Does Cassius saying, "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in the stars/But in ourselves, that we are underlings," have any connection to Caesar saying...

The Romans of “Julius Caesar” spend a lot of time thinking and talking about planetary movements and other omens and what impact they have on human behavior. Caesar calls himself “constant as the Northern Star,” Cassius scoffs at the notion of heavenly influence, saying that our fate “is not in our stars,” soothsayers tell fortunes, priests make sacrifices and try to read entrails. It’s a superstitious society, much to Cassius’s dismay, and one theme of...

The Romans of “Julius Caesar” spend a lot of time thinking and talking about planetary movements and other omens and what impact they have on human behavior. Caesar calls himself “constant as the Northern Star,” Cassius scoffs at the notion of heavenly influence, saying that our fate “is not in our stars,” soothsayers tell fortunes, priests make sacrifices and try to read entrails. It’s a superstitious society, much to Cassius’s dismay, and one theme of “Julius Caesar” concerns just how predetermined our fates are. The soothsayer predicts Caesar will die, and he does, exactly as predicted. Does that mean we can’t escape our destiny? Brutus has a plan for how to govern after Caesar’s death but it goes horribly wrong when Antony successfully turns the citizens against him: was that also predetermined? Or could Brutus have made different choices and created a different outcome? Cassius believes that people are “masters of their fates”; the play asks us to consider to what extent we think that’s true.