Why did Shakespeare write Julius Caesar?

Answer 1

One of the themes of Julius Caesar is the method of selection of a leader. At the time when the play was written, Elizabeth I, the English Queen, was too old to bear children and did not have an heir. Shakespeare's selection of themes reflected the interests and concerns of his times.

Of course the real reason Shakespeare wrote the play was that he wanted to make money. He had been writing plays about the problems of transition of power for seven or eight years already by the time he got around to Caesar. He wrote two more after Queen Elizabeth was dead and King James was firmly installed as her successor. (Which sort of squashes the interests and concerns of the time theory.)

What is interesting is that Julius Caesar does not have anything to do with the succession. It has to do with the effectiveness of the use of violence to return a society to an earlier time. One would therefore expect it to be written at the time of the Gunpowder Plot. But it wasn't; it was written five years earlier.

Answer 2

We don't know if Shakespeare really wrote Romeo and Juliet for anyone but there are really quite a few reasons why he might have written it. Here are a few likely ones:

- Shakespeares unhappy marrage with Anne Hathaway may have drove him to writing this Tradgedy that was caused by love. Of course, his marriage with Anne may have been perfectly happy--many of his biographers have come to this conclusion.

- Shakespeare may have gone through an unpleasant love experience that we don't know about and wanted to warn all young people that love at first sight can be very dangerous. Of course, most of the people watching the plays would have been much older than Juliet anyway.

Actually, Shakespeare's plays appear to have nothing whatsoever to do with his personal life. He probably chose this story to dramatise because he had the foresight and genius to see that it would make a very good play that people would be talking about for a long time. Shakespeare wrote his plays to make money, not to talk about events in his life.

Answer 3

I don't think anyone asked Shakespeare why he chose particular stories to put into plays. Probably he thought the story had the potential to be a good play.

Answer 4

Shakespeare wrote the play Romeo and Juliet for the same reason he wrote all of his plays--to make money. It was his job, and his means of supporting his wife and family back in Stratford.