정의 구현과 치유의 상관관계: Julius Caesar와 Caesar Must Die 비교 연구

Abstract

One of the main themes of Shakespeare’s plays is justice; almost all of his tragedies deal with the issue through various perspectives. Julius Caesar is one of the cases because the crux of the play depends on Brutus’s real motivation of Caesar’s assassination: the execution of justice for his own country or the slaughter with his political ambition. This paper reinvestigates the issue through comparing Julius Caesar and Caesar Must Die--a recent film version of the play, focusing not on the main characters such as Brutus, Caesar and Antony but on the plebeians and the common citizens. In Julius Caesar, the plebeians want to experience catharsis through realizing justice in the society where they are nothing but parts of a big machine. However, they are deluded by Antony’s excellent oration and turn into mobs by killing innocent people and destroying the properties. The audience cannot feel any catharsis, watching them deteriorated into violent mobs; however, the citizens’ stigma as violent crowd can be moderated into the image of sensible people with genuine purpose of justice. Moreover, in Caesar Must Die, the plebeians are performed by the felonry who are imprisoned as the result of carrying out justice by law. Still, even the prisoners express their genuine and earnest need of bringing justice into the society. The audience of the film can feel multi-layered catharsis watching the therapeutic process both the prisoners and the audience of the performance experience through documentary recording of rehearsing Julius Caesar. In sum, Shakespeare provides a wonderful work of art that is malleable and adaptable to a wide variety of interpretations by different times and persons.