How Is Julius Caesar Manipulated

Whether in love or war, manipulation is ever present. Manipulation is the art of deception, a way of controlling someone without them knowing. However, the manipulator can just as easily fall into a trap much like their own, becoming the manipulated. William Shakespeare, playwright for The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, demonstrates various circumstances in which manipulation plays a key role in one’s downfall throughout this play. Many characters attempt to manipulate one another throughout this tragedy, but not everyone can end up victorious. Those who manipulate achieve their greatest desires, while the manipulated merely step aside, becoming downtrodden, no longer an obstacle in one’s way of success.
The death of Julius Caesar is a very famous, yet misconstrued tragedy. Many people do not realize the manipulation and …show more content…
This trait, although necessary for most successful rulers, guided Caesar to his inevitable demise. He ignored his instincts and rather than listening to his wife, he accepted Decius’s explanation of Calpurnia’s dream, stating, “Caesar shall forth: the things that threaten’d me / Ne’er look’d but on my back; when they shall see / The face of Caesar, they are vanished” (II.ii.10-12). Here Caesar claims he turns his back on fear, when in reality he is being ignorant and blind to the mendacity of his trusted advisors. Decius was one of these people, whose alleged interpretation of Calpurnia’s dream, convinces Caesar to unknowingly walk straight to his death. Decius Brutus knew just how to deceive Caesar declaring, “Their minds may change / [...] / ‘Break up the senate till another time, / If Caesar’s wife shall meet with better dreams.’ / [...] / ‘Lo, Caesar is afraid’?” (II.ii.96,98-99,101). Caesar fears if he does not show up to the Capitol his followers will view him as weak and afraid, unfit to rule. His fickleness and worry for how he is viewed allows him to be so easily