A COMPARISON OF THE TRAGEDY OF JULIUS CAESAR AND ENDER'S GAME

Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Julius Caesar was first performed in 1599 (The Riverside Shakespeare 1101).  Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game was first published in 1977, nearly 400 years later.  In spite of this nearly 400-year difference, there are many similarities between the two pieces.  While the plots are different, they deal with similar themes, such as the quest for power, jealousy and manipulation.  Both also contain tragic heroes who commit terrible acts through fatal flaws as well as jealous, scheming characters who work to bring down those who are better than them.  Additionally, the authors use some similar literary methods, such as foreshadowing through the use of omens and dreams.

The plots of Julius Caesar and Ender’s Game are dissimilar.  Julius Caesar is a play, which takes place in ancient Rome and tells the story of Caesar after he has defeated Pompey and returned to Rome in triumph.  Ender’s Game is a science fiction novel, which takes place in the future on earth, a space station and a distant planet.  Ender’s Game take place after two previous attacks by aliens known as buggers.  Both plots deal with the themes of war and leadership and betrayal.

There are many similarities between the tragic heroes Brutus of Julius Caesar and Ender of Ender’s Game.  Both are noble, honorable and well intentioned.  According to Antony, Brutus was

…the noblest Roman of them all
All the conspirators, save only he,
Did that they did in envy of Great Caesar;
He, only in general honest thought
And common good to all, made one of  them
His life was gentle, and the elements
So mix’d in him That Nature might stand up
And say to the world, “This was a man!” (Shakespeare 5.5.67-75)

Ender is always described as striving to be good;  “Ender didn’t like fighting.  He didn’t like Peter’s kind, the strong against the weak” (Card 21). Neither Brutus nor Ender would hurt another innocent unless they were forced or tricked into it.  Both are tricked.  Brutus is tricked into killing Caesar by Cassius, while Ender is tricked into killing a whole alien race by the military.

Each piece also has a jealous, scheming character that is devious and seeks power.  In Julius Caesar, Cassius is jealous of Caesar and the acclaim he is receiving.  He asks, “Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world/Like a Colossus, and we petty men/Walk under his huge legs and peep about” (Shakespeare 1.2.135-38).  In Ender’s Game, Peter, who is the brother of Ender, is jealous of him and hates him for being chosen by the military to be “the one.”  Peter often forces Ender to play a game of astronauts and buggers in which he torments Ender.  For instance, one time when Peter is attacking his little brother, he kneels on him and says, “I could kill you like this… Just press and press until you’re dead.  And I could say that I didn’t know that it would hurt you, that we were just playing, and they’d believe me and everything would be fine” (Card 12).  Ender is saved by his sister Valentine.

In both pieces, flattery, trickery and manipulation are important tools.  Cassius at first tries to flatter Brutus:  “I know what virtue be in you,/As well do I know you’re outward favor”  (Shakespeare 1.2.90-91).  When flattery does not work, Cassius appeals to Brutus’ honor and duty. He convinces Brutus that Caesar is power hungry, wants to become King of Rome, and that it is Brutus' duty to prevent Caesar from doing this by killing him. In Ender’s Game, Peter uses flattery and manipulation on his sister Valentine to help him achieve world power.  At first he tries flattery, which does not work, as was the case with Brutus.  Then he appeals to her sense of duty in saving the world from constant war;  “I want to accomplish something worthwhile.  A Pax Americana through the whole world… I want to save humanity from self-destruction” (Card 131-132). Trickery and manipulation were also used by the military to get Ender to destroy the buggers.  Ender is also called on to do his duty and be honorable.  Colonel Graff, in trying to convince Ender to join the military in their effort to destroy the buggers, says,

Human beings are free except when humanity needs them.  Maybe humanity needs us.  To do something.  Maybe humanity needs me—to find out what you’re good for.  We might both be despicable thugs, but if humankind survives, then we are good tools (Card 35).

When Ender realizes that he has destroyed the bugger civilization without knowledge of his actions, he it told by Colonel Graff, “Of course we tricked you into it… It had to be a trick or you couldn’t have done it” (Card 298). 

Manipulation through the use of words, or rhetoric, is also a theme in the two pieces.  Peter tells Valentine that it is their use of words, which will enable him to become the leader of the world.  He states that Hitler mostly “got to power on words, on the right words at the right time” (Card 131).  In Julius Caesar, it is also the use of words that sways the crowd.  At the funeral of Caesar, Brutus spoke first.  He convinces the plebians that Caesar’s murder was needed.  When Brutus is done, Antony speaks. Anthony claims that “I am no orator, as Brutus is;/But (as you know me all) a plain blunt man” (Shakespeare 3.2.119-20)).  Antony goes on about his inability to use words to convince or move, while at the same time using them for exactly those purposes:

For I have neither (wit), nor words, nor worth,
Action, utterance, nor the power of speech
To stir men’s blood; I only speak right on
I tell you that which you yourselves do know,
Show you sweet Caesar’ wounds, poor, poor, dumb mouths
And bid them speak for me…” (Shakespeare 3.2.221-226)

By the end of Antony's speech, the crowd has completely changed their minds and see Caesar’s murder as a traitorous, horrible thing.  The plebeians go from crying out that Caesar was a “tyrant” and that “Rome was well rid of him” (3.2.69-70) to asserting that Caesar’s assassins were “villains, murderers” (Shakespeare 3.2.155).

One area where the two pieces differ greatly is in writing styles.  Shakespeare’s writing is highly descriptive and vivid.  His language is very figurative and makes extensive use of metaphors and similes.  An example of one of his many metaphors in Julius Caesar is his description of Cassius when he compares him to a wolf:

Let me have men about me that are fat
Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o’ nights
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look
He thinks too much, such men are dangerous (Shakespeare 1.2.192-5)

Card’s writing style is very different.  In general, it is much more basic, less descriptive and barely uses metaphors or similes and is sparse with adjectives.

However, there is one similarity between Shakespeare and Card’s writing styles.  Both use dreams and omens to foreshadow what will happen later in the stories.  For instance, in Julius Caesar, a soothsayer warns Caesar, to “Beware the Tides of March” (Shakespeare 1.2.18) and Caesar’s wife has many dreams foretelling the future.  In Ender’s Game, the omens come through Ender’s dreams and the video game of the Giant’s Head.  When Ender finally wins the game, “Tears filled his eyes, tears of relief that at last he had broken free of the room at the End of the World.  And because of the tears, he didn't notice that every member of the multitude wore Peter's face” (Card 152).  Ender was free to start a new life in a new world, but Peter would be still be there, outside of him and inside him.

In spite of the nearly 400-year difference between Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Julius Caesar and Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game, there are many similarities between them.  Both deal with issues, such as power, war, leadership, jealousy and manipulation, which have concerned humanity since civilization began. These same themes will be as relevant in the future as they are today and were in the past because there will always be people fighting for power and control.