Back to: Tamil Nadu Class 12 English Guide & Notes
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About the Author
Gordon Daviot is a pseudonym of Elizabeth Mackintosh. She was born on 25th of July 1896 and died on 13th February 1952.She was a Scottish author best known for her mystery novels. She also known as Gordon Daviot, under which she wrote plays containing Historical themes.
She even served educational institutions in England and Scotland as a physical education instructor and soon took to writing novels under another pen name Josephine Tey.
Introduction
The play “Remember Caesar” by Gordon Daviot, revolves around the fearful and life-threatening situation of Lord Weston (an imperial and boastful judge), in a comical way. He fears a life threat after discovering a letter “Remember Caesar”, scribbled on a piece of paper in his pocket. He is extremely boastful of his works and as a consequence, his own assistant, Roger, is bored and tired as he is forced to listen to his master’s unnecessary tale of victories and achievements which often reflect his ego.
In this play, Gordon Daviot, has tried to expose the bitter reality of such types of boastful and arrogant people, who are busy in praising themselves that often tends them to make a fool of themselves.
A Letter is Discovered
After boasting of his achievements, Lord Weston, discovered a letter from his pocket on which “Remember Caesar” was written. Out of his heavy imagination and overthinking habit, he took the letter as a medium of threat, given to him. He feared that the message was sent as a warning by his enemies, who had received legal punishments from him.
After analysing about the day and date, he realised that it was 15th of March, the day when Julius Caesar was assassinated. He told Roger that the letter must be a sign of his assassination and someone affected by his fair judgement was plotting his murder.
Precautions
Sensing the danger, he started taking all the necessary precautions to avoid any sort of adversity and calamity. Lord Weston commanded his secretary to shut all the doors and windows. While the entire environment was serious, the only person who was totally unconcerned and untroubled, was Lord Weston’s wife, Lady Weston. When she heard that her husband’s life is in danger, she commented that last time his life was in danger when he had been eating a game pie.
Her unsympathetic reaction made Lord Weston aggressive and impatient. Lord Weston ordered Roger to send the cook and the gardener away.
Worried Lady Weston
Now, when all the doors and windows were getting closed, Lady Weston was worried about Mr. Gammon’s boy who was going to come with the groceries. Though, she too closed all the doors, but left the kitchen because the maid was unperturbed by any threat. She was confident of handling any assassin. Both of them (Weston and Roger) tried their best to prevent the assassination attempt.
After some time, a gardener, named Caesar, comes to discuss about Rose trees. It was only then, that Lord Weston realised that the hand-writing on the paper was his own and he had falsely imagined a short ugly man who had dashed against him and have kept the letter inside his pocket. Caesar was the gardener, whom, Lord Weston, himself had called for an appointment, to visit his garden.
After all these uncertainties, Lady Weston apologises for having made a statement unintentionally that was “an illiterate had made a venomous scribbling in the paper”. After the surety and satisfaction of safety, Roger spends his whole day by only flattering his boss, Lord Weston that his safety was his only priority.
Conclusion
The play “Remember Caesar “is an irony , pointing out the people who are boastful about themselves ultimately become a fool when they starts thinking beyond the reality and imagine too much.
In this play, the speaker actually forgets the note” Remember Caesar”, which he wrote himself at the time of his busy schedule. He made this note as a reminder, but his forgetfulness and absent- mindedness becomes the irony in the so-called message “Remember Caesar”.
