Brutus sees the ghost of Caesar before the Battle of Philippi. The ghost identifies itself as Brutus' "evil spirit" and tells him that they will meet again at Philippi. Scholars debate whether Caesar's ghost represents a true supernatural visitation, a manifestation of Brutus' guilty conscience, or a symbolic reference to the restoration of order through Octavian. The ghost's behavior lines up with Elizabethan ghost stories but could also reflect Brutus' psychological state, and its prophecy of their second meeting implies it serves as an oracle of things to come.

1. GREAT CAESAR’S
GHOST!
Brandy Stark, PhD
April 9, 2013

2. BACKGROUND
 Written in early 1599
 Aging Elizabeth, childless, questions of succession
• Similar to Caesar
• Both ascended during political chaos and created stabilization, growth
• What might happen afterward? Tensions existing and fear of another civil
war in England
• Fear of civil war/instability
• Like Rome, England went through periods of instability
• Reliant upon Elizabeth and her long reign

3. BACKGROUND
 Middle Ages: Ghosts are from Purgatory; many ghost stories abound
 Protestant Reformation
• Catholic Church: Council of Trent (1545 – 1563): Purgatory
unchanged (96)
• Post Martin Luther’s attack on Indulgences, Purgatory open to
attack.
• Protestants denied it; only heaven or hell Church of England
drops Purgatory in 1563
 Debate relates to Bible (Samuel and Saul)

4. BACKGROUND
 Shakespeare is known to have read:
• The Discovery of Witchcraft by Reginald Scot (1584)
• Focused on witchcraft craze, unfounded beliefs and injustice of
punishment
• Included a chapter on ghosts; he ridiculed those who denied devils
or spirits at all, but also mocked the over-promotion of ghosts by
Catholic scholars
• Claimed apparitions arose from melancholy, timidity, imperfection of sight,
drunkenness, false reports, etc.
• A Declaration of Egregious Popishe Impostures by Samuel Harsnett
• Skeptical arguments on the Catholic Church, witchcraft and
ghosts (Muir 232; Marshall 145)

5. GHOSTS IN DRAMA
 Elizabethan Drama: drew from history, pop-religion and local
folklore(Rogers 88; Stoll 205)
• Ghosts with a purpose: revenge remained a major topic along
with protection of loved one, prophesy, requesting burial, or as
an omen of death
• Hails from Seneca; often (over)used in drama of Middle Ages
• Lost some of the melodrama: less crude, heightened the
imaginative horror of them; rejection of the shrieking, bustling
ghost of the older style

6. EXAMPLES OF GHOSTS IN
SHAKESPEARE
 Hamlet:
• Ghost seen by guards; skeptical Horatio also sees and attempts to speak to
the ghost (fails)
• Clearly identified as the murdered king through appearance (others identify
him) and through self-admission
• When asked by Hamlet to speak, ghost describes himself as having to spend a
period of time as a ghost (Purgatory)
• Hamlet converses with ghost who describes his own murder and calls for
revenge upon his murderer
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZQ5ryS-YvM

7. EXAMPLES OF GHOSTS IN
SHAKESPEARE
 Macbeth:
• Banquet scene: Macbeth sees the ghost of Banquo who was murdered at
Macbeth’s orders on the way to the feast
• No one but Macbeth sees the spirit which sits in his chair
• Excuses are made that the king is tired
• Rebuked by Lady Macbeth
• Has to admit to a “strange infirmity”
• Ghost does not speak
• Macbeth has additional hallucinations of the dagger/bloody dagger
• (Side note: As with Julius Caesar there are prophecies and portents that are
misinterpreted)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nre482NEosQ

8. EXAMPLES OF GHOSTS IN
SHAKESPEARE
 Richard III
• Sees the ghost of Prince Edward, whom Richard assassinated
• Ghost appears when Richard is alone and asleep in bed
• Manifests by the bedside
• Classical (Patroclus to Achilles)
• No one else experiences the ghost; his restless state is
Contrasted to others who sleep well
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX8zbNEw448

9. SHAKESPEARE’S
PARANORMAL TWIST
 Always a reason for their appearance
 Ghosts show reason in their acts (Rogers 88)
• Revenge (as derived from history and drama prior to the time)
• Draws from folklore
 Used “explanatory ambiguities” (Marshall 147, Hudson)
• Macbeth: hallucinations from guilt, other apparitions are conjured by witches.
• In Richard III and Cymbeline: dreams
• Hamlet: Shade is from Purgatory (audience is Protestant; perhaps a tendency to
disbelieve this statement); most like a modern manifestation of a ghost
 Symbolic interpretation: manifestations of disorder in this world, especially
politics (148)

10. A LOOK AT GREAT
CAESAR’S GHOST
William Humphrys after Richard Westall. Brutus and
the ghost of Caesar (Julius Caesar IV.iii). Print, 1832
Cited as one of the most
uninteresting of
Shakespeare’s ghosts (Rogers
79).
Is this true?

11. PLUTARCH’S ACCOUNTHistorical Reference: PLUTARCH’S ACCOUNT
Brutus being to pass his army from Abydos to the continent on the other side, laid himself down
one night, as he used to do, in his tent, and was not asleep, but thinking of his affairs, and what
events he might expect. For he is related to have been the least inclined to sleep of all men who
have commanded armies, and to have had the greatest natural capacity for continuing awake,
and employing himself without need of rest. He thought he heard a noise at the door of his
tent, and looking that way, by the light of his lamp, which was almost out, saw a terrible
figure, like that of a man, but of unusual stature and severe countenance. He was
somewhat frightened at first, but seeing it neither did nor spoke anything to him, only
stood silently by his bed-side, he asked who it was. The specter answered him, "Thy evil
genius, Brutus, thou shalt see me at Philippi." Brutus answered courageously, "Well, I
shall see you," and immediately the appearance vanished. When the time was come, he drew
up his army near Philippi against Antony and Caesar, and in the first battle won the day, routed
the enemy, and plundered Caesar's camp. The night before the second battle, the same
phantom appeared to him again, but spoke not a word. He presently understood his
destiny was at hand, and exposed himself to all the danger of the battle. Yet he did not die
in the fight, but seeing his men defeated, got up to the top of a rock, and there presenting
his sword to his naked breast, and assisted, as they say, by a friend, who helped him to
give the thrust, met his death.
http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_text_plutarch_caesar.htm

12. THE SCENE
Act 4, Scene 3, Lines 275 – 285
Enter the Ghost of CAESAR.
BRUTUS: How ill this taper burns! Ha! who comes here?
I think it is the weakness of mine eyes
That shapes this monstrous apparition.
It comes upon me. Art thou any thing?
Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil,
That makest my blood cold and my hair to stare?
Speak to me what thou art.
GHOST: Thy evil spirit, Brutus.
BRUTUS: Why comest thou?
GHOST: To tell thee thou shalt see me at Philippi.
BRUTUS: Well; then I shall see thee again?
GHOST: Ay, at Philippi.
BRUTUS: Why, I will see thee at Philippi, then.
Exit Ghost.
(Full scene: http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/julius_4_3.html)

13. THE SCENE
 1950s: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owxP0h0Lw1s
 Africa: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xNhBAU6sZQ
(4 minutes)

14. GHOSTLY
 Characteristics that match ghostly folklore:
• The ghost generally does not speak until bidden to speak (Stoll 218)
• Speaks single phrases (pamphlet literature) (Purkiss 143)
• There is a vendetta that brings Caesar (confrontation of act of murder)
• Oracle – and the ghost breaks off at the tantalizing moment (Stoll 217)
• The ghost speaks, not in a dream, and Brutus does not doubt that the
ghost is there (228); murdered speaking to murderer
• Concrete representations of the blood-feud carried beyond the
confines of the grave (229)

15. PSYCHOLOGICAL
 Characteristics of psychological manifestation:
 Caesar’s ghost appears as an abstraction of Brutus
• Mesmerized
• Echoes in dialogue
 Refers to himself as “thy evil spirit” (4.3.280)
 Only Brutus witnesses the shade
 Emotional turmoil (distress) in the prior scene (Portia’s death and after a
fight/make up with Cassius)
 Brutus kills himself citing Caesar’s ghost (Purkiss 145)
• “Caesar now be still/I killed not thee with half so good a will”
(5.5.50-1)
• Image: Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre at Stephen Foster Memorial, Oakland. (April 2007) Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/ae/theater-dance/stage-review-
pict-praises-julius-caesar-on-grand-scale-481362/#ixzz2PF3H8MxH

16. SYMBOLIC
5.1.30 – 35
I draw a sword against conspirators;
When think you that the sword goes up
again?
Never, till Caesar's three and thirty
wounds
Be well avenged; or till another Caesar
have added slaughter to the sword of
traitors.
Act 5: http://www.william-shakespeare.info/act5-script-
text-julius-caesar.htm
• Caesar is power
• Legitimate succession/shift
of power must go to
Augustus; all others suffer
(Rosen xix)
• Octavius identifies with the
spirit of Caesar
• Revenge
• Spiritual heir
• Deaths of conspirators brings
political restoration
• Shakespeare/Elizabethans:
“Established order is
preferable to chaotic and
violent change” (Rosen xxi)

17. THOUGHTS
What is your take on Great Caesar’s
Ghost? Is he a ghost, a figment of a
guilty mind, or a symbol? Is he all or
none of these? Why?

18. WORKS CONSULTED
Brockett, Oscar G., and Franklin J. Hildy. History of the Theatre. New York: Pearson, 2007. Print.
Felton, D. Haunted Greece and Rome: Ghost Stories from Classical Antiquity. Austin: University of Texas, 2000. Print.
Finucane, R. C. Appearances of the Dead: A Cultural History of Ghosts. London: Junction, 1982. Print.
Hudson, H.N. Shakespeare: His Life, Art and Characters: An Historical Sketch of the Origin and Growth of the Drama in England. Vol. 2, 4th ed.
Boson: Ginn & Company, 1891. 228-258. Print.
Marshall, Jonathan Paul, Dr. "Apparitions, Ghosts, Fairies, Demons and Wild Events: Virtuality in Early Modern Britain." Journal for the
Academic Study of Magic 3 (2006): 141-74. Print.
Muir, Kenneth. "Folklore and Shakespeare." Folklore 92.2 (1981): 231-40. Print.
Plutarch. Julius Caesar. Trans. S. H. Butcher. Ancient/Classical History. About.com, d.u. Web. 1 Apr. 2013.
http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_text_plutarch_caesar.htm
Purkiss, Diane. “Shakespeare, Ghosts, and Popular Folklore”. Shakespeare and Elizabethan Popular Culture. Stuart Gillespie and Niel Rhodes,
Ed. London: Thompson, 2006. Print
Roberts, Jon. Introduction: Lunatics and Lovers. Midsummer Night’s Dream. Betram et al, eds. New York: Quality Paperback Books Club,
1997. v – ix. Print.
Rogers, L. W. The Ghosts in Shakespeare. 4th printing ed. Wheaten: Theosophical, 1966. Print.
Rosen, William and Barbara. Introduction. The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. New York: Signet Classics, 1998. Xiii- xxii. Print.
Stoll, Elmer Edgar. "The Objectivity of the Ghosts in Shakespeare." Modern Language Association 22.2 (1907): 201-33. Print.