JULIUS CAESAR:A SCENE BY SCENE SUMMARY //((DISCONTINUED))\\

ACT 1 SCENE 2 PART 1

The scene begins with Julius Caesar leading a procession onto the Roman streets for the Race of Lupercal. The procession consists of Mark Antony,who is going to run in the race,Calphurnia,his wife,Brutus his best friend,Cassius, Casca,a Soothsayer, Cicero and some citizens. Caesar first calls out to Calphurnia to remind her to stand directly in Antony's way when he ran the race. It was a superstitions of those times that if any woman who has been unable to bear any child until then is touched with the the whip held by the runners in the race then she becomes fertile. He then calls out to Antony and reminds him to touch Calphurnia with his whip. Then the Soothsayer calls out from the crowd to Caesar. Caesar asks who calls upon him as Casca bids every noise to be still. The soothsayer calls out a warning to him(Caesar) again and this time Cassius tells him to come up from the crowd and look upon Caesar when Caesar asks the soothsayer to confirm what he had said. He repeats the warning again and Caesar calls him a dreamer and disregards his words and passes away with the people except for Brutus and Cassius who stay behind. Cassius asks Brutus whether he would go to see the course to which Brutus gives a negative reply. On further persuasion by Cassius on the matter he says that he won't but won't hinder Cassius from going and also remarks that he lacks the spirit and love of sport which was in Antony. Cassius remarks that Brutus has become too strange nowadays and is behaving very roughly with him as he puts it,"I had not from your eyes the show of gentleness as I was won't to have." He also remarks that Brutus bears too strange and stubborn of a hand over Caesar. Brutus replies that he was preoccupied with matters pertaining only to him and that his mind was divided on different opinions and thus this ongoing Civil War in his mind might lend some soil to his behavior, but he also assured Cassius that he was still one of his good friends and that he loved him no less than before. Cassius then pretends to be taken aback(with taken aback being the keyword over here) and says that he had much mistaken Brutus and that he too has noble ideas on his mind at the moment and asks him whether he can see his face. Brutus replies by saying that he couldn't but it was possible to see one's face through reflection in a mirror. Cassius then laments that there were no such mirrors as would turn his hidden worthiness into his eye and make Brutus see himself as many honourable citizens of Rome who were under the oppression of those times see him. Brutus then grows suspicious and asks him what dangers he would lead him into by deluding him into believing that there was something in him which actually didn't exist. Cassius then proceeds with his subtle flattery and tells him that he would tell Brutus what was in him and also tells him not to be suspicious of him and gives him reasons for that,
1)He was not a laughing stock
2)He didn't declare friendship to every new person he met
3)He did not make friends,proceed to flatter them and then scandalise them behind their back(has Cassius ever heard of ironical statements?)
4)He did not get drunk and then proceed to declare that he was friends with people of every class.
These were proofs of his honour. Just then they heard a shouting and Brutus exclaims that he was afraid that Caesar was being crowned the king(Brutus would be deduced to pieces by Holmes. Has he ever heard of not exposing your insecurities to dangerous people? Oh wait he believed that Cassius was not dangerous. Those reasons,remember?). Cassius then picks up on that statement and asks whether he was afraid that Caesar would become a king. Brutus gave a positive reply and then asks Cassius why was he holding him here for so long and that if it was about honour then he would doe sooner than commit any dishonourable act. Cassius then says that he knew that virtue to be in him and then began his speech about Caesar's deformities etc etc etc. He said that Caesar and he have gone through the sane circumstances, they have eaten the same food,had the same education, were born and brought up in families of equal rank and had borne the winter"s cold similarly. He then proceeds to narrate an incidental where Caesar had challenged him to a swimming contest in the stormy and flooded Tiber. "The troubled Tiber chaffing in her banks did Caesar call out to me. Darest thou Cassius to jump into this river and swim to yonder point. Encoutered as I was I jumped in and bade him follow and so he did. The torrent roared and be did buffet it with lusty sinews,throwing it aside and stemming it up with hearts of controversy." Then Caesar had called out to him, that he was drowning and pleaded for his help. Cassius then compares himself to Aeneas(he was a hero of the Trojan War and had carried his father on his back from the burning city of Troy) and tells that he had carried an exhausted Caesar in a similar fashion from the river Tiber. Then Cassius remarks to Brutus that now "this Caesar was a god and wretched Cassius must bend" (bow)" his body if Caesar but carelessly nod on him." He then speaks of another occasion in which Caesar had a fever during their time in Spain,when his face got bleached of colour,his lips had trembled(as Cassius describes it as "his cowardly lips didn't lose their colour". Cassius couldn't resist any opportunity to belittle Caesar for being so human and describes the symptoms of fever as cowardice and frailties. He was an amazing critic for one and for another he was extremely manipulative and knew exactly how to play upon people's feelings in order to achieve his purpose),the tongue as he described it" that tongue of his that bade the Romans follow and write his speeches in their books"(the Romans had written down his speeches because they were good and not under Caesar's orders,but Cassius being Cassius could not resist to twist things in a negative fashion) had called out to his  servant girl(Titinius) and asked for a drink of water (like a girl as Cassius puts it. Personally I would like to say that comparing weakness to girls is something I detest. It was the norm of those times which is still stuck in some form nowadays. Cassius seems to be a fan of degrading girls as shown in a later scene where he says that they were bearing the oppression of those times like women("but we are governed by our mother's spirits"). This entire thing is extremely annoying to me). Then he says that he believes that a man of such a weak constitution as Caesar should not ascend the Roman throne. Then there is another shout when Brutus again expresses his previous fears and Cassius goes on a rant about equality. (This man😑).
Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves.
Men at some time are masters of their fates.
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
Brutus and Caesar—what should be in that “Caesar”?
Why should that name be sounded more than yours?
Write them together, yours is as fair a name.
Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well.
Weigh them, it is as heavy. Conjure with 'em,
“Brutus” will start a spirit as soon as “Caesar.”
Now in the names of all the gods at once,
Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed
That he is grown so great? Age, thou art shamed!
Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods!
When went there by an age, since the great flood,
But it was famed with more than with one man?
When could they say till now, that talked of Rome,
That her wide walks encompassed but one man?
Now is it Rome indeed, and room enough,
When there is in it but one only man.
Oh, you and I have heard our fathers say,
There was a Brutus once that would have brooked
Th' eternal devil to keep his state in Rome
As easily as a king."
He says that Caesar seems to think himself god and as mighty and huge as the Colossus(a huge statue of Apollo the sun god at a Roman harbour) and also

Colossus
(Credit to pininterest.in)
that is becoming the case indeed and that they would have to look about to find themselves graves which were devoid of honour(honour was a huge factor). He also says that men were masters of their own fates and the fault was not astrological and that the only reason Caesar was becoming so powerful was because they were being submissive. He then being Cassius says that Brutus was as worthy as Caesar because
1)Their names had the same number of letters
2)Brutus's name is as good as Caesar's
3)The both of their names will attract spirits.
Then Cassius asks that what on earth does Caesar eat that he has become so great. He then uses Brutus's familial ties as a means of instigation. He talks about the Brutus who had driven the Tarquins out of Rome and who as they have heard would have gone to the devil himself to keep his state safe.
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A/N:This scene is huge so I have decided to do it in two parts. This is part 1 ,part two will be posted in a few days.