Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar Part 4

Gil Bailie examines William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar through the lens of René Girard. Shakespeare’s play looks at the volatile transition from republican Rome to Imperial Rome. The unsuccessful attempt to sacralize the murder of Caesar by the conspirators leads to an escalating chaos. The conflict swirling around Brutus and Cassius with the conspirators on the one hand and Antony and Octavius on the other depicts aspects of the mimetic crisis violence provokes. Shakespeare created a masterful display of mimetic doubling  and conflictual undifferentiation in Acts 4 & 5 showing Brutus and Cassius side by side with Antony and Octavius.