Discuss the use of supernatural elements in Julius Caesar

The supernatural is quite a common phenomenon in Shakespearean tragedy. Supernaturalism is a phenomenon that cannot be explained with the help of science or known rule The belief in the supernatural has been universal in all ages. During the Elizabethan Period, the people of literate and illiterate kept faith in supernatural elements. Thus we have the witches in Macbeth, the fairies in The Tempest, and The Mid Summer Night's Dream, and the ghost in Julius Caesar and Hamlet. In Julius Caesar, the ghost acts as a powerful divine force.

There are many supernatural events in the play Julius Caesar. These supernatural events have a special interest and special importance. The inclusion of supernatural events greatly adds to the interest and excitement of the play. Shakespeare had most of these supernatural events in Plutarch's Lives.

At the very opening of the play, when Caesar is going to attend the games, a soothsayer meets him on the way and urges him to beware of the ideas of March. Subsequently, Caesar is killed on the ides of March. Now, the question which arises is how the soothsayer had come to know that the idea March would be a day of disaster or caesar. The soothsayer's prophecy has thus a supernatural quality to it. Then there are the strange and mysterious sights in which Casca has seen a man whose arm was burning and yet he was not hurt by the fire. Casca met a lion who looked at him fiercely but did not attack him.

Then we hear of a dream which Culpurnia has seen in the course of her sleep that very night. In her dream she saw her husband, Caesar, being murdered by a group of men and she then cried for help. Towards the end of the play, the ghost of Caesar appears to Brutus two times. The supernatural events constitute a large component of the action of this play. The supernatural incidents are an integral part of the play. In this play, the sights which are witnessed by various persons are of a dreadful kind. Therefore, these supernatural events give rise to a feeling not only of mystery in our hearts but also to a feeling of fear.

Some of the supernatural events in this play have a philosophical significance. The supernatural storm in which Casca witnesses horrible supernatural happenings, increases the horror of the assassination of Caesar. In this play, the supernatural happenings also give rise to a sense of Fate in our minds. This play is dominated by the work of Fate. 

As we go through the play, we get the impression that most of the important events in it have been predetermined by Fate. In estimation, we can say that Shakespeare has used supernatural elements both by the method of direct representation and by the method of narration. Some of the supernatural events in this play are described to us by the characters who have witnessed them, but other such incidents are presented to us directly on the stage.