“I grant I am a woman”: Gender and Silence in Julius Caesar

Scholars have come to appreciate the rhetorical power and meaningfulness of silence and listening. Silence, as a rhetorical trope, speaks to us in Julius Caesar as well, illustrating the marginality of women in the context of the politics and history of ancient Rome. In order to better understand Shakespeare’s construction of gender, I will focus on his transformation of Plutarch, as well as on the silences that are enfolded within. I will argue that by depicting two contrasting types of marriage, Shakespeare metonymically invokes two contrasting modes of political governance: felicitous republicanism and dysfunctional monarchy.