Critical Essays
Weather as a Major Symbol
On the eve of the Ides of March a storm is raging in Rome (Act I, Scene 3). It's a storm unlike any other. Fire falls from the skies, bodies spontaneously combust, lions roam the capital, ghostly women walk the streets, and the night owl was seen shrieking in the daylight. Shakespeare uses storms to create a mood of darkness and foreboding, but here he takes it one step further. The turmoil of the heavens is directly representative of the turmoil present in the state and in the minds of men. The raging storm, coupled with the eerie sights that Casca describes, are signs of disharmony in heaven and on earth.