Julius Caesar Recently, a twenty-first century adaptation of Shakespeare’s, “Julius Caesar” had major funding pulled by both Delta Airlines and Bank of America regarding the depiction of Caesar who bore an uncanny resemblance to America’s current president, Donald J. Trump. The question [that] remains is if the corporate sponsor's decision to pull funding was justified. The answer? No. Considering both the role of art in society and specific message behind this play, the sponsors were wrong for pulling the funds. As stated in the article, “The role of Art and the Artist”, by Edgar H. Schein, Schein writes that art’s role is not just to be beautiful, but that it should, “disturb, provoke, and inspire.” (3) Art has always had the role to
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(8) The real reason to use Trump to portray Caesar is 1) People are heavily opinionated when it comes to him, and 2) to modify the story. People are going to easily recognize the large tie and foreign wife and associate it with the current president. This will help get the point across that, “He’s the leader, so I see the impact when something happens to him.” (10) Only heavily biased and ignorant people seemed to have had such a negative reaction to this adaptation. In the article, “Pro-Trump protestors disrupt NYC’s “Julius Caesar,” 1 arrested”, by Caroline Linton, a woman named Laura Loomer filmed herself herself rushing across the stage during the assassination scene of Caesar where she proceeded to yell , “Stop the normalization of political violence against the right. This is unacceptable … this is violent!” She then proceeded to compare the production to ISIS and yelled the word, “Shame!” (3) This led to her arrest and shows how ignorant she was, not only for claiming that the play was politically violent against the right, but for daring to compare it to the terrorist organization ISIS. Her actions go on to show how important art is in spreading messages to warn and educate
(8) The real reason to use Trump to portray Caesar is 1) People are heavily opinionated when it comes to him, and 2) to modify the story. People are going to easily recognize the large tie and foreign wife and associate it with the current president. This will help get the point across that, “He’s the leader, so I see the impact when something happens to him.” (10) Only heavily biased and ignorant people seemed to have had such a negative reaction to this adaptation. In the article, “Pro-Trump protestors disrupt NYC’s “Julius Caesar,” 1 arrested”, by Caroline Linton, a woman named Laura Loomer filmed herself herself rushing across the stage during the assassination scene of Caesar where she proceeded to yell , “Stop the normalization of political violence against the right. This is unacceptable … this is violent!” She then proceeded to compare the production to ISIS and yelled the word, “Shame!” (3) This led to her arrest and shows how ignorant she was, not only for claiming that the play was politically violent against the right, but for daring to compare it to the terrorist organization ISIS. Her actions go on to show how important art is in spreading messages to warn and educate