What opinion have you formed of the Roman mob from Shakespeare's play, Julius Caesar?

The mobs play a very important role in the dramas of William Shakespeare. In the play, Julius Caesar, we find the use of the Roman mob. We notice the Roman mob in three different scenes in this play. At first, we notice the mob in the very beginning scene. Then we notice the mob in Scenes ii and iii of Act III. In the beginning scene, we first feel amused by the dialogue which takes place between the two Tribunes and some members of the mob. In the mob, there is a carpenter and a cobbler. In this play, Shakespeare has treated the Roman mob in a genial and playful manner. The crowd in the beginning scene appears to be good-natured and not over-respectful to theirs superiors. 

In the beginning scene, we notice that the mob does not have a capacity of thinking independently. Here the mob appears to be fickle-minded. These people have come out into the streets to celebrate Caesar’s victory over Pompey’s sons. They are roaming about in the streets in a happy mood and with great enthusiasm over Caesar’s triumphant return to Rome. But the Tribunes urge them to go and pray to heaven for forgiveness because they have sinned in trying to celebrate Caesar’s victory over the sons of Pompey. All this shows that the Roman mob does not have a judgement of its own. The mob is thoughtless, irrational, and easily influenced by its superiors. 

Then we notice the mob in Act III, Scene ii. Here they are addressed by Brutus and Antony. They have a great respect for Brutus. They do not understand such ideas as_ freedom, republicanism, and tyranny. They do not have any notion of what is meant by the rights and liberties of the people. Thus they do not understand at all that Caesar was a symbol of tyranny and that Caesar was murdered because he could have become a dictator. 

The mobs say that a great wrong has been done to Caesar by the conspirators. Now they declare that Caesar was not ambitious and there is no man in Rome nobler than Antony. They also declare that those who murdered Caesar are traitors. They are now filled with great pity for the dead Caesar and with a fierce hatred for the conspirators. The mobs do not have the capacity to consider matters and affairs in a rational manner. These people are lacki in the rational faculty. They are uneducated and therefore irrational.

However, we again notice the mob for the last time in Act III, Scene iii. Here they in a mood of rage and fury. They are searching . the conspirators who had murdered Caesar. Eventually, they happen to meet a poet by the name of Cinna. Cinna was also the name of one of the conspirators. But this poet is not the conspirator of Caesar’s murder. They want to kill him the poet. They say that they would kill him for writing bad poetry. The mob has gone out of control. This is the character not only the Roman mob but of mobs of all times and all over the world. Thus Shakespeare has portrayed the Roman mob in a successful manner in this play.