Landon Wilcock
Mr Edwards
ENG 1DL
January 2, 2010

Fate and Freewill; the Drug of Roman Times


The story of Julius Caesar is that of two battling forces. Each of these forces strongly opinionated, that ones beliefs in these are so important that many things will influence them into saying or showing that they think differently. In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar the theme of the play is that; fate and freewill are forces that should not come in between you and what you believe in. Other things should not let your beliefs impair which you believe in. There are many arguments through out this story based on the topic of fate versus freewill with many different opinions on each. This is a quote from one of the many arguments throughout this play; “Men at sometime were masters of their fates. / The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, / But in ourselves, that we are underlings” (I.ii.140–142). This quote is an example of how Brutus is being influenced by a good friend who he trusts into thinking something he may usually not have unless this friends was there. This shows how exceptionally early into the play that the characters views on fate and freewill will be key in decision making and how early into the play that characters are influenced by others on the topic of fate and freewill. The second quotes are some of the simplest but also some of the most critical lines in this play when speaking of the decision making involved with fate and freewill. These lines are foreshadowing how Caesar’s arrogance, pride and how he views fate and how freewill and fate will affect his life. These lines are;


CASSIUS
Fellow, come from the throng. Look upon Caesar.

CAESAR
What sayst thou to me now? Speak once again.

SOOTHSAYER
Beware the ides of March.

CAESAR
He is a dreamer. Let us leave him. Pass!


(I.ii.23-26). After these lines are said Caesar does not seem to worry much of what the Soothsayer says and ignores what he has said. I believe this is one of the major periods when you see Caesars views on fate and freewill being impaired. His views are being impaired from some of his powerful friends being around and not wanting them to see him worry about what a Soothsayers says therefore he disregards him. “It seems to me most strange that men should fear, / Seeing that death, a necessary end, / Will come when it will come” (II.ii.35–37). Caesar says this showing that Caesar understands that there is a thing called fate. This line shows that Caesar knows that things can not always be controlled and some things are out of you own control, out of even the gods control and out of anyones control; these things are your own pre destined fate. This is one of the first times you hear Caesar coming out and strongly showing his opinion with the idea of fate. I chose this line to show how he may act when not being influenced by something such as his friends. He accepts fate as the force that is the stronger than the belief of freewill. In ending this play supports two very different out looks on life; fate and freewill. The play shows how some may believe in fate and think and base all actions on what they believe their fate to be. The play shows that fate and freewill are forces that should never come between you and what you believe in or influence your judgment.

Caesar - toon

~THE LAMBS OF CAESAR~

In this cartoon I have symbolized Caesar and the commoners of Rome as lamb. I have done this to show the commoners do not argue with decisions; they just follow the leader and do what they are told. I have put Caesar as a lamb because Caesar is just like the commoners in ways. The way I am illustrating is Caesar is clueless to his execution, although small hints are made to him if he wasn't as arrogant as he was before he was murdered. The sign of Rome and the slaughter house, the sheep loading onto a cart leaving for a slaughter house. Those were hints I used to show he may not have been murdered if Caesar had just looked around and had not been so arrogant.

Cinna's Letter!! Caesar

Dear Brutus,

I write this letter to inform you that many people are wondering if Caesars power maybe too strong, and if his power will grow even stronger. I believe it will and that we need to stop Caesar before he becomes a tyrant that no one is able to stop. I have no proposal on how to stop Caesar from becoming to strong but as you are a smart man I am sure you have many ideas on how you may do this. You are probably wondering who the others are who I have mentioned in the letter earlier; they are people like you and I who think Caesar is a great man but are worried that he could become far too strong and powerful. They also believe that stopping Caesar from becoming too strong would be the correct thing to do for our great nation of Rome, for if he does become too strong Rome could fall among many of the nations who have been defeated. Do you want Rome to be defeated? I say no to this and believe you have the same belief. I think that you are the right person to stop Caesar from becoming too strong and I also believe you must do this soon. You have many followers Brutus, use them for your better and stop Caesar.

Love your friends and followers,

My thoughts on the book The Screwtape Letters

The Screwtape Letters

Pages left: 105
Pages read: 104

The author of this book is C.S Lewis, he has written many books with numerous award nominations and wins. He wrote such books as The Chronicles of Narnia and The Space Trilogy. C.S Lewis was born in Ireland and died November 22, 1963. He was a Christian apologist, essayist, literary critic and a medievalist.

The book is about two devils called Screwtape and Wormwood. It is about these two men sending letters too each other. In these letters Screwtape who is a older more knowledgeable devil; trying to help his nephew Wormwood a much less experienced devil tempt a "patient" away from Christianity into Hell. Through the book Wormwood fails numerous times at converting him as the man is called into the army, meets a Christian girl and falls in love with her and begins attending church. He also succeeds numerous times with with his patient having periods of gluttony or lust. He also succeeds when his "patient" makes new friends who are very judging of others beliefs.

In this book no setting has been clearly established yet. There has only been one very small hint to where and when this may be taking place. The single hint is that it is during one of the World Wars, this means that these men are probably from a country that speaks mainly English as all of the words are in English and there aren't any hints that it may have been translated. The atmosphere is quite normal with little suspense or sadness. Usually, there is an atmosphere of disapointment from Wormwoood failing to do something correctly.

The protagonist of the story is Screwtape. The first personality trait of Screwtape is anger. In this book he is almost always angry with his nephew Wormwood for not doing as he was told or not doing something correct. Example: " May I ask you what you are about? Why have I no report on the the causes of his fidelity to the parish church?" Another personality trait of Screwtape is condescending. Through these letters he shows quite clearly that he believes he far superior and smarter than his nephew Wormwood. Example: "The contemptuous way in which you spoke of catching souls, in your last letter, only shows your ignorance."

So far I'm enjoying this book. I think I enjoy this book as I like to read about the different take on Christianity from a so called devils point of view. There isn't anything I dislike about the book so far, I think that the way the author wrote the book is very interesting and well done. I think how the author has only letters from the protagonist in the book and non from the antagonist is a very neat idea. I would recommend not reading this book if you have a very strong religious background or a very strong atheist back ground as there are very strong Christian concepts and also anti Christian concepts.