The play Julius Caesar written by William Shakespeare takes place in 44 BC, during the time of the Roman Republic. The plot of Shakespeare's play includes the planning leading up to Caesar's assassination as well as a war that followed soon after. Among the themes covered in Julius Caesar, the one I would like to focus on is “Public image versus private identity”. Most of the play focuses on disregarding each character's personal feelings in order to "please" the general audience. In the play, the audience can see both the private and public sides of Caesar and Brutus. Brutus is strong and refuses to show weakness in public, whether it is speaking to the plebeians or leading an army into battle. However, we see through his intimate conversations that Brutus is often uncertain and very pained. Likewise, Caesar is a powerful and confident man who leads large armies and effectively rules the Roman Empire, but he is not without weaknesses. He is very superstitious, suffers from epilepsy, and is ultimately revealed to be human when he is murdered by his closest friends. The theme of "public image versus private identity" is explored in the text through examples taken from the characters' private and public lives. After fleeing Rome, Brutus learns that his wife has committed suicide and is heartbroken when discussing it with Cassius when he says, "No man bears grief better." Portia is dead. (172) This shows that when he is with his fellow general Cassius, Brutus is willing to share his feelings with him. However, as soon as the soldiers enter his tent, he pretends not to know of her death and, when they learn of it, he does not react with much emotion: “Well, goodbye, Portia. We must die. Meditating that she must die once. I have the patience... middle of paper ... This could happen in the time of Julius Caesar. The camera hadn't even been invented yet and word of mouth was one of the only ways that information traveled. As you can see, this could ruin a person's career path due to new technology that confuses private identity with public image. Nowadays, employers search your name on social networking sites and see what you do in your personal time and in your life. Although many aspects of the world have changed since 44 BC, the fact that people judge you based on your personal life and past has not changed. Similarly, in Julius Caesar, Brutus and Caesar were afraid of being judged in the public light. Ultimately, each of us has a private identity and a public image. These two lives have no reason to interact with each other, but our culture fails to respect the fact that these two lives must remain separate..