SOURCE: "Caska: Stoic, Cynic, 'Christian'," in Literature & Theology, Vol. 8, No. 2, June, 1994, pp. 140-56.

In the following essay, Bradley characterizes Caska (or Casca) as a hypocritical Cynic whose role in the play is nevertheless to expose the weaknesses of Brutus's Stoicism and Cassius's Epicureanism and to point toward the emergence of Christianity.

Who Is Caska?

The Tragedie of Julius Caesar of Shakespeare proceeds rather remarkably. Historical figures dominate the play. Representative men such as Caesar, Brutus, and Cassius tower over the majority of others. Even when such powerful figures do not dominate the stage, there is present one such as Cicero to represent classical Rome and high Stoicism in one of its most refined persons.

The presence of such monumental figures, of course, makes this play irresistible to historical curiosity; and compared with these figures any of the more obviously 'artificial' characters would seem far less worthy of interest...