Act 3 revealed the Roman plebeians as an unruly mob. They do not appear again. Instead, Act 4 shows us the men who will lead these plebeians: the imperial triumvirate in scene 1 and the republicans in scene 2. Both sides are divided.
Antony and Octavius dismiss Lepidus, the third man in their partnership. He’s useful as a soldier and in securing public opinion but worthy, according to Antony, of the same consideration as a really good horse. Antony’s speech in Act 3 labeled the Roman people “stones” for not properly grieving Caesar. The reality is that he thinks they’re beasts for men like him and Octavius to lead around by the nose. In fact, that’s what he thinks of Lepidus, and Lepidus is supposedly his equal!
Brutus and Cassius argue with one another about ethics. Brutus accuses Cassius of bribing people for money. He then contradictorily holds Cassius responsible for not supplying him with money. Brutus can’t bear the responsibility of his own actions. On the one hand he doesn’t want his reputation sullied with charges of bribery. On the other, he desperately needs the money that Cassius has obtained through bribery. This contradiction is an extension of what’s happened in the wake of Caesar’s murder. Brutus wanted Caesar dead, but he’s not ready to deal with the consequences that attend it. His wife has committed suicide. As a Stoic (Cassius refers to it as Brutus’s “philosophy”), Brutus should be unemotional and detached about Portia’s death. But he’s obviously not, and his duplicity with Messala proves that he’s as much a performer as Marc Antony. He stages his own unemotional reaction to the news of his wife’s death to keep up appearances.
The act’s final moments bring home the spiritual stakes of this civil war. Caesar’s ghost appears to Brutus. This detail comes from Plutarch, the Roman biographer Shakespeare was reading for most of this play’s material. In Act 3, Antony had called Brutus Caesar’s angel. Now Caesar’s ghost appears to Brutus and calls itself, “Thy evil spirit.” When the spiritual realm manifests itself in this play, it’s in the form of a dictator. When Caesar identifies his spirit as Brutus’s, the implication is that Brutus and Caesar are inextricably connected although it appears that they represent two opposite sides.
The connection? Rome is god. Brutus killed Caesar’s body but cannot destroy Caesarism’s spirit. Why? Because that same spirit animates him too. There is nothing beyond politics. That’s the tragedy.
Experiments in Criticism 