Julius Caesar
Act III Scene ii
The exhausted Brutus is visited by a spirit. What do his words and action reveal what Brutus and others in his culture believe about spirits?
The exhausted Brutus is visited by a spirit. What do his words and action reveal what Brutus and others in his culture believe about spirits?
This is in act 4 sc 2. This mention of perhaps the greatest orator Cicero, a man identified closely with words, is almost an afterthought. Even Brutus, when trying to read his book, is unable to continue reading because the ghost of Caesar interrupts him. We therefore see first the manipulative power, and then the destruction and dismissal of literature and poetry after Caesar's death. Elizabethans at the time believed in ghosts and the messages they bring. We see this in other plays like Hamlet.