators. This created a war in which they were forced to flee, or got murdered. Themes such as jealousy, power and leadership I’d say were the main point of it. It was an underlying fear of corruption,
which drove the characters Brutus and Cassius to their actions.
This I can associate to the renaissance, in which it was not unusual or people to “disappear” from high positions and get replaced. In act one, scene two, speaks Cassius: “"Brutus" and "Caesar." What is so special about the name "Caesar"?
Why should that name be spoken more than yours?”
With this I connect to the change that happened for the aristocrats in the 16th century. Names became as important as who one was birthed by. Suddenly one could marry into a powerful and mighty family name. With this I’m sure that the lower class questioned this system, as however not everyone could marry rich. The play itself ends in misery and death, alike the rest of Shakespeare’s tragedies. Shakespeare has a tendency to end the characters lives by suicide or murdered. For characters to take suicide from other characters, which in turn took suicide, is not an unusual paradox in Shakespeare’s works either. Maybe the most famous one is Romeo and Juliet. And with no exception for this play most lives took the destructive turn. As of the other play, Othello, the general theme is almost as drenched in sinful feelings: revenge, jealously and lastly deception. Shortly, Othello was a moor and he married a woman called Desdemona. Another man called Iago wants his son-in-law Cassio dead, and to do so he claimed that Desdemona had showed infidelity to Cassio. This all ends in a bloodbath were Othello killed his wife and then committed suicide after he got the knowledge of the
lies. I would also say that these plots and themes is somewhat connected to Christianity and the change that happened in society under the Renaissance era: when the church no longer had the same power as previously.

As the industrial revolution took place, a broken image of the Victorian society arose. Charles Dickens was one of the first authors to acknowledge the backside of that image. Knowing poverty himself, he began writing Oliver Twist, an orphan who’s struggling to get by each day. This showed a not-before-seen realism and individualism in literature and as well a sight into the conditions the lower class. As Dickens presumably wanted to channel his harsh experiences from childhood, I would also presume that he wanted to expand the information onto his readers, both for them to partly relate, and to also realize how the society’s portrait truly was inaccurate when the lights went out. Another novel by him is Great Expectation, in which the lead character learns that loyalty and moral means more than wealth and social class. Self-improvement is a big theme.