“Et tu, Brute?” Then Fall, Caesar”: An Alternative Interpretation of Shakespeare’s Most Misunderstood Expression
Unlike the tradition of Julius Caesar's last words uttered in Greek, “kai su teknon”, preserved both by Suetonius (Iul. 82. 3) and Cassius Dio (44.19.3), Shakespeare gave his dramatic hero a remodeled utterance in The Tragedy of Julius Caesar: “Et tu, Brute? Then fall, Caesar” (Act 3. Scene 1,...
| Autores: | , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2024 |
| País: | Brasil |
| Institución: | Universidade Federal de Uberlândia (UFU) |
| Repositorio: | Letras & letras (Online) |
| Idioma: | portugués |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ojs.www.seer.ufu.br:article/74068 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://seer.ufu.br/index.php/letraseletras/article/view/74068 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Shakespeare Julius Caesar “Et tu, Brute?” Classical Studies Elizabethan Drama Júlio César Estudos Clássicos Teatro Elisabetano |
| Sumario: | Unlike the tradition of Julius Caesar's last words uttered in Greek, “kai su teknon”, preserved both by Suetonius (Iul. 82. 3) and Cassius Dio (44.19.3), Shakespeare gave his dramatic hero a remodeled utterance in The Tragedy of Julius Caesar: “Et tu, Brute? Then fall, Caesar” (Act 3. Scene 1, v. 77). The play's literary critics, such as Spevack (2004), Heliodora (2014), Taylor et al. (2016) and Dimitrova (2018), have invariably interpreted this dictum as Caesar's astonished and disappointed response as if feeling betrayed by Brutus. Our aim in this article is to problematize this perspective by drawing attention to literary and historic aspects both in Shakespeare's dramatic text and in his sources which disallow this interpretation. Taking these literary and historical factors into consideration, we propose an alternative psychological reading for the Shakespearean Caesar's last utterance: a feeling of resignation and acceptance of his tragedy before Brutus. |
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