Julius Caesar – Act two Scene two
The audience are aware of the plot to kill Caesar and who is involved, and so the pleading of Calpurnia, Her dreams and the findings of the Augerers only heighten the sense of dramatic tension.
As an audience we know what Calpurnia’s dream means
CAESAR
Calpurnia here, my wife, stays me at home:
She dreamt to-night she saw my statue,
Which, like a fountain with an hundred spouts,
Did run pure blood: and many lusty Romans
Came smiling, and did bathe their hands in it:
Yet Decius Brutus gives another meaning
DECIUS BRUTUS
This dream is all amiss interpreted;
It was a vision fair and fortunate:
Your statue spouting blood in many pipes,
In which so many smiling Romans bathed,
Signifies that from you great Rome shall suck
Reviving blood, and that great men shall press
For tinctures, stains, relics and cognizance.
This by Calpurnia’s dream is signified
We know that he is lying yet Caesar believes him.
Again in this scene we get the sense of Caesar believing himself greater than everyone else. He refers to himself in the third person all the time and will not let anyone think he is weak or scared.
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