Mimesis and Violence: The Twinning of Julius Caesar and Hamlet

In Shakespeare studies, it is common for critics to juxtapose Hamlet with Brutus and to discuss how alike they are in temperament. However, even though Brutus has been constantly described as an “embryonic Hamlet,” many twin contents and intertextuality in Julius Caesar and Hamlet still have been neglected. This thesis is to scrutinize the twin contents and intertextuality between these two plays under the topic of “mimesis and violence” by using Rene Girard’s theories of mimesis desire and scapegoat mechanism.
By using the discourse of mimesis desire, one can notice both Brutus’ and Hamlet’s motivations come from the obsession with their fathers, who they are named after, and from the resentment against their “rival fathers”—Caesar and Claudius. Apart from Brutus and Hamlet, nearly all the other main characters in these two plays are driven by their mimesis of other people and by the rivalry between self and others. As for scapegoat mechanism, it enables us to examine the essence of vengeance, persecution, and violence in Julius Caesar and Hamlet, revealing the causes and logic behind these vengeful, persecutive, and violent actions.
Hamlet can be seen as a duplication of Julius Caesar in terms of the relation between characters and the composition of plots. Nevertheless, the play Hamlet also shows its resistance to the duplication, which can be perceived in the postponement, query, and “conversion” of the prince of Denmark. By inspecting the similarity and difference between the two plays, one can realize Shakespeare’s underlying intension and sustained concern for the twinning and rewriting of Julius Caesar and Hamlet, which is the main purpose of this thesis.