SH+P5+JC+Omens

(Kyra Stek) Historical: Omens have long been seen as things to fear, as foretellings of doom and misfortune, but it is often difficult to read how omens affect people. While omens are more understood in real experiences, literate examples are famous. An article states, “ Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar shows that there is always a relationship between omens and nature in everyday life and this affects those who believe in them. One might argue it even affects those who do not believe” (Natasha). The outcomes of several plays and books, such as William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and Romeo and Juliet. This shows that omens have repeatedly been an important part of fiction, and is a technique of foreshadowing that many authors, such as Shakespeare. This has helped Shakespeare become an influential author. The use of omens and foreshadowing has no doubt assisted this effort, marking down the influence of omens in history even if their meaning isn’t understood until too late.

[|__http://juliuscaesarplaysupernatural.blogspot.com/__] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omen


 * Aim: ** (Brie Zehner) While Shakespeare was a Christian and the Christian faith condemns all forms of superstition including interpreting dreams and omens. Eric Williams wrote “Shakespeare wrote Julius Caesar to dramatize a pagan historical event that predated Christianity” (Williams). He uses the dreams and omens in the play to demonstrate that they do not predict the inevitable. Shakespeare presented the idea that men had the freedom and ability to reach his own destiny, with the aid of God. Shakespeare wanted to demonstrate that it was not the occurrence of strange events, but the omission of Caesar and the conspirators that led to the assassination. The omens and dreams in the play are found Shakespeare’s historical source of Caesar’s life. Shakespeare uses a few too many omens in the play. The occurrence of omens begins to become diluted. If Shakespeare had put fewer omens and dreams in the play, they would have carried more meaning. (Zehner)


 * Audience: ** (Brie Zehner) Shakespeare wrote Julius Caesar to help back up the Christian belief that condemns superstition. However there are many omens and dreams in the play predicting the death of Caesar. That amount of omens in the play makes each omen less important. Shakespeare almost does everything he can to downplay the significance of omens and other superstition. He tries to show that it was Caesar’s own actions led to his demise, not the foreshadowing predictions.