Episode
Julius Caesar: Honor and Virtue of Brutus & Portia in Shakespeare's Play
- Podcast
- Shakespeare Anyone?
- Published
- Jan 28, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3364
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Summary
Want to support the podcast? Join our Patreon or buy us a coffee. As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. In Julius Caesar , Shakespeare repeatedly reminds us that Brutus is an honorable man. In this episode we will explore if this is true, how Shakespeare depicts both masculine honor and its early modern counterpart, feminine virtue, in the characters of Brutus and Portia, and how Portia's characterization by editors and theatremakers has changed over time. First, we unpack how honor was defined for Shakespeare's audiences and how the play incorporates Early Modern anxieties about rhetoric throughout the plot. We then closely examine Brutus's desire to be perceived as honorable, how that shapes his choices, and whether or not he is ultimately honorable. Then we will turn to Portia, tracing how editors and theatremakers have altered her language and characterization across time in order to make her virtue more palatable to the moral expectations of their moment. We look at what gets changed, what gets softened or erased, and what those choices reveal about how women are policed on stage and on the page. Content Warning: Discussions of suicide and self-harm. If you are in crisis, please call, text or chat with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741. Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp. Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander. For updates: Join our email list Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod Visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com Support the podcast: Become a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone Buy us a coffee Bookshop.org : Since 2020, Bookshop.org has raised more than $38 million for independe…