Although times are changing and people are becoming more tolerant, illness and disability are still signs of weakness in modern America. No matter the severity of the disorder, society generally associates it with a person's lack of strength, even if they cannot control it. Additionally, people regularly use illness to hide other emotions, such as guilt or anxiety, or to stop doing something they don't want to do. Authors often use illness in their works to demonstrate different aspects of the plot such as showing a character's emotions or reflecting on the themes of the text. During many scenes in Shakespeare's Tragedy of Julius Caesar, he uses illness to portray a number of things in a character, including weaknesses, worries, doubts, beliefs, and emotions at the time of the respective scene; whether it is Caesar's epilepsy, Brutus claiming to be ill to hide his doubts about Caesar's assassination, or Brutus using the illness to imply that Portia is weaker, Shakespeare uses the illness to help deepen the plot of his ageless tragedy. The prime example of using illness to portray weakness in Julius Caesar is Caesar's epilepsy or "falling sickness". In the Lupercal scene, Caesar's weakness is demonstrated when Caesar says: “come to my right, for this ear is deaf” (I,ii,212), showing that he has only one good ear. In ancient Rome any type of physical disability was despised and immediately identified the person as impotent; therefore, Caesar was powerless and incapable of ruling Rome. Shortly thereafter, Shakespeare again describes Caesar's physical weakness in a conversation between Cassius and Casca when Casca exclaims, "He fell in the market-place, and foamed at the mouth, and was speechless"... in the center of the card..... . represent a number of different undesirable traits. In his play, Shakespeare attempts to remove the barrier between the sick and the healthy by demonstrating that these people are the same and that they should accept each other because health is desired by all but not necessarily obtainable for all. Unfortunately, this blockage still exists in modern times, and many argue that people are going backwards and becoming less tolerant. Society fails to realize that those who are healthy and those who are unhealthy share the earth and are both human beings, neither is superior to the other and neither is in control of their own well-being. If Shakespeare had managed to destroy this barrier and people accepted illness and disability, society would be a happier, friendlier and overall nobler place, but unfortunately this great feat is still a work in progress..