To write about Tim Crouch's I, Cinna I first had to dissect my feelings. Mainly, my lack of any strong emotional attachment. With some introspection I realised this play did not so much feel like a play but an essay. His deconstructing of Shakespeare's The Tragedie of Julius Caesar has created a stream-lined and persuasive narrative. The thesis: The moral conflicts in Julius Caesar are relevant to everyone. The first step to any essay is introducing an idea to be explored. Crouch starts his exposition simply. Cinna tasks us to write “ I am free,” (20) in the middle of the page. Already, here is an introduction to one of the main driving forces of the conspirators. In the Folio, Cassius expresses dissatisfaction with Caesar when he says “... we petty men walke under his huge legges,” (I.i). Crouch sets up the rest of the play to be seen through a lens that is conscious of privilege. The privilege in question, freedom. …show more content…
Crouch uses his denouement to connect to some earlier questions. Towards the beginning, Cinna has us write “... two guilty sentences,” (27) truly revealing what we would die for and kill for. This further deepens our understanding of freedom as it pertains to the play because in bringing this to the forefront of our minds he makes it easier to see how present those thoughts are in Rome. His use of rhetoric presents the subtext of the Folio. On the final page of the play he asks,” Was freedom one of your words? A thing worth killing for?” (50). As this idea was presented earlier in the form of an acknowledgement of a fragile, existing privilege it makes us consider how freedom shapes our daily