Blood Revenge in Julius Caesar

“Et tu Brute?” Caesar sputtered before falling into the darkness known as death. But this was not the end of Caesar however. Caesar returns to this world as a “shade” or ghost form. In fact, in this form he exerts more influence over Brutus than he ever did in mortal form. “Caesar is more powerful in his spirit for to affect Brutus than in his mortal form. It is in this ghost form, Caesar full-fills …

…revenge, as it did many others throughout literary history. In the Odyssey, Poseidon avenges his sons’ (Polyphemus) death by making Odysseus’ return home next to impossible. In Hamlet, Hamlet avenges his father’s death by killing his father’s murderer, his uncle. In today’s “modern” world, the idea of revenge is generally frowned upon, but in the world of the Greeks and Romans revenge was not just a custom, but a way of life.