Julius Caesar Foil

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The main purpose of a foil in a literary text is often to highlight important characteristics of each opposing character. In Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare Caesar, a man of the highest possible level of Rome’s hierarchy, is visited by the Soothsayer, a man whom possesses little to none political and social power in order to be warned of Caesar’s ultimate downfall. The encounters that the two men face are extremely brief and show little to none direct interaction. However, Caesar’s constant and firm refusal that whatever demise of power the soothsayer speaks of emphasizes Caesar’s tragic flaw of egotistical arrogance. Primarily, upon their first encounter during the festival of Lupercal, Caesar and the Soothsayer are described as absolute…show more content…
On the other hand, the soothsayer is struggling to get Caesars attention in the large mob, calling out his name and lucking getting the attention of Caesar. Furthermore, when Caesar dismisses the soothsayer's warning with a dismissive, “He is a dreamer; let us leave him. Pass.” (1.2.24) a new side to the popular ruler is revealed. Rather than being only a great military ruler who has captured the hearts of his people, a new arrogant side of Caesar is displayed as a reaction to the soothsayers’ augury. Due to the extreme opposite of social standings between the two men, Caesar cares for nothing the lowly commoner has to say and moves on with the celebration. Delving in deeper, the play as a whole contains an underlying theme of whether the events leading up to Caesar's’ death were deemed as fate of free will. Caesar could have easily believed what the soothsayer said, thus taking…show more content…
Caesar still refuses to believe anything that the soothsayer has to say. This particular exchange between the two men on the morning of Caesar’s death further articulates the amount of dramatic irony in the scene as well as the cluelessness and foolishness of Caesar’s actions. Carelessness and idiocy are brought out in Caesar by depicting him as blindsided to the conspiracy. The trait brought out by the soothsayer of being overly confident in his power and status is brought out in this exchange of lines. Another common act throughout the entirety of the play was the main characters involved in the plot ignoring what the minor characters had to say. In this case, Caesar believes nothing that the soothsayer says, using his power and status to rule over and decide for himself what he thinks is best for himself. if he had listened to someone other than the manipulating minds of the senate, Caesar would not have experienced what was to happen later on that
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