Caligula

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1944

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Summary

Act Summaries & Analyses

Act I

Act II

Act III

Act IV

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Act IAct Summaries & Analyses

Act I Summary

The play opens with a scene of patricians and friends of the imperial court, nervously discussing Emperor Caligula’s absence. The scene takes place shortly after the death of the emperor’s sister and lover Drusilla. Caligula has wandered off into the countryside, with no one knowing where he has gone or when he might return. Some of the characters try to dismiss the situation as being of little concern—Helicon, a young associate of Caligula’s, holds this opinion. Others, like Cherea, view it as a sign of trouble. Scipio, another young friend of the emperor’s, arrives to bear the news that there is still no word of Caligula. Scipio appears disturbed—not only by Caligula’s absence, but also from the patricians’ discussion of Caligula’s character.

After the patricians leave the scene, Caligula appears alone on stage, muddy and bedraggled. He catches sight of himself in a mirror before Helicon reenters and sees him standing there. Caligula reports that he has been trying to catch the moon, but that he’s not acting erratically—rather, he “suddenly felt a desire for the impossible” (8). He has concluded that the world is irreparably bad; the truth is that “men die; and they are not happy” (8). He wants to break the limitations of what is possible.

On hearing someone approach, Caligula swears Helicon to silence, then exits. Scipio and Caesonia, Caligula’s mistress, appear on stage. After a brief conversation about the emperor’s absence, Caligula reenters at the same time that several other characters appear on the other side of the stage. The emperor’s intendant and some patricians express concerns about the state treasury. Caligula latches onto this idea, which they have presented as a matter of first importance, and resolves to force them to live by the logic of their priorities. He decrees a new system whereby the patricians must write new wills which leave all their wealth to the state, and then the state will kill them off one by one and so restock its treasury: “If the Treasury has paramount importance,” he reasons, “human life has none. […] I have resolved to be logical, and I have the power to enforce my will” (12-13).

The patricians retreat, and Scipio and Caesonia try feebly to convince Caligula that his plan is impossible. He only reaffirms his course of action, believing that attempting the impossible is the only thing that gives him real freedom. Eventually Caesonia is left with him alone on stage. She tries to comfort him, but he insists that love has no meaning. His behavior continues to grow more and more erratic. As a new crowd of patricians and palace staff enter at the end of the act, Caligula uses a mallet to strike at a mirror, effacing his reflection.

Act I Analysis

Camus introduces Caligula through the other characters’ speculations. We get the sense that Caligula is unpredictable and enigmatic, even before he appears on stage. By not introducing Caligula immediately, Camus creates tension and suspense.

The other characters have at least one scene in which to present themselves and their relationship to Caligula: Cherea is sympathetic to the concerns of the patricians, but more stoic and well-reasoned; Scipio is a young man with a sensitive soul, loyal and fond of Caligula; Helicon has a clueless sort of unconcern; and Caesonia is the faithful mistress, worried for Caligula but confident in her own position. When Caligula appears, he immediately proves that the others’ worries were well-founded. Although he claims he’s not behaving erratically, his behavior says otherwise. The stage directions reveal his character’s confusion: they show him hesitating, as if unsure of himself, but then possessed of an absurd confidence.

In his conversations in Act I, Caligula touches on four major themes of the play: impossibility, logic, life and death, and freedom. These ideas are interwoven in Caligula’s new perspective, and manifest in his wild and inflammatory acts. He has come to the belief that death is the ultimate reality and that people end up dying without happiness. Rather than accept the logic of death and meaninglessness and living accordingly, society restricts itself to rules and standards that make no sense given the reality of human mortality. Caligula appears to think that breaking those rules will give him freedom available to no other person, perhaps granting him the secret of happiness.

He resolves to live according to this philosophy. He expresses it in terms of seeking the impossible, his quest to catch the moon. He tells Caesonia: “when the impossible has come to earth and the moon is in my hands—then, perhaps, I shall be transfigured and the world renewed; then men will die no more and at last be happy” (17).

Act I also introduces the symbol of the mirror, which figures prominently in scenes with Caligula. In Caligula’s first appearance, he sees his reflection, and the view makes him pause. At the end of Act I, he interacts with the mirror again. He interprets his striking of it as the breaking of an illusion, the tearing off of masks: “You see, my dear? An end of memories; no more masks. Nothing, nobody left” (18). Caligula sees the mirror as representing the illogical ways of living by which people try to order their actions. As he looks at his image in the broken glass, he sees something else: a manifestation of his own identity. By striking the mirror, he has shattered what people perceive as real, opening up the chance to live beyond assumed reality and embrace the impossible.