Deconstructing Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar

Abstract

This paper examines Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar from a deconstructive perspective. Though it was written several centuries before the advent of Derrida’s deconstruction, the play can be a good example of deconstructive criticism, for its dynamism, ambiguity, and elusiveness provide different and even contradictory interpretations. The paper discusses this play with a view to showing how deconstruction can illuminate and enrich our reading of literary texts. By reexamining a few of the play’s hierarchies, namely Caesar/Brutus, public/personal, autocracy/ democracy, and patricians/plebeians, the paper attempts to show how these binaries privilege the first over the second term and how they ultimately decenter and supplement each other. Hence, deconstructionist analysis uncovers the instability of literary language and meaning and enables the reader to gain a better understanding of the literary work.