Essay, Research Paper: Flattery In Julius Caesar

Flattery for Personal Gain

Flattery is used to manipulate people in real life and in fiction. "Julius Caesar" has
many examples of this kind of behavior. Some examples of using flattery to manipulate
people in the story is when Decius tells Caesar a different interpretation of Calphurnia's
dream making Caesar seem to be a hero in it. Another example is when the conspirators
bow down to Caesar at the capitol to draw his attention away from Casca and the first
stab. The last example is when Mark Antony reads the will of Caesar in front of the
people and reveals that Caesar had left them each seventy five drachmas.
To begin with, when Caesar heard of Calphurnia's dream and decided to stay
home on the ides of March, Decius persuaded Caesar to go to the capitol by telling him a
different interpretation of the dream. Calphurnia said her dream was a sign of death for
Caesar. She saw lusty Romans bathing their hands in blood coming form Caesar's statue.
Decius said "Your statue spouting blood in many pipes, in which so many smiling Romans
bathed, signifies that from you great Rome shall suck reviving blood." (Shakespeare 2,2,
90-92). He also told him that the people were dipping objects in the blood to have some
sort of piece of Caesar because he was so great. He said this so that he could get Caesar
to the capitol and carry out his job that the other conspirators had assigned him. Decius
got what he wanted, and so did the other conspirators. They had successfully drawn
Caesar into his own death.
Secondly, the conspirators knelt down before Caesar so he would think of himself
as a mighty and powerful person. They did this to distract him from Casca and the others
that would stab him. Metellus knelt down to ask Caesar to let his brother come back into
town after being banished. Caesar then told him not to bother with begging because it
would get him nowhere. The others then join Metellus in asking for forgiveness of his
brother. Caesar was successfully distracted, and because of this, he was killed.
Lastly, when Mark Antony read Caesar's will to the people, he wanted the people
to go on his side and think of Caesar as a great person. Antony had said "to every Roman
citizen he gives, to every several man, seventy-five drachmas." (Shakespeare 3,2,
255-256). Antony was trying to make Caesar look like a great hero, rather than a tyrant.
He wanted to get the people on his side and make them think what the conspirators had
done was wrong. Antony was successful in persuading the people by using Caesar's will
as the main point of interest.
In conclusion, flattery is often used by people to get what they want, even if it
involves a lie. "Julius Caesar" has many examples of this such as the time when Decius
gave Caesar a different interpretation of Calphurnia's dream, or the time the conspirators
knelt down to Caesar to distract him, and also the time Mark Antony used Caesar's will to
persuade the people into going on his side and making them think the killing of Caesar was
wrong.