SOURCE: "Calphurnia's Dream and Communication with the Audience in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar," in Shakespeare Yearbook, Vol. 1, Spring, 1990, pp. 37-49.

In the following essay, Tice comments on the importance of Calphurnia's dream in Julius Caesar, especially as it is used to communicate the psychological state of depression to the viewing audience.

Shakespeare's 1599 play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, though a mere year away from Hamlet, is only a bridge to the more deeply existential later plays; and, as such, it has won less thoroughgoing attention among recent critical scholars.¹ Yet, as Harold Bloom has recently stated, it is "a very satisfying play, as a play, and is universally regarded as a work of considerable aesthetic dignity."² Moreover, this drama bearing the name of the historical figure most often mentioned by Shakespeare, and about whose life circumstances the playwright showed sustained interest, continues to move audiences profoundly. Certainly it evokes...