Conceptions of honor in Shakespeare

Conceptions of honor are addressed in the Shakespeare plays Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra. Julius Caesar was written in 1599 and Antony and Cleopatra in 1606-1607. Both are among the Roman plays of Shakespeare, plays set in the Roman Empire, though Antony and Cleopatra actually is more governed by the culture and society of Egypt where the play is set. Honor is an important Roman value, but the meaning of honor and the way it is belied by the actions of certain men are tested by the events in these plays. Honor in some ways is bound with Roman power, and there is a connection between the decline of power and the decline of honor, as Shakespeare is able to bring out centuries later as he looks back at the long lost empire and considers the meaning of honor from an Elizabethan point of view.

A major issue in Julius Caesar is the meaning of honor and how Brutus can be an honorable man yet commit a dishonorable act. Brutus himself holds out honor as a primary value;

If it be aught toward the general good, Set honor in one eye and death i' the other And I will look on both indifferently. For let the gods so speed me as I love The name of honor more than I fear death (I.ii.85-89).

As noted, the issue of what this means becomes much-discussed and analyzed in the play, from efforts by Cassius to make all actions taken by himself, Brutus, and the other conspirators into something honorable, to the m

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