The Urge to Kill in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar Act III Scene III

We have Cinna entering and talking to himself about the bad omen he had in his dream, in which he was “feasting with Ceasar”. This foreboding comes true in this scene, at the end of which Cinna is murdered by some angry mob. The point of the whole scene is that this is not Cinna the conspirator, but Cinna the poet, that is, just an ordinary citizen with nothing to blame.

As soon as citizens enter the scene, they ask Cinna many questions at the same time. These are short and simple questions like “What is your name? Where are you going?”. This simplicity and shortness is because they are in a hurry to find a man to avenge Ceasar’s murder. Their urge to kill is so strong that they don’t even want to wait for Cinna to answer the questions properly and one by one. All the four questions are actually meant to be only one question: Are you one of the conspirators? Perhaps it is even a simpler question: Are you a man we can kill? Whether they can kill him or not is a question of whether they have the right to kill him, which they would rather call a duty than a right. They seem almost sure that they have the right, but for their conscience’s sake, they want to be a little surer. In fact, they are but an angry mob looking for a little excuse to kill a man. The four short and direct questions are immediately followed by four direct orders: Answer every man directly. Ay, and briefly. Ay, and wisely. Ay, and truly. And these four orders can be mingled into one simple order: Speak or die! Cinna the poet appears not to be affected by their hurry because he repeats each question and order one by one. Obviously he is not afraid. This is because he has nothing to fear, that is, he is not a conspirator. Moreover, his manner of speech is quite relaxed. He doesn’t sound like a man who is being questioned by murderers.

He says he is a bachelor. In thus choosing which question to answer, he is showing the citizens that he has the right to choose in spite of their urge, and that he is not at all intimidated by their direct, insolent, and threatening manner. He is being brave and counter-insolent, if that is the right way to put it. In making him answer the question of whether he was married or bachelor, Shakespeare is giving us further insight into the mood of the citizens because the response that Cinna gets to his answer I am a bachelor is That is as much to say, they are fools that marry. We are made to understand from this offended response how aggressive the citizens are, and that they are mad with fury, and that they are having a hard time holding themselves back from instantly jumping upon the man and tearing him to pieces. This point is proven when he answers the question regarding his name. But before that, the citizens, who seem disappointed by the answer which wouldn’t justify the intended murder, hurriedly repeat the other questions, telling him to proceed, directly. Cinna, being a poet, doesn’t forget to include a double meaning in his answer: Directly, I am going to Ceasar’s funeral. Here, he is directly answering their question, and also, he is directly going to the funeral. Shakespeare, being a greater poet, doesn’t forget to include an irony: Cinna is going to Caesar’s funeral but indirectly. Not finding in this answer what they are looking for, the citizens immediately skip to the next question: As a friend or enemy? This is a silly question in itself because if the man was an enemy of Ceasar’s, he wouldn’t go to his funeral. Even if he was an enemy and was going to Ceasar’s funeral for, let’s say, espionage, he would need to disguise himself as a friend. Yet the citizens ask it because they are mad, that is, they have lost their mental abilities and are simply and naively pronouncing their feelings. After the next question, which they tell him to answer briefly but whose answer doesn’t satisfy them either, they ask the fatal question: Your name, sir, truly. As soon as they hear the nameCinna, they conclude that he is Cinna the conspirator; in other words, he is a man they have the right / duty to kill. Finally seeing what he is face to face with, Cinna says I am Cinna the poet, I am Cinna the poet, the repetition of which shows that his ease has now turned into panic; he wants to confirm his identity. This panicky declaration of his identity is at the same time a refutation of the citizens’ excuse for killing him. In this respect, I am Cinna the poet means You don’t have the right to kill me. However, the citizens, who had just found the justification which they had long been awaiting impatiently, don’t want to lose it, and one of them says Tear him for his bad verses, which is also repeated in response to the poet’s repetition. Then another citizen reveals in his answer their bestial urge to kill: It is no matter, his name’s Cinna;. This is in a way a confession that they are killing an innocent man, simply because his name is Cinna. He doesn’t omit to make fun of the man, saying pluck but his name out of his heart, and turn him going. They will tear his heart open, take his name out of it, like surgeons taking some diseased part out of one’s body, and then let him go. After that, they tear him, tear him! Then they name some of the conspirators, calling for fire-brands to burn their houses. They name Brutus, Cassius, Decius, Casca, and Ligarius. But they do not name Cinna, the conspirator. It is impossible for them to forget Cinna as they have just heard the name. But they are not mentioning him either because these mad men believe that they have killed Cinna the conspirator, or they want to make themselves believe it and thus forget the monstrous crime they have committed.

The urge to kill in this scene is overpowering. But why? Why do these people who had believed and hailed Brutus and the other conspirators for Ceasar’s assassination now have so strong an urge to kill the same men? This urge to kill is in fact an urge to cover their own shame. They had made a mistake by believing the conspirators. Now they want to make up for it.