A New Historicist Reading of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: Representation of Roman History in Light of Renaissance Culture and History

Abstract

William Shakespeare borrows extensively from Thomas North’s translation of Plutarch’s The Lives of Noble Grecians and Romans (1579) in the drama Julius Caesar (1599). At the same time, Shakespeare adapts, manipulates and reworks historical facts to accommodate his Elizabethan surroundings. In this paper, the play Julius Caesar is analyzed in reference to its historical source, Plutarch’s The Lives of Noble Grecians and Romans, and within the theoretical framework of New Historicism. A review was conducted of various studies pertaining to the historical background of the play Julius Caesar. Some of these researches focus on the similarities and differences between Shakespeare’s play and Plutarch’s historical narrative while other sources highlight aspects of the play which are characteristic of Elizabethan thought rather than Roman culture. The general approach in this research has been a comparative one; a scene by scene correlation was carried out between the play on one hand and Plutarch’s historical account of the circumstances surrounding the assassination of the Roman ruler on the other. Furthermore, this research briefly touches upon Shakespeare’s motives for making historical modifications. Such motives include dramatic economy, theatrical effects and factors relating to the playwright’s contemporary matters.