Plot Summary
Act I, Scene 1 of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar opens on a street in Rome, where two tribunes, Flavius and Marullus, confront a group of commoners who have taken the day off work to celebrate Julius Caesar's triumphant return. Flavius demands to know why they are not at their trades, and a carpenter and a cobbler step forward to answer. The cobbler engages the tribunes in a series of clever puns, describing himself as a "mender of bad soles" and a "surgeon to old shoes." When pressed, he admits the workers are in the streets to see Caesar and rejoice in his triumph.
Marullus erupts into a passionate speech rebuking the commoners for their disloyalty. He reminds them that they once climbed to rooftops with their children in their arms to watch Pompey pass through the streets, cheering so loudly that the Tiber River trembled. Now they celebrate the man who conquered Pompey, strewing flowers in his path. Marullus orders them to go home, kneel, and pray that the gods do not punish their ingratitude. Shamed, the commoners disperse in silence. Flavius then instructs Marullus to go toward the Capitol and strip any decorations from Caesar's statues, despite Marullus's reminder that it is the feast of Lupercal. Flavius resolves to drive the crowds from the streets and remove Caesar's trophies, declaring that plucking these "growing feathers" from Caesar's wing will prevent him from soaring above ordinary men and keeping Rome in "servile fearfulness."
Character Development
This opening scene introduces key character dynamics without Caesar himself appearing. Flavius and Marullus represent the republican opposition — tribunes sworn to protect the common people, yet here they scold and disperse them. Marullus is the more emotional of the two, delivering a stirring speech that blends genuine grief for Pompey with political calculation. Flavius is the strategist, devising the plan to strip Caesar's statues and scatter the crowds. The cobbler, though a minor figure, demonstrates the sharp wit of Rome's working class, holding his own against the tribunes through wordplay and double meanings before yielding to their authority.
Themes and Motifs
The scene establishes the play's central concern with political power and its limits. Caesar's growing authority is presented entirely through other characters' reactions — the commoners' celebration and the tribunes' fear — making his offstage presence feel enormous. The fickleness of public loyalty emerges immediately: the same citizens who once adored Pompey now cheer the man who destroyed him. This theme will recur throughout the play, most dramatically when the mob turns against the conspirators after Antony's funeral speech. The motif of clothing and outward signs appears in the tribunes' demand that workers wear the signs of their trade, suggesting that social order depends on visible markers of identity and rank.
Literary Devices
Shakespeare employs dramatic irony from the outset: the audience knows Caesar's fate, lending urgency to every mention of his rising power. The cobbler's puns — "soles" for "souls," "out" meaning both angry and worn out, "awl" for "all" — provide comic relief while also illustrating the subversive intelligence of the lower classes. Marullus's speech uses rhetorical questions and anaphora ("And do you now...") to build emotional intensity. Flavius's closing metaphor of Caesar as a bird whose feathers must be plucked is a striking example of imagery, reducing the conqueror to something that can be clipped and controlled. The scene also employs foreshadowing, as the tribunes' act of stripping Caesar's statues anticipates the more drastic stripping of Caesar's life that the conspirators will later undertake.