The play began with a seemingly unrelated scene, two tribunes harassing plebeians for their sudden shift of opinion. The pair sat through this patiently. When the scenery shifted, however, they began to perk up. As the Lupercalia festivities were underway, a soothsayer had interrupted, warning Caesar to "Beware the ides of March!" The object of this portent had brushed the soothsayer off, and the crowd moved forward to the racetracks.
"Quite a sinister warning. Caesar's decision to ignore this will surely contribute to his downfall," Horatio commented, delivering a detached analysis. "It's a common feature of tragedies. The hero is given an opportunity for redemption and he throws it away.
Now, Brutus and Cassius were alone. The latter talked of overthrowing Caesar and seizing power, though he veiled it under patriotism and concern for the general public of Rome.
"Brutus, can't you see he's trying to manipulate you?!" Hamlet cried at the actor. "Besides, Cassius hasn't even given any reasonable statements to support killing Caesar, his attacks are all-what's the word for it, Horatio?"
"Ad hominem," the scholar replied.
"Yes! Oh, Brutus, stop getting blinded by your stupid idealism! Killing Caesar seems like a good course of action, though. The man is an arrogant and selfish fool."
The lightning and omens in Scene 3 spooked the prince, and he hid his face on Horatio's shirtsleeve for a while. When Cassius came on stage, announcing to Casca that he had gone bare-chested into a thunderstorm, the pair burst into laughter, forgetting Hamlet's fright.
Meanwhile, the curtains went down for Act 2.
Hamlet began to sympathize with Brutus, seeing himself mirrored in the character during his indecision. He was puzzled by the conspirators' entrance to the villa, and began wondering what this meant for their fate.
"It's Portia! She's my favorite!"
It was Horatio's turn to join in the frenzy. He had admired Brutus' wife when he read Plutarch's works, and seeing her brought to life onstage was wonderful.
Hamlet was busy analyzing everything that had happened in the scene. "Cassius comes to Brutus' house in the middle of the night...that could symbolize malicious intent...but in Act 1, Scene 3, he seemed to have begun the conspiracy for a noble cause..." He turned to the scholar, who was still in awe at the poetic verse Brutus and Portia had exchanged. "Say, Horatio, this play is making history more complicated for me than it ought to."
"It is likely that it was the playwright's intention," Horatio agreed. "He probably wanted you to see these events in a different light and come to your own conclusions instead of blindly accepting everything your professors tell you, don't you think?"
Hamlet chewed on this as Caesar lost another chance at redemption, trusting Decius' flattery over Calphurnia's pleas.
After the panic of the last scenes of Act 2, the moment they were waiting for finally arrived: the assassination scene. The drama and suspense that built up-the senators' anguish, Brutus' and Cassius' furtive whispers, last ditch attempts at saving Rome's dictator perpetuus-kept the students on edge and wanting more. The stabbing it culminated with was well-orchestrated, gripping the audience as a shred of Caesar's humanity was shown, contrasting beautifully with the man who had arrogantly brushed off Cimber's flattery moments before.
Hamlet, an honest boy who didn't put stock in deceit and disliked the manipulation used by the ambassadors who frequented his father's court, couldn't help but cringe at how fake Antony was acting towards the conspirators. Despite Horatio's explanation that this was his character flaw and that it was part and parcel of politics ("You're going to be king one day, my lord. I'm afraid you have no choice but to get used to it."), he was disgusted.
Hamlet kept ranting until he saw Brutus return to the stage.
Throughout "Romans, Countrymen, and Lovers," Hamlet wondered how people could find this oration bland and lifeless. Yes, it was in plainspoken prose, simple and unornamented, but it told the audience volumes about Brutus, his love for his countrymen, his determination to do good, and his devotion to his ideals. That, in the prince's mind, was the most beautiful thing of all, more than Antony's poetic, but manipulative and insincere, oration.
Hamlet would never admit it to himself, but deep down, he quite liked Antony's too and enjoyed it very much. That was probably because of the actor, who managed to pull off the weeping so skillfully that the prince wanted to embrace and comfort the young senator.
This sympathy vanished with the reappearance of Antony's deceit.
For his part, Horatio was observing everything as if he were doing research for History.
The tragedy of Cinna the Poet was followed by yet another scene which intensified Hamlet's dislike of Antony. How can you accuse Lepidus of being useless and only good enough to be a tool, when you yourself are a mere chit riding on the coattails of an even greater man? Hypocrite.
Horatio was disgusted with Antony, too, but he was more focused on Octavius, the young, relatively unknown relation of Caesar. The boy may be young and quite insignificant, he thought, smiling, but he'll have the last laugh in this affair.
The way Brutus and Cassius acted around each other made Hamlet and Horatio wonder. What had happened between these two lifelong friends to make them speak such bitter words to each other?
Horatio knew that the bribing and miscommunication weren't the real reasons for Brutus' and Cassius' fight. Below all that, he could see that the assassination's failure had taken its toll on their relationship. When they resolved their misunderstanding and became the loyal friends of the first act once more, he felt so affected he gave Hamlet a peck on the cheek out of nowhere, an action unexpected, but greatly appreciated, by the heir to Denmark's throne.
The news of Portia's death turned both of them into sobbing disasters. The ghost of Caesar sent foreboding down their spines.
The last act was quite long-thirty minutes or so-but it all seemed to flash before their eyes. A sense of disturbed peace at Brutus' and Cassius' parting, futile hope at the "cold demeanor in Octavius' wing," disappointment at Cassius' death, admiration for Antony's political tactics, sorrow at Brutus' demise, hope that Octavius would be a good leader-all these mixed into a cathartic conclusion, leaving the students in a daze as they pushed through the crowd and descended from the gallery to see if they could meet some of the players.
