Julius Caesar

A central recurring motif in the play is omens, or harbingers of bad fortune. The first omen comes when the soothsayer tells Caesar to beware the Ides of March, which Caesar ignores. Then, reports come of bad weather and strange animal noises in the night. Finally, on the day Caesar is meant to travel to the senate (where he is assassinated), Calpurnia admits to having a dream about Romans washing their hands in Caesar's blood. What is notable about these omens, like the role of poets in the play, is that characters (namely, Caesar) rarely listen to them or take them seriously, thereby sealing their own demise through the stoking of their own ego.