Indeterminacy In William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

While previous questions have all been fairly self-explanatory, it may be necessary to better define the meaning when one asks “when were the plays done?” When posing this question, one ought to address a few clearer topics, such as what circumstances they were under, the time of day of the performances, the settings of the plays, the span of the plays, and how long it took to write the plays. The circumstances of the plays varied from play to play. Performances of Julius Caesar, for example, occurred shortly after the Gunpowder Plot, and due to those circumstances, the audience may have seen it as a warning against assassinating kings, yet
“during the Palatinate crisis of 1619–1620, when public opinion became polarized, and when the
king’s …show more content…
The indeterminacy we now find in the quarto-- a conditional typical of performance, which may explain how theoretical complexities of the dramatic text become caught up in rhetoric about text as performance-- is the product of the vulnerabilities of the original composite script to the vagaries of time: the written text has survived, while the oral script has been irrecoverably lost (459).
Although specifically in reference to the unknown stage directions, this same principle possibly applies to Shakespeare’s intentions overall-- Shakespeare was there to tell his actors why he did what he did, but whatever he may have told them to explain himself has been lost with time. It may be that Shakespeare’s intention was to comment on political or social conditions, much like how authors or artists have done throughout the ages. Julius Caesar proved to be “topical in its evocation of the nation’s political anxieties” in its response to the …show more content…
6. Conclusion
Although there is a lack of historical information regarding the finer details of what occurred when writing and performing the plays, the information that has survived is sufficient to answer generalized questions regarding Shakespeare’s work. Having a general understanding of the workings of his plays will allow people to better appreciate his skill, both in what he writes (the plot in itself) and how he writes it (in regard to the actors, location, time and setting, and intent). Without a basic knowledge, it will be significantly more difficult for one to wrap their mind about the more intricate aspects of playwriting. Shakespeare is perhaps one of the most significant playwrights in history, and as long as people are willing to challenge themselves mentally and strive to understand him, they will continue to consider him as one of the greatest
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