Julius Caesar Act 2 - Omens Essay

The forces of nature play a very important role in The Tragedy of Julius Caesar: Act II by William Shakespeare. There are many examples of how nature, omens, and the supernatural play important parts in the play. There is much attention paid to omens and how they foreshadow the death of Julius Caesar. All the events that lead up to Caesar’s death are predicted by omens, all of which he ignores. Julius Caesar has many omens that foreshadow the death of Julius Caesar. In Act I, the soothsayer warns Caesar that he should “beware the ides of March.” Caesar foolishly shrugs it off; he thinks that since nothing bad has happened yet, nothing will. Similarly, when Calpurnia has a dream of a fountain of blood, lightning and thunder can be heard, which is an example of a bad omen. Calpurnia’s dream foreshadows the death to come, but Caesar does not believe this omen, for he misunderstood it, thinking something good will happen. Calpurnia and the soothsayer attempt many times to change Caesar’s mind from leaving the house, but he continues to ignore their warnings. There is much attention paid to omens in Julius Caesar, but the most important ones are often misinterpreted. The reason is that the characters do not want to interpret omens that do not suit what they were doing, or they do not like what it had to say. When they are misinterpreted, bad things can happen; for example, the death of Caesar. Some characters like Cassius and Decius use the power of persuasion and conversation to sway others into believing them, and changing their certain opinion. Caesar was not going to go to the senate house with Decius because of his wife Calpurnia’s dream, but Decius persuaded him by changing the dream around, so the meaning was made as something good, and Caesar liked what he was hearing. Omens and the supernatural do not have any real impact and are really figments of their imagination. The omens sway decisions that they can made themselves using