My covenantal argument about The Tragedy of Julius Caesar is that the real god in this play is the Roman state. The fight between the empire and republic obscures their deeper commitment to the state. This is a commitment only a Christian could see.
What evidence would confirm this reading?
First, the play should dramatize the finite and fallible nature of both the imperial and republican characters.
Second, the play should show both sides emphasizing Rome’s transcendence.
Act 1 is mostly about the first point.
The play opens by exposing the fallibility of the public. They are hypocritical. They are lackadaisical. They are in, Marullus’s words, “blocks” and “stones” and “worse than senseless things!”
So the public is finite. What of the men who lead them? That’s what the second scene explores. We see Caesar for the first time, the man who “is now become a god.” Caesar is finite. He needs superstitious observances to try and make his wife pregnant. He disregards the soothsayer who tries to help him. He has an epileptic fit during his faux-coronation. Everything Cassius claims about him is true.
But what of the republicans? They don’t claim to be gods, so their failings are clear. Still, they reveal their finitude. Brutus cannot see himself properly. Casca is too ignorant to understand Cicero’s message to the crowd. Cassius is self-interested. He knows he’s a man, but he admits, “I had as lief not be as live to be / In awe of such a thing as I myself.” He won’t bow down to another man.
The third scene introduces the heavens which is raining down auspicious portents, including fire, on Rome. The characters debate what the signs mean. Cicero says the signs mean nothing. Casca thinks they illustrate divine displeasure with Rome. Cassius reduces them to a warning about Caesar. The gods aren’t angry with Rome in general. They are angry with Caesar and directing the republican conspirators to stop him. None of the interpretations are convincing. None of these characters are prophets. They do not hear from the gods, nor do they ask the gods for help.
The republicans worry because Caesar is celebrated as a god. He’s clearly not. Neither are they. Neither, in fact, are Roman citizens they want to represent.
Rome is the god. We’ll see that more clearly in Act 2.
Experiments in Criticism 