			1599                                  
                                                                            
                             WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S                          
                                 JULIUS CAESAR                              
                                                                            
                               by Michael Spring                            
                                                                            
                                   For Betsy                                
                                                                            
                                 SERIES EDITOR                              
          Michael Spring, Editor, Literary Cavalcade, Scholastic Inc.       
                                         
		ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS                                   
We would like to thank Loreto Todd, Senior Lecturer in English, University 
of                                                                          
 Leeds, England, for preparing the chapter on Elizabethan English in this   
book.                                                                       
  We would like to acknowledge the many painstaking hours of work Holly     
Hughes                                                                      
  and Thomas F. Hirsch have devoted to making the Book Notes series a       
success.                                                                    
                                                                            
            (C) Copyright 1984 by Barron's Educational Series, Inc.         
   Electronically Enhanced Text (C) Copyright 1993, World Library, Inc.     
                                                                            
CONTENTS                                                                    
                               CONTENTS                                     
                  SECTION.......................... SEARCH ON               
                                                                            
          THE AUTHOR AND HIS TIMES................. SJULAUTH                
                                                                            
          THE PLAY                                                          
          The Plot................................. SJULPLOT                
          The Characters........................... SJULCHAR                
          Other Elements                                                    
               Setting............................. SJULSETT                
               Themes.............................. SJULTHEM                
               Style............................... SJULSTYL                
               Sources............................. SJULSOUR                
               An Historical Note.................. SJULHIST                
               Elizabethan English................. SJULELIZ                
               Point of View....................... SJULVIEW                
               Form and Structure.................. SJULFORM                
          THE PLAY................................. SJULPLAY                
                                                                            
          A STEP BEYOND                                                     
          Tests and Answers........................ SJULTEST                
          Term Paper Ideas......................... SJULTERM                
          The Critics.............................. SJULCRIT                
                                                                            
          Advisory Board........................... SJULADVB                
                                                                            
          Bibliography............................. SJULBIBL                
                                                                            
AUTHOR_AND_HIS_TIMES                                                        
                       THE AUTHOR AND HIS TIMES             (SJULAUTH)      
-                                                                           
  Julius Caesar is a play about a political assassination. The              
question it asks is: is it ever right to use force to remove a ruler        
from power? You, as readers, can answer that question in terms of your      
own experience in the last quarter of the 20th century. But if              
you're going to figure out what Shakespeare thought, you'll have to         
know something about the values and concerns of the Elizabethan             
world in which he lived.                                                    
  History plays were popular during Shakespeare's lifetime (1564-1616)      
because this was the Age of Discovery, and English men and women            
were hungry to learn about worlds other than their own. But the             
Elizabethans also saw history as a mirror in which to discover              
themselves and find answers to the problems of their lives. A play          
like Julius Caesar taught the Elizabethans about Roman politics; it         
also offered an object lesson in how to live. What was Shakespeare          
trying to teach his contemporaries?                                         
  To answer that question, let's take a look at Elizabethan                 
attitudes toward (a) monarchy and (b) order.                                
-                                                                           
  (A) MONARCHY                                                              
-                                                                           
  Today we believe in democracy and are suspicious of anyone who seeks      
unlimited power. We know what can happen when a Hitler or a Stalin          
takes control of a government, and we know just how corrupting power        
can be. But Shakespeare and his contemporaries had no such prejudice        
against strong rulers. Their queen, Elizabeth I, ruled with an iron         
hand for forty-five years (from 1558 to 1603), yet her subjects had         
great affection for her. Under her rule the arts flourished and the         
economy prospered. While the rest of Europe was embroiled in war,           
mostly between Catholics and Protestants, England enjoyed a period          
relatively free from civil strife. Elizabeth's reign- and the reign of      
other Tudor monarchs, beginning with Henry VII in 1485- brought an end      
to the anarchy that had been England's fate during the Wars of the          
Roses (1455-84). To Shakespeare and his contemporaries the message was      
clear: only a strong, benevolent ruler could protect the peace and          
save the country from plunging into chaos again. Shakespeare would          
probably not have approved of the murder of Caesar.                         
-                                                                           
  (B) ORDER                                                                 
-                                                                           
  In 1599, when Julius Caesar was first performed, Elizabeth was old        
and failing. She had never married and had no children to succeed her.      
Shakespeare and his contemporaries must have worried greatly that           
someone (like Brutus? like Cassius?) would try to grab power and            
plunge the country into civil war.                                          
  When the Elizabethans spoke of order, they didn't just mean               
political or social order. Though they lived during what we call today      
the English Renaissance, they still held many medieval views about man      
and his relation to the universe. They knew the world was round, and        
that the earth was one of many planets spinning in space. And they          
knew from explorers that there were continents besides their own.           
But most believed, as people in the Middle Ages believed, that the          
universe was ruled by a benevolent God, and that everything, from           
the lowest flower to the angels on high, had a divine purpose to            
fulfill. The king's right to rule came from God himself, and                
opposition to the king earned the wrath of God and threw the whole          
system into disorder. Rulers had responsibilities, too, of course:          
if they didn't work for the good of the people, God would hold them to      
account. No one in this essentially medieval world lived or functioned      
in isolation. Everyone was linked together by a chain of rights and         
obligations, and when someone broke that chain, the whole system broke      
down and plunged the world into chaos. What destroys the divine             
harmony in Julius Caesar- Cassius' jealousy, Caesar's ambition, or the      
fickleness of the mob- is something you'll have to decide for               
yourself. But whatever the cause, the results offend the heavens and        
throw the entire country into disarray.                                     
  Today a sense of hopelessness and despair hangs over us: a                
mistake, a simple misunderstanding, and the bomb may drop and               
destroy life on earth. Our fate, we feel, is out of our control. But        
the Elizabethans were much more optimistic. Forget chance: if               
something went wrong, then someone had broken God's laws, the laws          
of the universe. Many would suffer, but in the end the guilty would be      
punished and order restored.                                                
  Julius Caesar begins with a human act that, like a virus, infects         
the body of the Roman state. No one is untouched; some grow sick, some      
die. But in time the poison works its way out of the system and the         
state grows healthy again. In Shakespeare's world, health, not              
sickness, is the natural condition of man in God's divine plan.             
                                                                            
THE_PLOT                                                                    
                               THE PLAY                                     
-                                                                           
                               THE PLOT                     (SJULPLOT)      
-                                                                           
  The working people of Rome are overjoyed: Julius Caesar has beaten        
Pompey's sons in battle, and everyone's getting a day off from work to      
celebrate Caesar's triumphant return. But two Roman officers,               
Flavius and Marullus, chase the crowds away: how dare the citizens          
support a tyrant who threatens to undermine hundreds of years of            
Republican (representative) rule! Don't they know that Caesar wants to      
be king?                                                                    
  Caesar parades by in full glory, just in time to help celebrate           
the races on the Feast of Lupercal. A soothsayer bids him "Beware           
the ides of March" (March 15), but Caesar- anxious not to show fear in      
public dismisses the man as a dreamer. The procession passes by,            
leaving behind two Roman Senators: Cassius, a long-time political           
enemy of Caesar, and Brutus, Caesar's friend. Like other members of         
the Senate, Brutus and Cassius are aristocrats who fear that Caesar         
will take away their ancient privileges.                                    
  Cassius now goes to work on Brutus, flattering him, reminding him of      
his noble ancestry, trying all the while to determine just how unhappy      
Brutus is with Caesar and just how willing Brutus is to join the            
conspiracy. Does Brutus know where Cassius is leading him? It's hard        
to tell. Brutus admits only that he's dissatisfied, and agrees to           
discuss the matter further.                                                 
  Caesar, now back from the races, tells his friend Antony that he          
doesn't trust a man like Cassius, with his "lean and hungry look."          
He has good reason to be suspicious.                                        
  Casca tells Brutus and Cassius how the Roman people three times           
offered Caesar the crown, and how three times he refused it. Perhaps        
Caesar doesn't want to be king- that's what his friends would argue;        
but to his enemies, Caesar was merely playing on the gullibility of         
the people, pretending to be humble in order to win their support.          
  On a stormy night full of mysterious omens, Cassius converts Casca        
to his cause and arranges for Cinna, a fellow-conspirator, to throw         
a message through Brutus' window. The note will, he hopes, win the          
noble Senator to their side.                                                
  Alone in his garden, Brutus tries to justify the part he is about to      
play in the murder of his friend, Caesar. He decides finally that           
Caesar's ambition poses a grave danger to the future of the Republic        
and that Caesar should be destroyed, not for what he is, but for            
what he's likely to become. The conspirators arrive at Brutus' house        
and agree to murder Caesar the next day at the Capitol. They would          
like to murder Antony, too, but Brutus, anxious to keep his hands           
clean and to preserve his precious honor, insists that Antony be            
spared.                                                                     
  After the conspirators leave, Brutus' wife Portia enters. She             
wants to know what's happening. Brutus worries that the news may be         
too frightening for her to bear, but nevertheless confides in her.          
  Caesar has had a restless night, too. His wife Calpurnia tries to         
keep him home- she senses evil in the air- and at first he relents.         
But the conspirators arrive and persuade him to go to the Senate as         
planned. What would happen to his reputation if his public thought the      
mighty Caesar was swayed by a superstitious wife!                           
  Calpurnia's fears turn out to be more than superstitions, for the         
day is March 15, the ides of March. Caesar ignores two more warnings        
and, after delivering a speech full of extravagant self-praise, he          
is stabbed by the conspirators and dies.                                    
  Antony, learning of the murder of his dearest friend, begs the            
conspirators to let him speak at the funeral. Believing that right          
is on his side, Brutus agrees, over the objections of his more              
realistic friends. Left alone, Antony vows to revenge the death of          
Caesar, even if it means plunging his country into civil war. In the        
meantime, Caesar's adopted son and heir, Octavius, has arrived on           
the outskirts of Rome, and Antony advises him to wait there till he         
can gauge the mood of the country.                                          
  Brutus' funeral oration is a measured, well-reasoned speech,              
appealing to the better instincts of the people and to their                
abstract sense of duty to the state. For a moment he wins them over.        
But then Antony inflames the crowds with an appeal to their                 
emotions. Showing them Caesar's bloody clothes turns them into an           
angry mob, hungry for revenge. Blind with hate, they roam the               
streets and tear apart the innocent poet Cinna.                             
  Antony and Octavius now join forces with Lepidus to pursue and            
destroy the conspirators, who have fled from Rome. Anyone who might         
endanger their cause is coldly put to death. Brutus and Cassius             
await this new triumverate at their camp near Sardis in Asia Minor.         
Should Cassius let an officer take bribes? Brutus, standing on his          
principles, says no, and vents his anger on his friend. At the root of      
his anger, however, is his unspoken sorrow at the death of his beloved      
wife Portia. Apparently unable to deal with such an unsettling              
situation, she went mad and took her life by swallowing hot coals.          
Sadness over her death brings Brutus and Cassius back together              
again, closer perhaps than before.                                          
  At night Brutus is visited by the ghost of Caesar, who vows to            
meet him again on the battlefield at Philippi in Greece. The next           
day the two armies- the army of Brutus and Cassius, and the army of         
Antony and Octavius- stand in readiness at Philippi while the four          
generals battle each other with words. In the first encounter, Brutus'      
troops defeat Octavius', and Antony's troops overcome Cassius'.             
Cassius, retreating to a nearby hill, sends his trusted friend              
Titinius to find out whether approaching troops are friends or foes.        
Is Titinius captured? It appears so; and Cassius, believing he has          
sent his good friend to his death and that the battle is lost, takes        
his life.                                                                   
  If only Cassius hadn't acted so rashly he might have saved his life,      
for the reports turn out to be false and Titinius still lives. Brutus,      
not the enemy, arrives, and mourns the death of his friend.                 
  The tide now turns against Brutus. Sensing defeat, and unwilling          
to endure the dishonor of capture, he runs on his sword and dies. Like      
Caesar and Cassius, he thinks in his final moments not of power or          
personal glory, but of friendship.                                          
  Antony delivers a eulogy over Brutus' body, calling him "the noblest      
Roman of them all." Octavius agrees to take all of Brutus' men into         
his service, a gesture of reconciliation that bodes well for the            
future.                                                                     
                                                                            
THE_CHARACTERS                                                              
                            THE CHARACTERS                  (SJULCHAR)      
-                                                                           
  JULIUS CAESAR                                                             
  In order to discuss Shakespeare's play intelligently you have to          
make up your mind about (1) Caesar's character, and (2) Caesar's            
threat to the Roman Republic. Either Caesar deserves to be                  
assassinated, or he doesn't. On your answer hangs the meaning of the        
play.                                                                       
  On one hand, Caesar is a tyrant whose ambition poses a real danger        
to the Republic. In that case, the hero of the play is Brutus. On           
the other hand, Caesar may be vain and arrogant, but he is the only         
ruler strong enough to hold the Roman Republic together, and a              
flawed ruler is better than none at all. In that case, Brutus               
becomes an impractical idealist who is manipulated by a group of            
scheming politicians.                                                       
  Whatever your position, there's no doubt that Shakespeare wants to        
show us the private side of a public man, and to remind us that our         
heroes are, like the rest of us, only human. In public, Caesar is           
worshipped like a god; in private, he is superstitious, deaf, and           
subject to fits of epilepsy (falling sickness). Caesar's public             
image is like a mask he wears to hide his weaknesses from others and        
from himself. Yet at the moment of death his mask slips, and we see         
another Caesar who values friendship above all.                             
  Let's look at Caesar in three different ways.                             
-                                                                           
  1. Caesar's personal shortcomings are one reason to remove him            
from power. Another is his ambition, which threatens to undermine           
the power of the people and their elected representatives.                  
  It's true that Antony calls Caesar "the noblest man / That ever           
lived in the tide of times" (Act III, Scene i, lines 256-257), but why      
believe Antony- a man blindly devoted to his master, who is so bad a        
judge of character that he says of Cassius:                                 
-                                                                           
              Fear him not, Caesar, he's not dangerous;                     
                                       Act I, Scene ii, line 196            
-                                                                           
  Caesar's refusal to accept the crown is no more than a cynical            
political gesture to impress the masses. His speech comparing               
himself to the North Star is the height of arrogance and blasphemy.         
His refusal to pardon Publius Cimber is the mark of a man incapable of      
justice or pity. Such a man is a tyrant who knows no limits and             
deserves to be destroyed.                                                   
-                                                                           
  2. Caesar may be ambitious, but what of it? Ambition in itself is         
neither good nor bad. Today, in our democratic age, we are                  
suspicious of politicians who seek unlimited power, but the                 
Elizabethans in Shakespeare's time lived under a strong monarchy and        
would have had no such prejudice against strong rulers. If Shakespeare      
had wanted to show that Caesar was unfit to rule, he could have             
found evidence to support that point of view in Elizabethan history         
books; but nowhere in the play does he show Caesar suppressing civil        
liberties. Brutus himself is forced to admit:                               
-                                                                           
                       and, to speak truth of Caesar,                       
             I have not known when his affections swayed                    
             More than his reason.                                          
                                    Act II, Scene i, lines 19-21            
-                                                                           
  A politician should be judged for his accomplishments, not for his        
private life. Even if Caesar is inflexible, the times demand such           
behavior.                                                                   
  In his personal life, Caesar is considerate to his wife, courteous        
to the conspirators, and generous to the Roman people. He may be vain,      
but he has something to be vain about. Friends and enemies alike            
praise his courage and his accomplishments on the battlefield- can          
they all be wrong?                                                          
-                                                                           
  3. Caesar may be neither a hero nor a villain, but, like people in        
real life, a mixture of both. Educated theater-goers in                     
Shakespeare's time had this double image of Caesar, and Shakespeare         
may have enjoyed reinforcing and undercutting their preconceptions          
without ever resolving them.                                                
  Shakespeare had one other reason to make Caesar a mixture of good         
and evil: if Caesar were too noble, Brutus would become a simple            
villain; if Caesar were too evil, Brutus would become a simple hero.        
In either case the moral dilemma raised by the assassination would          
no longer exist.                                                            
  How you yourself react to Caesar will perhaps say as much about           
you as it says about him. People with a strong need for political           
order in their lives may want to defend him. Those of you with a            
more democratic faith in the individual may prefer to see him as a          
threat to the people, and sympathize with Brutus.                           
-                                                                           
  BRUTUS                                                                    
  Scholars, actors, students- all have disagreed about Brutus and will      
continue to disagree as long as Julius Caesar is being read and             
performed.                                                                  
  You can view Brutus as a man of high principles and integrity- a man      
who is defeated, not by any personal shortcomings, but by the               
underhandedness of Cassius, the fickleness of the mob, and the              
inevitable march of Roman history from a republic to a monarchy.            
  You can also see Brutus as a windbag- an unfeeling, self-righteous        
bore who cloaks his evil deeds in high principles and plunges his           
country into civil war.                                                     
  Which is the "real" Brutus? It depends in part on whether you             
think the assassination was necessary. It also depends on whether           
you think Brutus uses language to convey the truth, or to hide from         
it. Take these lines of his:                                                
-                                                                           
              For let the gods so speed me, as I love                       
              The name of honor more than I fear death.                     
                                    Act I, Scene ii, lines 88-89            
-                                                                           
  Brutus thinks he is telling the truth- but is he? Would a truly           
honorable man need to call attention to his honor?                          
  One point is indisputable: Brutus believes in his principles, and         
his principles do, to some extent, control his behavior. He stands          
apart from all the other characters in the way he is influenced by          
ideas, rather than by feelings or the wish for personal gain.               
Cassius assassinates Caesar because he is jealous of him; Brutus            
acts only for what he considers the best interests of the state.            
Antony is a man of action who pauses only to consider the best way          
of getting from A to B; Brutus is a man of ideas who weighs his             
behavior in terms of Right and Wrong. Antony believes that brute            
strength and passion rule the world, and manipulates people                 
accordingly; Brutus believes that reason rules the world, and that          
people can be swayed by the power of truth and logic. Cassius and           
Antony see life as a game or competition in which rewards go to the         
strongest or swiftest; Brutus sees life as a confrontation of ideas in      
which rewards go to the just. He is such a private and                      
self-contained man that he won't even share the news of his wife's          
death with his good friend Cassius.                                         
  Brutus is high-minded, but his principles do not seem to prepare him      
very well for dealing with a corrupt world. He cannot recognize             
motives that are less noble than his own, and is therefore preyed upon      
by unscrupulous politicians. As Cassius himself says behind Brutus'         
back:                                                                       
-                                                                           
            Well, Brutus, thou art noble; yet I see                         
            Thy honorable mettle may be wrought                             
            From that it is disposed; therefore it is meet                  
            That noble minds keep ever with their likes;                    
            For who so from that cannot be seduced?                         
                                  Act I, Scene ii, lines 308-312            
-                                                                           
  Brutus' principles force him to spare Antony's life and to let            
Antony speak at Caesar's funeral. His own speech lacks power (compared      
to Antony's) because he assumes that people can be led by reason. An        
honorable man, he uses language to communicate the truth rather than        
to stir up the emotions of the people; he doesn't understand that           
people want to be led- if not by Caesar, then by someone else.              
  Some readers see Brutus as a bookish man who can function only in         
a world of ideas. True, he is not much of a politician; but is it fair      
to describe him as a man whose head is in the clouds? Cassius, after        
all, is constantly asking and taking his advice. It is Brutus who           
calls for action and who takes the offensive at Philippi; and it is         
Brutus, not Antony, who wins the battle. Brutus does make some              
unwise decisions, but does that mean he is incapable of functioning in      
the world?                                                                  
  Almost all the characters in Julius Caesar struggle to be better          
than they are, and Brutus is no exception. He, too, falls short of his      
ideals. Although he insists on living by the loftiest principles,           
Cassius gets him to join the conspiracy by flattering him and               
appealing to his sense of family pride.                                     
  Brutus tries to live by reason alone, yet he cannot sleep at              
night, and is so plagued by a guilty conscience that Caesar's ghost         
appears to him in a dream. In his argument with Cassius, Brutus is          
reduced to a squabbling child- perhaps because he is mad with grief         
(though he tries not to show it) over the death of his wife. In the         
end Brutus takes his own life, in violation of his Stoic philosophy,        
which demands that he accept whatever fate holds in store for him.          
Is Brutus a hero, then- or is he a villain? Let's look at him in            
both lights.                                                                
-                                                                           
  1. Brutus is a man who cares more about principles than people-           
who uses principles to justify the murder of a friend. He is so             
blinded by ideals that he cannot see into his own heart, or                 
recognize the needs of the world. He is a moral snob who dislikes           
debate or compromise and always insists on getting his own way.             
  This Brutus knows exactly what Cassius is up to, but lets himself be      
led in order to keep his own hands clean. He is a hypocrite who             
hides behind lofty principles and pretty phrases. Despite his               
reputation for honor, he is easily flattered and concerned about his        
reputation. His pride causes him to dismiss Cicero- a potential rival-      
even though Cicero is the greatest orator of the times.                     
  In his refusal to accept his human limitations, Brutus is as vain         
and dangerous as Caesar.                                                    
-                                                                           
  2. Brutus is simply too noble for the world he lives in. He               
sacrifices his friend Caesar to do what is best for his country. He         
remains faithful to his principles to the end. Everyone, even               
Caesar, admires him and seeks his friendship. He is a tragic figure         
only because he tries to be better than he can, and falls.                  
  Hero or villain- could Brutus possibly be both? Does the world            
need more men of principle, or less? Shakespeare forces us to ask           
these questions, but lets us find answers for ourselves.                    
-                                                                           
  CASSIUS                                                                   
  There are many sides to Cassius. This makes him difficult to pin          
down or sum up in a phrase- but it also makes him true to life.             
  Here are two opinions of Cassius. From Caesar:                            
-                                                                           
             Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;                       
             He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.                    
                                  Act I, Scene ii, lines 194-195            
-                                                                           
  From Brutus:                                                              
-                                                                           
             The last of all the Romans, fare thee well!                    
             It is impossible that ever Rome                                
             Should breed thy fellow [equal].                               
                                  Act V, Scene iii, lines 99-101            
-                                                                           
  Both judgments are true- and false, for Cassius is different men          
to different people. Depending on how a person treats him, he can be        
loving or ruthless, gentle or hard, passionate or aloof. One moment he      
is deceiving his dear friend Brutus; the next, he is craving affection      
from him.                                                                   
  When we first meet Cassius, he is busy lying, flattering, forging         
letters, subverting the principles of his good friend Brutus. Caesar's      
opinion of him seems right on target. He's not motivated by the best        
interests of Rome, but by the desire for revenge on a man who               
doesn't like him, Jealousy moves him- jealousy of the fame and power        
of a man he considers no more worthy than himself.                          
  Caesar calls Cassius a "lean and hungry" man, and you may want to         
take this as the final word on Cassius and interpret all his actions        
in this light. But Caesar's verdict is not the only one. Cassius' love      
for Brutus, for instance, seems quite genuine- particularly after           
the assassination. Cassius has many admirers and friends who are            
willing to fight and die for him. After the argument with Brutus,           
Cassius shows good-natured tolerance for the Poet. As death                 
approaches, Cassius realizes that he is not the measure of all things,      
and that there are forces at work in the universe beyond his                
understanding and control. He takes his life, not because he has            
lost the battle, but because he believes (mistakenly) that he has           
caused the death of a friend.                                               
  Almost everything Cassius says and does, both before and after the        
assassination, can be interpreted as a direct, emotional reaction to        
people. He responds to people as Brutus responds to ideas. Whether          
he is conspiring to kill Caesar or asking for Brutus' love, Cassius is      
motivated by a boyish need for affection, and by a boyish hatred of         
those who refuse it. His reasons for killing Caesar seem to be              
strictly personal. Caesar, his close boyhood friend, has rejected him.      
"Caesar doth bear me hard," he says- Caesar bears a grudge against          
me and therefore must be destroyed.                                         
  When Cassius meets Brutus, he is disturbed by the absence of "that        
gentleness / And show of love as I was wont [accustomed] to have" (Act      
I, Scene ii, lines 33-34). In the quarrel scene, Cassius tells Brutus,      
like a pouting child, "You love me not" (Act IV, Scene iii, line            
88). What upsets Cassius most are not Brutus' accusations but the fact      
that Brutus does not have "love enough" to bear with him.                   
  Cassius' spitefulness and his craving for affection are childlike.        
He seems genuinely perplexed that Caesar, a man no stronger than            
himself, could become so powerful. He behaves like a boy who discovers      
that his idol has clay feet, and destroys it rather than live with its      
imperfections. "Such men as he be never at heart's ease" (Act I, Scene      
ii, line 208), says Caesar.                                                 
  If you reread Cassius' speech against Caesar (Act I, Scene ii, lines      
90-161), you'll see how Cassius equates worthiness with such                
traditionally masculine traits as physical strength and endurance.          
Perhaps because he has so little sense of himself, and of his own           
worth, he suffers from a sensitive ego, and measures himself not            
against some abstract standards of right and wrong (as Brutus does),        
but against others.                                                         
  Cassius blames himself for giving Caesar so much power:                   
-                                                                           
             The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,                   
             But in ourselves, that we are underlings.                      
                                  Act I, Scene ii, lines 140-141            
-                                                                           
  These are the words of a spiritual outcast, who sees himself alone        
in the universe. Only as death nears does Cassius recognize himself as      
part of a divine plan, and achieve some measure of peace.                   
  Cassius, we learn from Caesar, "hears no music." Here's what Lorenzo      
in Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice says about his type:           
-                                                                           
            The man that hath no music in himself,                          
            Nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet sounds,                  
            Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils;                    
            The motions of his spirit are dull as night,                    
            And his affections dark as Erebus.                              
            Let no such man be trusted                                      
                                     Act V, Scene i, lines 83-88            
-                                                                           
  To Shakespeare, an inability to hear music was, quite literally,          
an inability to hear the harmonies of the universe. The fact that           
Cassius hears no music does not in itself make him evil, but it does        
reveal a lack of inner harmony, and a restlessness that can never be        
satisfied.                                                                  
  Cassius and Caesar are enemies in life, but the two are almost            
indistinguishable at the moment of death. Both let their masks slip,        
and reveal the gentleness that lies beneath. At this moment of              
truth, there is no masculine talk of revenge- no war cries or               
curses- but a simple lament for the betrayal of friends.                    
-                                                                           
  ANTONY                                                                    
  There are many "Antonys." One of them is passionate and impulsive;        
the other is in complete control of his emotions. One can cry over the      
death of his dear friend Caesar; the other condemns his associates          
to death without batting an eyelash. One makes a powerful political         
speech with perfect understanding of human nature; the other can be so      
mistaken about human nature that he calls Cassius "not dangerous."          
  Can such opposites exist within the same man? It's possible that          
Shakespeare couldn't make up his mind about Antony, and painted an          
unfinished portrait of him. It's also possible that Shakespeare was         
trying to portray the many sides of an opportunist. An opportunist          
is a person who adjusts his values to suit his purposes; who uses           
people and events to get what he wants, regardless of principles or         
consequences. If Antony is such a man, it is understandable that, like      
a chameleon, he would change colors from one moment to the next.            
  How different Antony is from Brutus! Brutus stands behind his             
principles, refusing to be swayed by circumstance; Antony never lets        
principles stand in the way of success. Brutus' conscience keeps him        
up at night; tactics, manoeuvres, schemes- these are what concern           
Antony.                                                                     
  A modern man, Antony takes the world as he finds it and uses              
whatever means are necessary to get what he wants. Life for him is a        
game- serious, but a game nonetheless- and he is a skillful player who      
knows how to win.                                                           
  Antony is an opportunist, yes, but is he evil? Look closely at his        
words and actions, and you can find evidence to support that point          
of view. In his famous funeral oration, for instance, nothing could be      
more offensive than the way he fires up the masses by appealing to          
their basest emotions. And nothing could be more irresponsible than         
the way he unleases the "dogs of war"- bringing death and                   
destruction to innocent and guilty alike.                                   
  Antony is cynical, callous and unprincipled, yet he is motivated not      
by personal ambition but by the desire to revenge the death of a            
friend. His almost dog-like devotion to Caesar reveals a deep capacity      
for loyalty and affection. He is cunning, but, unlike Brutus,               
completely honest with himself. He may manipulate people, but he            
speaks with conviction, and what he says is deeply felt. His funeral        
oration is more effective than Brutus' because he speaks from the           
heart.                                                                      
  In the end, Antony (with Octavius' help), triumphs. Is Shakespeare        
suggesting that realists like Antony are the hope of the future?            
Perhaps Shakespeare is merely pointing out that Antony and his kind         
are more likely to succeed in a world as imperfect as the one we            
live in.                                                                    
-                                                                           
  OCTAVIUS                                                                  
  Octavius- Caesar's adopted son- is more important a character than        
his appearances (only four) and his lines (only 30) would indicate,         
since the fate of Rome rests in his hands after the death of the            
conspirators. From such limited information, we have to decide whether      
Rome has been left in good hands.                                           
  What we should be able to agree on is this: Octavius is a capable         
soldier who accomplishes the work at hand by whatever means are needed      
to achieve it. Honorable men like Brutus can be dangerous; perhaps          
Rome needs pragmatists like Octavius to reestablish order.                  
  The first time Octavius appears (Act IV, Scene i, line 2) he is busy      
checking off names of people who must die- including the brother of         
his friend Lepidus. Is he a cold-blooded murderer, then? Perhaps.           
But he is also a hardened soldier, who knows that it is sometimes           
necessary to sacrifice individuals for the sake of victory. Like            
Brutus, he kills for what he considers the greater good; but, unlike        
Brutus, he has no qualms about it.                                          
  Moments later (Act IV, Scene i, lines 27-28), Octavius tries to save      
Lepidus' life. Since he showed no mercy to Lepidus' brother, we can         
assume he is not just being a good guy, but that he recognizes the          
practical value of having a "tried and valiant soldier" in his ranks.       
  Yet Octavius lets Antony decide Lepidus' fate. Is this a sign of          
weakness? Or is it the wise decision of a practical man, who knows the      
issue isn't worth fighting over?                                            
  The second time Octavius appears (Act V, Scene i, lines 1-20), he         
ignores Antony's wishes and insists on keeping his forces to the right      
side of the battlefield. "I do not cross you," he tells Antony, "but I      
will do so." Octavius seems to be behaving like a willful young             
Caesar, insisting on his natural right to rule. Whether his tone is         
spiteful, or firm but polite, you'll have to decide for yourself.           
  Only moments later (line 24), Octavius asks Antony if they should         
attack, and this time he gives in to Antony's wishes. Once again            
you'll have to decide: is Octavius incapable of important decisions-        
or is he simply smart enough to listen to someone with more                 
experience?                                                                 
  The four generals now confront each other before the battle (lines        
27-66)- Octavius and Antony on one side, Brutus and Cassius on the          
other. Antony, Brutus and Cassius squabble like children- only              
Octavius keeps his perspective. "Come, come, the cause," he says-           
let's keep our sights on what's important and get to the matter at          
hand.                                                                       
  The third time we see Octavius (Act V, scene v, line 60), he              
offers to take all of Brutus' men into his service. This may be an act      
of charity, but from what we know of Octavius, he is probably               
motivated by the practical need to end the war and bring both sides         
together under his single rule. His intentions may not matter so            
much as the fact that he is trying to end the bloodshed and                 
reestablish order.                                                          
  As the successor to Caesar, Octavius is given the final words of the      
play. It is as a soldier, not as a noble man, that Octavius praises         
Brutus, for nobility is a quality Octavius seems indifferent to. His        
tribute to Brutus may not be genuine- he is probably only doing what        
is expected of him- but whatever his motives, he seems to have no           
interest in revenge. His desire to reunite the country bodes well           
for the future of Rome.                                                     
  (The historic Octavius did restore order. He also restored the            
Republic- but more in name than in fact. The Senate retained its forms      
and privileges, but the power resided in Octavius, who controlled           
the army. In 27 B.C. Antony took the name of Augustus and became the        
first Roman Emperor. Shakespeare portrays him principally as a              
soldier, yet during his reign he became more interested in peace            
than in war, and his rule became known as the golden age of Roman           
literature and architecture.)                                               
-                                                                           
  PORTIA                                                                    
  There are two ways to view Portia. Let's look at them.                    
-                                                                           
  1. Portia is often seen today as a champion of women's rights- a          
feminist living nearly four centuries ahead of her time.                    
  According to this view, Portia is a woman who demands equality            
with her husband. She insists on being treated as an individual, not        
as an object or an idea. She speaks of herself and Brutus as "one"          
(Act II, Scene i, lines 261-278), and of Brutus himself as "your self,      
your half." She demands to know his secret, however painful it may be.      
She will not be condescended to; she will not be treated as a child.        
  This Portia is strong-willed but modest, dignified but tender. She        
is one of the few characters in the play who uses language to               
communicate the truth rather than to hide from it. She has an innate        
sense of wisdom that lets her see through words to the very heart of        
things. (When Brutus attributes his moodiness to bad health, for            
instance, Portia immediately knows he is lying to protect her.) Though      
Portia is high-minded and independent, she is also a loving and             
devoted wife, who kills herself rather than live alone.                     
-                                                                           
  2. That is one view of Portia- there is another.                          
  According to this less flattering view, Portia makes the mistake          
of trying to be more than a woman, fails miserably, and brings about        
her own destruction.                                                        
  Portia points proudly to her self-inflicted wound (Act II, Scene          
i, lines 299-302) to prove to Brutus just how capable she is of             
functioning in a world of men. She also prides herself on being the         
daughter of Cato, a man famous for his integrity, who took his own          
life rather than be taken prisoner (in the civil war between Caesar         
and Pompey). Says Portia:                                                   
-                                                                           
               Think you I am no stronger than my sex,                      
               Being so fathered and so husbanded?                          
                                  Act II, Scene i, lines 296-297            
-                                                                           
  Brutus takes her at her word, confides his secret to her, and what        
happens? Portia goes mad with grief, and eventually takes her own           
life.                                                                       
  Portia's mistake is to confuse her private self with her public           
image as Cato's daughter. Like Brutus and Caesar, she tries to live up      
to her name and be someone she is not- with disastrous results. In her      
death- as in Brutus' and Caesar's- we see the danger of wearing a           
public mask, and forgetting whom we are underneath.                         
  Note that Portia wants to be Brutus' equal only so that she can be        
more a part of his life; nowhere does she suggest that she expects him      
to be part of hers. The very fact of losing him drives her mad. Portia      
thus sums herself up best:                                                  
-                                                                           
                          Ay me, how weak a thing                           
                    The heart of woman is!                                  
                                   Act II, Scene iv, lines 39-40            
-                                                                           
  Is this Shakespeare's unhappy view of women, and the final word on        
Portia? Or are the other critics right- the ones who see her as the         
ideal, modern woman, who dies for love?                                     
  Either interpretation can be correct- depending on how you choose to      
view her.                                                                   
-                                                                           
  CALPURNIA                                                                 
  Caesar's wife speaks only 26 lines, so we never get to know her very      
well.                                                                       
  There are at least two ways to view her- one of them more flattering      
than the other.                                                             
  On one hand, she is undignified, nervous, and weak. She is also           
superstitious and haunted by unreasonable fears, and Caesar cannot          
be blamed for treating her like a child.                                    
  On the other hand, Calpurnia is a devoted wife- as concerned about        
Caesar's well-being as Portia is about Brutus'. True, she has               
strange dreams, but all of them come true. Perhaps in her intuitive,        
female way she is closer to the truth than Caesar.                          
  Whichever way you view Calpurnia, you will have to admit that her         
relationship with Caesar is less than ideal.                                
  Calpurnia's talk with Caesar follows closely on Portia's meeting          
with Brutus, as if Shakespeare were drawing attention to the                
differences between the two relationships.                                  
  Portia greets her husband with respect as "my lord" (Act II, Scene        
i, line 234). She may be flattering him to get what she wants, but she      
at least follows the forms of courtesy. Brutus is as concerned about        
her health as she is about his.                                             
  How does Calpurnia greet Caesar? With an order:                           
-                                                                           
                   Think you to walk forth?                                 
             You shall not stir out of your house today.                    
                                      Act II, Scene i, lines 8-9            
-                                                                           
  And Caesar replies:                                                       
-                                                                           
             Caesar shall forth.                                            
-                                                                           
  Calpurnia is foolish enough to turn her request into a battle of          
wills. She makes the mistake of treating her husband in public as           
the mortal he is; and Caesar, to preserve his public image, has to          
take a stand against her.                                                   
  Caesar, of course, has been equally tactless or unfeeling-                
announcing to all the world (Act I, Scene ii, lines 6-9) that his wife      
is sterile.                                                                 
  Can you blame a wife for treating her husband as a mortal and not as      
a god? The fact that she can see the man behind the mask points up her      
strength- or her weakness.                                                  
                                                                            
SETTING                                                                     
                            OTHER ELEMENTS                                  
-                                                                           
                               SETTING                      (SJULSETT)      
-                                                                           
  All scenes through Act IV, Scene i are set in Rome. Act IV, Scenes        
ii and iii, take place near Sardis in Asia Minor. All of Act V is           
set near the plains of Philippi in Greece. The play begins on February      
15, 44 B.C., on the Feast of Lupercal; continues through the                
assassination of Caesar a month later; and concludes with the Battle        
of Philippi in 42 B.C., when Brutus and Cassius commit suicide and          
Caesar's heir, Octavius, assumes power. Shakespeare, of course, was         
a dramatist, not a playwright, and in order to preserve the dramatic        
unity of the action he telescoped a period of three years into six          
days.                                                                       
                                                                            
THEMES                                                                      
                                THEMES                      (SJULTHEM)      
-                                                                           
  Here is a list of the major themes of Julius Caesar. They will be         
studied in depth in the scene-by-scene discussion of the play.              
Notice that some themes contradict each other- since critics disagree,      
it's up to you to decide which ones are true. This book will help           
you find evidence to support your position.                                 
-                                                                           
  1. A PORTRAIT OF CAESAR OR OF BRUTUS                                      
-                                                                           
  Caesar                                                                    
  The play is a portrait of Caesar- why else would Shakespeare name         
the play after him? Though Caesar is killed in the third act, his           
spirit- what he stands for- dominates the action of the play until          
Brutus' death, and then is reborn in the person of Octavius.                
-                                                                           
  Brutus                                                                    
  The play is a portrait of Brutus- why else would Shakespeare end the      
play with Brutus' death, and with the opposition's tributes to him?         
Brutus is studied in greater depth than any other character, and the        
action of the play revolves around his role in the assassination.           
Shakespeare called his play Julius Caesar only because he was               
writing about the period in Roman history when Caesar reigned.              
-                                                                           
  2. FRIENDSHIP                                                             
  Friendship is at the center of Shakespeare's vision of an ordered,        
harmonious world. Disloyalty and distrust cause this world to crumble.      
Relationships suffer when people put their principles ahead of their        
affections, and when they let their roles as public officials               
interfere with their private lives. As death approaches, characters         
forget their worldly ambitions, and speak about the loyalty of              
friends.                                                                    
-                                                                           
  3. LANGUAGE                                                               
  We think of language as a way of sharing our thoughts and                 
feelings, and of communicating the truth; but in Julius Caesar              
people use language to disguise their thoughts and feelings, and to         
distort the truth. Language is used to humiliate and flatter. Words         
are powerful weapons that turn evil into good and throw an entire           
country into civil war.                                                     
-                                                                           
  4. A STUDY OF HISTORY                                                     
  Shakespeare is dramatizing an important period in Roman history,          
when Rome developed from a republic (with a representative form of          
government) to a monarchy (with a single ruler). He is not blaming          
or praising anyone, but objectively portraying the major factors            
that contributed to this development: Caesar's ambition; the                
frustrations of a weakened and divided Senate; and the needs and            
wishes of the Roman people.                                                 
-                                                                           
  5. THE PRIVATE LIVES OF PUBLIC FIGURES                                    
  We like to think that our political heroes are free from ordinary         
human weaknesses. Shakespeare reminds us that behind their masks of         
fame are mortals like the rest of us- with the same prejudices,             
physical handicaps, hopes, and fears. When these public figures try to      
live up to their own self-images, they bring destruction on                 
themselves, and on the world.                                               
-                                                                           
  6. FATE AND THE SUPERNATURAL                                              
  A sense of fate hangs over the events in Julius Caesar- a sense that      
the assassination is inevitable and that the fortunes of the                
characters have been determined in advance. The characters are foolish      
to ignore prophecies and omens, which invariably come true; yet they        
are free to act as though the future were unknown. They are the             
playthings of powers they can neither understand nor control, yet they      
are held accountable for everything they do.                                
-                                                                           
  7. PRAGMATISTS AND MEN OF PRINCIPLE                                       
  Shakespeare is comparing two types of people: the man of fixed moral      
standards, who expects others to be as honorable as himself; and the        
pragmatist, who accepts the world for what it is and does everything        
necessary to achieve his goals. The pragmatist is less admirable,           
but more effective. Shakespeare is either (a) pointing out the              
uselessness of morals and principles in a corrupt world, or (b)             
dramatizing the tragedy of a noble man destroyed by a world less            
perfect than he is.                                                         
-                                                                           
  8. THE ASSASSINATION                                                      
-                                                                           
  The Murder Is Just                                                        
  A ruler forfeits his right to rule when he oversteps the                  
heaven-appointed limits to his power. Caesar deserves to die on two         
counts: first, he considers himself an equal to the gods; and               
second, he threatens to underline hundreds of years of republican           
(representative) rule. Brutus sacrifices his life to preserve the           
freedom of the people, and to save his country from the clutches of         
a tyrant.                                                                   
-                                                                           
  The Murder Is Unjust                                                      
  Shakespeare's contemporaries respected strong rulers, who could           
check the dangerous impulses of the masses and protect their country        
from civil war. They believed that order and stability were worth           
preserving at any price. Shakespeare's play may therefore be a warning      
against the use of violence to overthrow authority. The                     
assassination destroys nothing but the conspirators themselves,             
since Caesar's spirit lives on in the hearts of the people.                 
                                                                            
STYLE                                                                       
                                STYLE                       (SJULSTYL)      
-                                                                           
  There's not much poetry in Julius Caesar. Perhaps because the action      
takes place in Rome, the characters all seem to speak like orators. On      
the battlefield, or even with friends, they're always making speeches!      
Read some of the longer ones aloud; you'll see how alike everyone           
sounds, how everyone speaks clearly and simply and says exactly what        
he thinks. The men in Shakespeare's play are politicians who avoid          
flowery language and metaphor; they express themselves often in             
one-syllable words strung together in simple, declarative sentences.        
This is the language of people who are- or who try to be- in control        
of their emotions, and who use words not to create beauty, but to           
manipulate each other and to get things done. Shakespeare may be using      
language to mirror the restrained and formal mood of classical Rome.        
Perhaps, too, he wants to show how people use language to mask their        
feelings from themselves and from others. As readers, we have to            
look beneath these masks and ask ourselves: who are these people? what      
do they really think, and what are they really saying?                      
                                                                            
SOURCES                                                                     
                               SOURCES                      (SJULSOUR)      
-                                                                           
  Shakespeare found his basic material for Julius Caesar in The             
Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, written by a Greek named            
Plutarch in the first century after Christ. Plutarch, like                  
Shakespeare, wrote history as a guide for his contemporaries. It's not      
surprising that Shakespeare was attracted to Plutarch, for Plutarch         
was more a biographer than an historian, and his tales are full of          
wonderful dramatic touches.                                                 
  Shakespeare did not read Plutarch in Greek. The Lives was translated      
into French by Jacques Amyet in 1559 and then from French into English      
by Sir Thomas North in 1579. That was 20 years before the first             
production of Julius Caesar.                                                
  Plutarch wrote separate biographies of Julius Caesar, Brutus, and         
Antony, and often gives three different accounts of the same events.        
It's fun to read these biographies today to see which accounts              
Shakespeare followed, which he ignored, and which he transformed for        
his own dramatic purposes. At times Shakespeare lifted material             
directly from Plutarch. Shakespeare's Caesar, for example, says:            
-                                                                           
             Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look,                       
             He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.                    
                                  Act I, Scene ii, lines 194-195            
-                                                                           
  Notice how close that is to Plutarch's version:                           
-                                                                           
  Caesar also had Cassius in great jealousy and suspected him much,         
whereupon he said on a time to his friends: "What will Cassius do,          
think ye? I like not his pale looks."                                       
-                                                                           
  Plutarch's Brutus can do nothing wrong. Some of you will want to          
argue that Shakespeare thought less of Brutus; others will want to          
quote Plutarch to prove that Shakespeare's Brutus was indeed a noble        
man.                                                                        
  As for Caesar, Plutarch's portrait is close to Shakespeare's: a           
ruler guilty of great pride and ambition, but also a benefactor of the      
people.                                                                     
  Shakespeare's portrait of Caesar may also have been influenced by         
Elizabethan attitudes toward him. Some saw Caesar as a hero; others,        
as a tyrant and a traitor. Shakespeare may have enjoyed exploiting          
these differences, playing them against each other without ever             
resolving them. Shakespeare may also have drawn Caesar's portrait from      
the vain and boastful heroes (such as Tamburlaine) brought to life          
on stage during his lifetime.                                               
                                                                            
HISTORICAL_NOTE                                                             
                          AN HISTORICAL NOTE                (SJULHIST)      
-                                                                           
  When you think of Senators, you naturally think of elected                
representatives of the people. But in ancient Rome the Senate was made      
up of wealthy aristocrats and conservatives who sought to defend their      
ancient privileges. Caesar was a reformer who wanted to reduce the          
power of the Senate, and to share their lands and privileges with           
the common people.                                                          
  Both Senators and reformers looked to the generals for support.           
Pompey represented the interests of the Senators,- Caesar defended the      
reformers. In 47 B.C. Caesar crossed the Rubican and defeated               
Pompey; two years later he defeated Pompey's sons in Egypt. No              
wonder the Roman officers Flavius and Marullus (Act I, Scene i) are         
upset by Caesar's triumphant return from battle! And no wonder the          
common people are overjoyed! Caesar may have wanted to be king or           
dictator, but it was he, not the Senators, who had the interests of         
the people at heart. Perhaps that's why in Shakespeare's play we never      
see Caesar depriving the Romans of their civil liberties, or the            
Senators discussing what they'll do for the people of Rome once Caesar      
is destroyed.                                                               
                                                                            
ELIZABETHAN_ENGLISH                                                         
                         ELIZABETHAN ENGLISH                (SJULELIZ)      
-                                                                           
  All languages change. Differences in pronunciation and word choice        
are apparent even between parents and their children. If language           
differences can appear in one generation, it is only to be expected         
that the English used by Shakespeare four hundred years ago will            
diverge markedly from the English used today. The following                 
information on Shakespeare's language will help a modern reader to a        
fuller understanding of Julius Caesar.                                      
-                                                                           
  MOBILITY OF WORD CLASSES                                                  
  Adjectives, nouns and verbs were less rigidly confined to particular      
classes in Shakespeare's day. Verbs were often used as nouns. In Act        
II, Scene ii, line 16 'watch' is used to mean 'watchmen':                   
-                                                                           
            There is one within...                                          
            Recounts most horrid sights seen by the watch.                  
-                                                                           
  Nouns could be used as adjectives as when cross is used to mean           
crossed or forked:                                                          
-                                                                           
           And when the cross blue lightning seemed to open                 
           The breast of heaven... (I, iii, 50)                             
-                                                                           
  and as verbs as when 'joy' is used to mean 'rejoice':                     
-                                                                           
                    My heart doth joy (V, v, 34).                           
-                                                                           
  Adjectives could be used as adverbs:                                      
-                                                                           
         ...thou couldst not die more honourable (V, i, 60),                
-                                                                           
  as nouns:                                                                 
-                                                                           
        I'll about                                                          
        And drive away the vulgar from the streets (I, i, 72)               
-                                                                           
  'Vulgar' is the equivalent of 'common people'.                            
-                                                                           
  CHANGES IN WORD MEANING                                                   
  The meanings of words undergo changes, a process that can be              
illustrated by the fact that 'chip' extended its meaning from a             
small piece of wood to a small piece of silicon. Many of the words          
in Shakespeare still exist today but their meanings have changed.           
The change may be small, as in the case of 'modestly' meaning 'without      
exaggeration' in:                                                           
-                                                                           
         I your glass                                                       
         Will modestly discover to yourself... (I, ii, 68-69)               
-                                                                           
  or more fundamental, so that 'naughty' meant 'worthless' (I, i, 15),      
'tributaries' meant 'conquered rulers who paid tribute' (I, i, 35),         
'shadow' meant 'reflection' (I, ii, 58), 'speed' meant 'prosper' (I,        
ii, 88), 'temper' meant 'constitution' (I, ii, 129) and 'sad' meant         
'serious':                                                                  
-                                                                           
              ...Casca, tell us what hath chanced today                     
              That Caesar looks so sad. (I, ii, 217)                        
-                                                                           
  VOCABULARY LOSS                                                           
  Words not only change their meanings, but are frequently discarded        
from the language. In the past, 'leman' meant 'sweetheart', 'regiment'      
meant 'government', and 'fond' meant 'foolish'. The following words         
used in Julius Caesar are no longer current in English but their            
meanings can usually be gauged from the contexts in which they occur.       
-                                                                           
    FAIN (I, ii, 239): willingly, gladly                                    
    AN (I, ii, 262): if                                                     
    RIVED (I, iii, 6): split                                                
    THUNDERSTONE (I, iii, 49): thunderbolt                                  
    ORDINANCE (I, iii, 66): natural order                                   
    FACTIOUS (I, iii, 118): active                                          
    SPURN (II, i, 11): strike, hit                                          
    EXHALATIONS (II, i, 44): meteors                                        
    PHANTASMA (II, i, 65): nightmare                                        
    MOE (II, i, 72): more                                                   
    PALTER (II, i, 126): deceive                                            
    CHARACTERY (II, i, 308): the things that are written                    
    MORTIFIED (II, i, 324): dead                                            
    AGUE (II, ii, 113): severe fever                                        
    SCHEDULE (III, i, 3): scroll                                            
    BAYED (III, i, 204): hunted until caught                                
    MARRED (III, ii, 194): mutilated                                        
    BELIKE (III, ii, 268): perhaps, it seems like                           
    MART (IV, iii, 11): market, bargain                                     
    VAUNTING (IV, iii, 52): boasting                                        
    INDIRECTION (IV, iii, 75): crooked deals                                
    BETIMES (IV, iii, 308): from time to time                               
    PROPER (V, iii, 96): own                                                
    IS CHANCED (V, iv, 32): turns out, happens                              
    SMATCH (V, v, 46): touch, small amount                                  
-                                                                           
  VERBS                                                                     
  Shakespearean verb forms differ from modern usage in three main           
ways:                                                                       
-                                                                           
  1. Questions and negatives could be formed without using 'do/did' as      
when Brutus asks:                                                           
-                                                                           
                     What mean you? (II, i, 234)                            
-                                                                           
  where today we would say: 'What do you mean?' or when Portia              
instructs Lucius:                                                           
-                                                                           
                  Stay not to answer me (II, iii, 2)                        
-                                                                           
  where modern usage demands: 'Do not stay to answer me'.                   
Shakespeare had the option of using forms a. and b. whereas                 
contemporary usage permits only the a. forms:                               
-                                                                           
                  a.                            b.                          
-                                                                           
             Do you know?                    Know you?                      
             Did you know?                   Knew you?                      
             I do not know                   I know not.                    
             I did not know                  I knew not.                    
-                                                                           
  2. A number of past participles and past tense forms are used             
which would be ungrammatical today. Among these are:                        
-                                                                           
  'took' for 'take':                                                        
-                                                                           
       Where I have took them up (II, i, 50);                               
-                                                                           
  'untrod' for 'untrodden':                                                 
-                                                                           
       Through the hazards of this untrod state (III, i, 136);              
-                                                                           
  'strucken' for 'struck':                                                  
-                                                                           
       How like a deer, strucken by many princes                            
       Dost thou lie here (III, i, 209-210);                                
-                                                                           
  'forgot' for 'forgotten':                                                 
-                                                                           
       You have forgot the will I told you of (III, ii, 236);               
-                                                                           
  and 'are rid' for 'have ridden':                                          
-                                                                           
       Brutus and Cassius                                                   
       Are rid like madmen through the gates of Rome (III, ii,              
           265-266).                                                        
-                                                                           
  3. Archaic verb forms sometimes occur with 'thou' and with                
'he/she/it':                                                                
-                                                                           
     Shamest thou to show thy dangerous brows by night (II, i, 78);         
     Thou hast some suit to Caesar (II, iv, 27);                            
     When the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept (III, ii, 88).              
-                                                                           
  PRONOUNS                                                                  
  Shakespeare and his contemporaries had one extra pronoun 'thou' that      
could be used in addressing a person who was one's equal or social          
inferior. 'You' was obligatory when more than one person was                
addressed, as when Caesar told the conspirators:                            
-                                                                           
     I could be well moved, if I were as you;                               
     If I could pray to move, prayers would move me (III, i, 58-59)         
-                                                                           
  but it could also be used to indicate respect, as when Antony             
recognizes the power of Octavius but reminds him:                           
-                                                                           
     Octavius, I have seen more days than you (IV, i, 18).                  
-                                                                           
  Frequently, a person in power used 'thou' to a child or a                 
subordinate but was addressed 'you' in return, as when Portia speaks        
to Lucius:                                                                  
-                                                                           
    Portia: I prithee boy, run to the Senate House;                         
            Stay not to answer me, but get thee gone.                       
-                                                                           
    Lucius: Madam, what should I do?                                        
            Run to the Capitol, and nothing else?                           
            And so return to you... (II, iv, 1ff)                           
-                                                                           
  but if 'thou' was used inappropriately it could cause grave               
offence as when, just before the assassination, Brutus addresses            
Caesar:                                                                     
-                                                                           
  I kiss thy hand, but not in flattery Caesar (III, i, 52).                 
-                                                                           
  PREPOSITIONS                                                              
  Prepositions were less standardized in Elizabethan English than they      
are today and so we find several uses in Julius Caesar that would have      
to be modified in contemporary speech. Among these are: 'on' for            
'of' in:                                                                    
-                                                                           
       And be not jealous on me, gentle Brutus (I, ii, 71);                 
-                                                                           
  'on' for 'at' in:                                                         
-                                                                           
       If Caesar carelessly but nod on him (I, ii, 118);                    
-                                                                           
  'in' for 'from' in:                                                       
-                                                                           
       There is no fear in fear in him (i.e., There is nothing to           
           fear from him) (II, i, 190);                                     
-                                                                           
  'off' for 'down' in:                                                      
-                                                                           
       How to cut off some charges some charges in legacies (IV, i,         
           9);                                                              
-                                                                           
  and 'of' where today we should not require a preposition:                 
-                                                                           
       And then I swore thee, saving of they life (V, iii, 38).             
-                                                                           
  MULTIPLE NEGATION                                                         
  Contemporary English requires only one negative per statement and         
regards such utterances as "I haven't none" as nonstandard.                 
Shakespeare often used two or more negatives for emphasis as when           
Brutus insisted:                                                            
-                                                                           
              There is no harm intended to your person,                     
              Nor to no Roman else (III, i, 90-91).                         
                                                                            
VIEW                                                                        
                            POINT OF VIEW                   (SJULVIEW)      
-                                                                           
  Shakespeare's characters are too true-to-life to be pinned down in a      
phrase. They behave differently with different people, showing sides        
of themselves to friends that they hide from enemies. They have public      
selves and private selves. They are neither good nor evil, but a            
mixture of qualities. They are often inconsistent and unpredictable-        
gentle and considerate one moment, harsh and thoughtless the next.          
Don't ask Shakespeare to tell you what to think about them- he              
breathes life into his characters and lets them go. The rest is up          
to you.                                                                     
                                                                            
FORM                                                                        
                          FORM AND STRUCTURE                (SJULFORM)      
-                                                                           
  The play tells a single story that moves chronologically forward          
from (a) the plot against Caesar, to (b) the assassination, to (c) the      
results of the assassination (the retribution). The assassination           
takes place in Act III- the middle of the play; everything leads up to      
that moment, and away from it.                                              
  As in most Shakespeare plays, the action begins with the breakdown        
of order. Caesar has defeated the sons of Pompey, and the Senators are      
plotting against their ruler. The natural laws that bind a leader to        
his people have broken down. The divine plan has been shattered. The        
result is much like a sickness that infects everyone and everything-        
the conspirators, the people of Rome, the heavens themselves. At the        
end of the play, the Roman state is exhausted by war but on its way to      
recovery. The sickness has been controlled, and order reestablished.        
  Some say that Julius Caesar is a poorly structured play because           
the main character (Caesar) dies halfway through the play. Others           
argue that even though Caesar dies, his spirit dominates the entire         
play: it is Caesar's spirit that takes revenge on the conspirators; it      
is Caesar's spirit that lives on in the hearts of the people, and in        
the person of Octavius.                                                     
  Caesar is well structured, even if you consider Brutus the main           
character, since the action begins with his involvement in the plot,        
and ends with his death and the eulogy over his body.                       
                                                                            
ACT_I|SCENE_I                                                               
                               THE PLAY                     (SJULPLAY)      
-                                                                           
                            ACT I, SCENE I                                  
-                                                                           
  The opening scene (1) sets up the central conflict of the play,           
(2) introduces Caesar, and (3) introduces the citizens of Rome.             
-                                                                           
  (1) THE CENTRAL CONFLICT                                                  
  Something is amiss. The common people, who should be working, are in      
their holiday clothes and honoring the man who slaughtered the sons of      
Pompey. Two Roman officers, Flavius and Marullus, are rebelling             
against their ruler. Their reasons may or may not be just, but one          
thing is certain: the natural laws that bind a leader to his people         
have broken down. The order of the Roman state has been shattered.          
  The problem is not just political. In Shakespeare's world, life           
moves according to a divine plan; everyone has a set role to play, and      
a set relationship to each other. When someone or something disrupts        
this order it brings the whole structure down. Friend turns against         
friend. The very heavens are offended, and show their displeasure.          
  Marullus tells the Commoners to pray to the gods not to send a            
plague on them:                                                             
-                                                                           
              Pray to the gods to intermit the plague                       
              That needs must light on this ingratitude.                    
                                     Act I, Scene i, lines 57-58            
-                                                                           
  Behind Marullus' words is the belief that supernatural forces             
watch over us and pass judgment on our behavior. Throughout the play        
we'll see these forces at work, and learn what happens to people who        
deny their power.                                                           
-                                                                           
  (2) CAESAR                                                                
  Caesar must be judged not only by what he says and does but by            
what others think of him. To the common people, he is a hero; to the        
two officers, he is a traitor to Rome.                                      
  Can we trust the judgment of the people? They seem neither to know        
nor to care about the man, and will accept anyone as their ruler, so        
long as he wins battles and gives them a day off from work.                 
  Marullus and Flavius accuse Caesar of seeking unlimited power, but        
it is the power itself that seems to offend them rather than                
anything specific Caesar has done with it. No mention is made of            
Caesar depriving citizens of their civil liberties.                         
-                                                                           
  (3) THE CITIZENS OF ROME                                                  
  Is Rome better off with a representative form of government or            
with a king? Is the assassination just or unjust? These are                 
questions that cannot be answered without studying the needs and            
wishes of the common people of Rome. Collectively they are as               
important a "character" as Cassius, Brutus or Caesar.                       
  If we can judge from the Cobbler (shoemaker), the Commoners like          
to pun and play. They are happy to have a holiday- whether to               
celebrate Caesar's return or Pompey's doesn't seem to matter much to        
them. They seem wrapped up in their own lives, less concerned with          
political issues than with having a day off from work. What                 
interests the Cobbler, for instance, is the fact that people will be        
wearing out their shoes and bringing him business.                          
  The people are easily manipulated. One moment they are gaily              
anticipating the festivities; the next, they are slinking away with         
shame. Says Marullus:                                                       
-                                                                           
             See, whe'r their basest mettle be not moved;                   
             They vanish tongue-tied in their guiltiness.                   
                                     Act I, Scene i, lines 64-65            
-                                                                           
  This is the first of many times during the play when people are           
manipulated by the power of language- the power of words.                   
  Do these people want or deserve a representative form of government?      
It doesn't seem so, for they lack the intelligence or interest to           
select rulers to represent them. What concerns them are the                 
trappings of greatness- the pageantry and the glory. They will have         
their Caesar- whoever he may be. Julius Caesar will be murdered to          
give these people freedom; but from what we see of them in Scene i,         
it's questionable whether freedom is what they want or need.                
                                                                            
ACT_I|SCENE_II                                                              
                           ACT I, SCENE II                                  
-                                                                           
  LINES 1-24                                                                
  In the first scene we saw Caesar through the eyes of others. Now          
we see the man himself, and can judge him by his own words and              
actions.                                                                    
  Caesar orders his wife about, as a king orders his subjects:              
-                                                                           
        Caesar.                                    Calpurnia!               
        Calpurnia. Here, my lord.                                           
        Caesar. Stand you directly in Antonius' way.                        
                                      Act I, Scene ii, lines 1-3            
-                                                                           
  Is Caesar wearing a public mask, or does he always greet his wife in      
such a cold and formal way?                                                 
  Caesar tells Antony to touch his wife during the race, so that she        
can "shake off" the "curse" of sterility. The public Caesar may             
consider himself a god, but the private man is superstitious. And           
how tactless, announcing before the world that your wife is sterile!        
Calpurnia doesn't respond- but one wonders what she's thinking.             
  What is Antony's response to Caesar's request?                            
-                                                                           
             When Caesar says "Do this," it is performed.                   
                                        Act I, Scene ii, line 10            
-                                                                           
  Anthony is either a flatterer, telling Caesar what he wants to hear,      
or he is genuinely devoted to Caesar, as a dog is to his master. In         
either case, Caesar clearly likes to give orders, and to be obeyed.         
  The Soothsayer now appears and warns Caesar to "Beware the ides of        
March." Caesar the private individual is obviously concerned, for he        
asks to see the man's face and have him repeat his message. But Caesar      
the public figure- in full view of his audience- refuses to                 
acknowledge his fear, and dismisses the Soothsayer as a dreamer. There      
are thus two sides to Caesar- the private self and the legendary            
self he would like to become.                                               
-                                                                           
  LINES 25-47                                                               
  Brutus tells his friends that he will not go to the races. A man          
of conscience, he cannot play games while the Roman state is in             
turmoil. A man of principle, he values people for their inner worth,        
not for their physical strength. Life to him is not a competition with      
prizes to the swiftest.                                                     
  Cassius complains like a child that Brutus doesn't love him anymore.      
Brutus reassures him. I neglect you, he says, only because I'm at           
war with myself.                                                            
-                                                                           
  LINES 48-89                                                               
  Cassius now asks:                                                         
-                                                                           
             Tell me, good Brutus, can you see your face?                   
-                                                                           
  And Brutus replies:                                                       
-                                                                           
               No, Cassius; for the eye sees not itself                     
               But by reflection, by some other things.                     
                                    Act I, Scene ii, lines 51-53            
-                                                                           
  Because Brutus does not know himself, he must see himself                 
reflected in others. His blindness to his own feelings is a tragic          
flaw that will eventually prove fatal. Like Caesar, he lets himself be      
mirrored in the eyes of others, and thus brings about his own               
destruction.                                                                
  Cassius now goes to work on Brutus the way the serpent played on          
Eve. He calls Brutus good, noble, and gentle. He does not appeal to         
Brutus' ambition (Brutus has none), but points out that the most            
respected Romans are "groaning underneath this age's yoke."                 
-                                                                           
  Brutus now asks:                                                          
-                                                                           
            Into what dangers would you lead me, Cassius,                   
            That you would have me seek into myself                         
            For that which is not in me?                                    
                                    Act I, Scene ii, lines 63-65            
-                                                                           
  Is Brutus deceiving himself to keep his hands clean? Does he              
really not know what Cassius has in mind? Is it true that conspiracy        
is not in his nature, or is he only trying to convince himself?             
  The crowds shout and Brutus admits his fear that "the people /            
Choose Caesar for their king." He is impatient with Cassius for             
keeping him so long, and for avoiding the issue. If what you have in        
mind is for the good of the people, he says, I will face death, if          
necessary, for                                                              
-                                                                           
          X                                          I love                 
          The name of honor more than I fear death.                         
                                    Act I, Scene ii, lines 88-89            
-                                                                           
  Brutus obviously means what he says, but isn't there something a bit      
suspect about someone who tells the world how virtuous he is?               
  Brutus is about to join a conspiracy and may simply want to reassure      
himself about the purity of his motives. Someone who knew himself,          
of course, would act from conviction, and not depend on the strength        
of his own words.                                                           
-                                                                           
  LINES 90-177                                                              
  Cassius says that "Honor is the subject of my story," and then            
appeals to everything but honor. Carried away by jealousy and spite,        
he forgets that he is talking to Brutus, and uses arguments that would      
work only on himself. We were born free as Caesar, he says; "We both        
have fed as well, and we can both / Endure the winter's cold as well        
as he." Such distinctions can mean nothing to a man as principled as        
Brutus.                                                                     
  Cassius discusses how he saved Caesar from drowning, and how              
Caesar once groaned and shook with fever. Brutus would never rate a         
person by his physical strength, but Cassius is too wrapped up in           
his private sense of injustice to notice or care.                           
  Cassius' efforts to belittle Caesar say more about his own                
jealousy than about Caesar's right to rule. Cassius speaks of Caesar's      
"coward lips," but it is Caesar, not Cassius, who dared his friend          
to plunge into the Tiber on "a raw and gusty day." All Caesar can be        
accused of is a lack of physical stamina- which really has nothing          
to do with his strength as a ruler.                                         
  Like a child, Cassius cannot bear the injustice of a world in             
which he loses to his rival:                                                
-                                                                           
                             And this man                                   
             Is now become a god, and Cassius is                            
             A wretched creature, and must bend his body                    
             If Caesar carelessly but nod at him.                           
                                  Act I, Scene ii, lines 115-118            
-                                                                           
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
  NOTE: ON WOMANLY BEHAVIOR  Cassius accuses Caesar of behaving like        
"a sick girl," as if womanly behavior were an unpardonable sin. Yet in      
Shakespeare's world, men who deny their own feminine qualities-             
gentleness, mercy, and so on- are out of harmony with themselves and        
with the world.                                                             
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
-                                                                           
  Cassius blames himself for bowing to Caesar's will:                       
-                                                                           
             The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,                   
             But in ourselves, that we are underlings.                      
                                  Act I, Scene ii, lines 140-141            
-                                                                           
  This is the sin of pride. Even Caesar knows at times that he is           
not the measure of all things, and bows to fate.                            
  Just when we think we understand Cassius, he turns from spite to          
principle:                                                                  
-                                                                           
                      Age, thou are shamed!                                 
          Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods!                   
          When went there by an age, since the great flood,                 
          But it was famed with more than one man?                          
                                  Act I, Scene ii, lines 150-153            
-                                                                           
  It is a noble argument, but Cassius may just be trying to manipulate      
Brutus- playing on his friend's sense of family pride as the                
descendant of Lucius Julius Brutus, one of the founders of the              
Republic more than 400 years before.                                        
  There is no way of knowing what effect this appeal to family pride        
has on Brutus. True to his nature, he refuses to act impulsively,           
and keeps his feelings to himself. What we do know is family pride          
should not influence him- not if he is true to his principles.              
  As his talk with Brutus ends, Cassius says how glad he is to "have        
struck but thus much show / Of fire from Brutus" (lines 176-177).           
-                                                                           
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
  NOTE: ON FIRE IMAGERY  "Fire" is an image you should follow               
closely throughout the play, for it represents the destructive              
powers of the universe, unleashed by the actions of Caesar, the common      
people, or the conspirators. Jump ahead for a moment to Casca's             
description of the storm in the opening lines of Act I, Scene iii:          
-                                                                           
             But never till tonight, never till now,                        
             Did I go through a tempest dropping fire.                      
             Either there is a civil strife in heaven,                      
             Or else the world, too saucy with the gods,                    
             Incenses them to send destruction.                             
                                          Act I, Scene iii, 9-13            
-                                                                           
  Keep in mind this image of fire when you learn of Portia's unhappy        
fate, later in the play.                                                    
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
-                                                                           
  LINES 178-214                                                             
  Caesar returns and describes Cassius as a dangerous man with "a lean      
and hungry look." This is such a delicious description that we're           
tempted to take it as the final word on Cassius. But Cassius has            
other, more admirable traits, which will become more evident after the      
assassination.                                                              
  When Caesar speaks about Cassius (lines 198-214), notice the              
funny, almost pathetic way he switches roles from a private individual      
to a public figure:                                                         
  The private Caesar is suspicious and fearful of Cassius. "Yond            
Cassius has a lean and hungry look," he says.                               
  The public Caesar, of course, has to be above such human emotions as      
fear, and therefore announces for all the world to hear: "But I fear        
him not."                                                                   
  "Yet," says the private Caesar, "if my name were liable to fear, / I      
do not know the man I should avoid / So soon as that spare Cassius."        
  It is unthinkable for the great Caesar to be afraid, and so he            
puts his political mask back on and assures his audience: "I rather         
tell thee what is to be feared / Than what I fear; for always I am          
Caesar."                                                                    
  If only he could be this legendary figure! But once again the mask        
slips, revealing an ordinary human being who is physically handicapped      
("Come on my right hand, for this ear is deaf") and in need of              
reassurance ("And tell me truly what thou think'st of him.). Is Caesar      
aware of the difference between the man and the mask? Does he               
deliberately fool his public to gain power (as any clever politician        
would do), or does he fool himself, too? There are no easy answers          
to these questions, but you will need to consider them before you           
can decide on Caesar's right to rule.                                       
  Antony tries to allay Caesar's fears about Cassius, and says:             
-                                                                           
              Fear him not, Caesar, he's not dangerous;                     
                                       Act I, Scene ii, line 196            
-                                                                           
  Could he be more wrong?                                                   
-                                                                           
  LINES 215-294                                                             
  Caesar leaves with his followers, and Casca describes the events          
of the day- how Caesar three times refused the crown.                       
  Was this a cynical gesture to manipulate the feelings of the public?      
It was Caesar's loyal follower Antony who offered the crown- perhaps        
the two politicians worked out their "act" beforehand. Casca thinks         
so, but Casca is one of the conspirators and would interpret events in      
a way that was unflattering to Caesar.                                      
  Casca is as cynical about the crowds as he is about Caesar, and           
describes how                                                               
-                                                                           
          the rabblement hooted, and clapped their chopt                    
          hands, and threw up their sweaty nightcaps, and                   
          uttered such a deal of stinking breath... that it                 
          had, almost, choked Caesar.                                       
                                  Act I, Scene ii, lines 243-247            
-                                                                           
  If Caesar "had stabbed their mothers," says Casca, they still             
would have loved him (lines 274-275).                                       
-                                                                           
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
  NOTE: ON THE COMMON PEOPLE  If we can believe Casca, the common           
people behaved collectively like a blind beast, incapable of ruling         
itself or of knowing what is in its own best interests.                     
  Power in a republic comes ultimately from the people, who are             
supposed to have the wisdom to select responsible leaders. The              
people of Rome seem to lack this wisdom. Are they the true villains in      
Julius Caesar? Is Shakespeare pointing out what happens to a country        
when the people ignore their responsibilities? Perhaps he is not            
passing judgment, but merely exploring the historical reasons why Rome      
was transformed from a republic into a monarchy.                            
  Though Shakespeare may lack a democratic faith in the common man,         
and be skeptical of the rabble's right to self-rule, he is not              
necessarily as uncharitable as Casca. Casca's harsh words remind us         
that most of the conspirators are really fighting to retain their           
privileges, not to defend the rights of the people. On several              
occasions Caesar acts and speaks on behalf of his public- something         
that cannot be said of his assassins.                                       
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
-                                                                           
  Observe (line 233) that Brutus calls Casca "gentle." Throughout           
the play characters greet each other with similar terms of                  
endearment which are either inappropriate or unfelt.                        
  Observe, too, (lines 284-286) that Marullus and Flavius have been         
exiled or put to death. This is the only time in the play that              
Caesar deprives anyone of his civil liberties. Is this the act of a         
tyrant? Or is it the just verdict of a strong leader who refuses to         
tolerate treason?                                                           
-                                                                           
  LINES 295-322                                                             
  Brutus calls Casca a dull-witted fellow. Cassius explains that Casca      
only pretends to be coarse and stupid so that people will listen to         
him. Cassius, the "great observer," understands such men, who use           
words to manipulate feelings, and pretend to be what they are not.          
Brutus, on the other hand, sees language as a way of expressing and         
communicating the truth, and is therefore easily fooled by people           
who use words as political weapons. How can he recognize irony when he      
is incapable of it himself? How can he recognize and deal with evil         
when he himself (some say) is such a noble man?                             
  Cassius recognizes Brutus' dilemma:                                       
-                                                                           
            Well, Brutus, thou are noble; yet I see                         
            Thy honorable mettle may be wrought                             
            From that it is disposed; therefore it is meet                  
            That noble minds keep ever with their likes;                    
            For who so firm that cannot be seduced?                         
                                  Act I, Scene ii, lines 308-312            
-                                                                           
  It is difficult to tell whether Cassius is delighted or saddened          
by his ability to "seduce" his noble friend- read the lines aloud           
and decide which interpretation seems more natural to you. In either        
case, Cassius comes across as a serpent seducing Innocence. If lie          
succeeds, Innocence will be cursed for succumbing to an evil it does        
not understand. That may very well be the tragedy of Shakespeare's          
play.                                                                       
                                                                            
ACT_I|SCENE_III                                                             
                           ACT I, SCENE III                                 
-                                                                           
  LINES 1-40                                                                
  Casca describes some of the dreadful omens he has seen: the stormy        
seas; a lion (symbol of Caesar?) walking the streets; men on fire. The      
earth itself "Shakes like a thing unfirm" (line 4).                         
  Who is responsible for these strange happenings? Caesar- for              
overstepping the limits of his power? The conspirators- for plotting        
against him? The people- for allowing themselves to be manipulated          
against the best interests of the state?                                    
  All we know for certain is that evil has been set loose, and that it      
is affecting not just Rome but the entire universe. The disorder is         
like a sickness that started with a few individuals and now begins          
to spread until it infects everyone. Caesar, Brutus, and the other          
characters are not isolated human beings, acting in a vacuum; what          
each one does affects everyone else.                                        
  Cicero does not deny the importance of the omens, but points out          
that each person interprets them in his own way:                            
-                                                                           
           Indeed, it is a strange-disposed time:                           
           But men may construe things after their fashion,                 
           Clean from the purpose of the things themselves.                 
                                   Act I, Scene iii, lines 33-35            
-                                                                           
  LINES 41-88                                                               
  Other men are frightened by these supernatural happenings, but not        
Cassius. It has been "A very pleasing night to honest men," he says.        
Not only was he not afraid, he walked with his jacket unbuttoned,           
daring the heavens to strike him. Cassius shares Cicero's belief            
that the heavens are sending fearful warnings, but presumes to know         
that they are meant for Caesar, not for him. His cause, he feels, is        
noble- why should the gods punish him?                                      
  As arrogant as Caesar, Cassius forgets there may be forces in the         
world he can neither understand nor control. By opposing Caesar,            
whom he compares to the storm, Cassius feels he is opposing history,        
fate, the gods themselves. They, of course, will humble him in time.        
  Cassius, speaking to Casca, calls Caesar "A man no mightier than          
thyself, or me / In personal action" (lines 76-77). Cassius thus            
weighs his worth against another man's- unlike Brutus, who weighs each      
person alone against absolute standards of right and wrong. Physical        
strength is what Cassius respects- unlike Brutus, who values people         
for their principles.                                                       
  Cassius mourns the times he's living in, when Romans behave like          
women and meekly accept Caesar's rule:                                      
-                                                                           
            But woe the while! Our fathers' minds are dead                  
            And we are governed with our mothers' spirits;                  
            Our yoke and sufferance show us womanish.                       
                                   Act I, Scene iii, lines 82-84            
-                                                                           
  Soft, feminine qualities frighten Cassius; he likes to see himself        
as the masculine ideal, who wins races and depends on nothing but           
his own courage and strength. Beneath this mask, however, lies the          
heart of a lost boy craving affection.                                      
-                                                                           
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
  NOTE: ON CASSIUS' MOTHER  Cassius' mother, we discover later (Act         
IV, Scene iii, lines 118-122), lacked the same feminine qualities that      
Cassius fears to discover in himself. Did he have to prove his worth        
even to her? If so, that might explain his competitive nature, and his      
basic lack of confidence in his own powers of judgment.                     
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
-                                                                           
  LINES 89-102                                                              
  Cassius tells Casca he would rather kill himself than live to see         
Caesar crowned. The human spirit can never be willingly enslaved, he        
says, because people are always free to take our own lives. Cassius         
shows a certain spirit of his own here, which makes it difficult for        
us to dismiss him as a mere villain. Clearly, he believes in the            
rightness of his cause, and is willing to die for it. He may be             
foolish to ignore the gods, but who is to say such foolishness is           
not the most noble act of all?                                              
-                                                                           
  LINES 103-164                                                             
  Cassius believes the common people are as much to blame as Caesar         
for turning him into a god:                                                 
-                                                                           
              Poor man, I know he would not be a wolf                       
              But that he sees the Romans are but sheep;                    
                                 Act I, Scene iii, lines 104-105            
-                                                                           
  Cassius may simply wish to deny Caesar the credit for his rise to         
power. But he is also pointing out what we noted before, that the           
common people may be the real villains for ignoring their                   
responsibilities to the Republic, and allowing it to fall.                  
                                                                            
ACT_II|SCENE_I                                                              
                           ACT II, SCENE I                                  
-                                                                           
  LINES 1-34                                                                
  The world admires Brutus as a man firm in his beliefs- a man who          
knows exactly who he is and what he wants. But the private man              
revealed here is so torn by doubts that he can hardly sleep.                
  Brutus has made up his mind: Caesar must die. "It must be by his          
death," he says- and then he searches for reasons to support his            
decision. How very human to choose a course of action, and then find        
reasons to support it!                                                      
  Brutus' argument is based not on anything Caesar has done, but on         
what he might do. Is that sufficient grounds for murder? Cassius, at        
least, has real grievances against Caesar: The most respected men of        
Rome, he says, are "groaning underneath this age's yoke" (Act I, Scene      
ii, line 61). Brutus, on the other hand, can speak only of what Caesar      
might become.                                                               
  Further weakening Brutus' argument are these controversial lines:         
-                                                                           
                        and to speak the truth of Caesar,                   
                 I have not known when his affections swayed                
                 More than his reason.                                      
                                    Act II, Scene i, lines 19-21            
-                                                                           
  Is Brutus so shortsighted or so blind to human nature that he             
can't remember a single time when Caesar was swayed by his emotions?        
-                                                                           
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
  NOTE: THE HISTORIC CAESAR  Shakespeare was familiar with                  
historical records that portrayed Caesar's rule as a mixed blessing;        
why does Brutus ignore all of Caesar's faults in his speech? Is             
Shakespeare trying to emphasize how flimsy Brutus' argument is, and         
how groundless his fears? Perhaps he also wants to show how                 
dangerous logic is, when cut off from feeling.                              
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
-                                                                           
  LINES 35-60                                                               
  Brutus is motivated not just by his principles but by a sense of          
family pride. His ancestor, Lucius Julius Brutus, helped drive the          
Tarquins from Rome and establish the Roman Republic. Brutus believes        
that for him to sit by and watch Caesar destroy the Republic would          
dishonor his family name.                                                   
  It would be unfair to Brutus to say that he is motivated solely by a      
sense of pride. He is obviously deeply concerned about Caesar's threat      
to Roman institutions- just as we would be upset by a President, no         
matter how capable, who tried to undermine the power of the Senate.         
But pride plays a part in his decision- and thus his motives are            
less pure than he himself would like to believe.                            
-                                                                           
  LINES 61-68                                                               
  Brutus blames Cassius for stirring him up against Caesar:                 
-                                                                           
           Since Cassius first did whet me against Caesar,                  
           I have not slept.                                                
                                    Act II, Scene i, lines 61-62            
-                                                                           
  Is this true? Go back over the text- doesn't Brutus admit his             
fears of Caesar before he discusses them with Cassius? Brutus may be        
deluding himself to keep his conscience clean- blaming Cassius for          
what is essentially his own decision.                                       
-                                                                           
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
  NOTE: ON THE STATE OF HARMONY IN THE WORLD  Brutus compares the           
state of man to a "little kingdom." In Shakespeare's world nothing          
exists in isolation. The insurrection affects everything and everyone:      
the minds of the conspirators, Rome, the heavens themselves. The            
harmony of the individual mirrors the harmony of the state- which in        
turn mirrors the harmony of the universe. All are interrelated. When        
something happens to disturb this harmony, the whole structure comes        
tumbling down.                                                              
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
-                                                                           
  LINES 70-85                                                               
  The conspirators enter, their faces buried in their cloaks, and           
Brutus is upset and embarrassed to associate with them. His conflict        
is one we all face at one time or another when we are forced to             
compromise ourselves (lie, cheat, etc.) for what we consider a greater      
good.                                                                       
-                                                                           
  LINES 86-111                                                              
  Cassius who considers Brutus his good friend- immediately begins          
to play on Brutus' vanity:                                                  
-                                                                           
                                          and no man here                   
             But honors you; and every one doth wish                        
             You had but that opinion of yourself                           
             Which every noble Roman bears of you.                          
                                    Act II, Scene i, lines 90-93            
-                                                                           
  Brutus wants to know what cares are keeping his friends from              
sleep. Does he really not know? Can there by any question what these        
men are plotting? He may just be asking for details, or he may be           
trying once again to lay the blame for the plot on others in order          
to keep his own hands clean. While Cassius confers with Brutus, the         
other conspirators- Casca, Cinna and Decius- debate where the sun will      
rise. Dawn represents a new day, literally and symbolically. Evil           
deeds, bad dreams, heavenly disorders- these are associated with the        
night. Note that the three conspirators can't agree on where the sun        
will rise, and that Casca points toward the rising sun with a sword.        
-                                                                           
  LINES 112-140                                                             
  In his speech to the conspirators, Brutus tries to portray the            
assassination as a virtuous act. Taking an oath, he argues, will put a      
stain on a noble enterprise. To Brutus it is not a conspiracy, not a        
murder, but an "enterprise." Like many public figures, he uses words        
to cloak the horror of his deed.                                            
  Unlike Brutus, Cassius admits that the work at hand is bloody,            
fiery, and terrible (Act I, Scene iii, line 130). He too believes           
his goal is noble, but he is honest with himself about the means he         
must use to accomplish his goal.                                            
  Is there such a thing as a virtuous murder? Can good come from evil?      
Brutus hides from these questions, but his behavior forces us to ask        
them of ourselves.                                                          
-                                                                           
  LINES 141-161                                                             
  Once Brutus joins the conspirators, he quickly takes over. The            
others defer to his judgment. Metellus recommends that Cicero join          
them- his age will lend an air of respectability to the plot. Brutus        
says no, "For he will never follow anything / that other men begin."        
This is Brutus' first decision as one of the conspirators; is it a          
wise one? Cicero was Rome's greatest orator, who might have swayed the      
crowds at Caesar's funeral, and changed the course of Roman history.        
Does Brutus fear that Cicero will question his authority?                   
  Notice how quickly Cassius accepts Brutus' judgment. Is the issue         
not important enough to risk a break with Brutus? Or does Cassius           
simply lack the confidence to stand up to his high-minded friend?           
  Brutus' second decision is to spare Antony's life. It is a                
decision that is morally correct, but politically disastrous. Trying        
to remain pure and faithful to his principles, he unleashes death           
and destruction on Rome, and dooms himself.                                 
  If Brutus had listened to Cassius and killed Antony, the                  
conspirators might have restored power to the people and their elected      
representatives.                                                            
-                                                                           
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
  NOTE: POLITICS AND IDEALS  Does the world belong, then, to                
opportunists like Cassius- men or women with no consciences? Is             
Shakespeare suggesting that politics and ideals never mix? That a           
person with principles is doomed to failure in an imperfect world?          
These are chilling thoughts.                                                
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
-                                                                           
  LINES 162-192.                                                            
  Brutus tries to elevate the murder into a religious sacrifice.            
"Let's be sacrificers, but not butchers," he says. "We shall be called      
purgers [healers], not murderers." He wants to carve Caesar                 
-                                                                           
                              as a dish fit for the gods,                   
             Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds.                       
                                  Act II, Scene i, lines 173-174            
-                                                                           
  Brutus is trying so hard not to compromise his principles! But is it      
possible? Isn't murder murder, whatever you call it? When a person          
lies dead, does it matter how the deed was done?                            
  Of course, if the conspiracy is just and Caesar deserves to die,          
then the assassination is in fact a sacrifice of an individual for the      
sake of Rome. Brutus is to be admired for limiting the bloodshed,           
and for putting aside his own feelings for Caesar in order to do            
what he thinks is best for his country.                                     
  Brutus wishes he could kill the spirit of Caesar, but not the man.        
This is impossible, not just because the two are inseparable, but           
because the spirit, as we shall see, cannot be destroyed. The man           
can be killed, but what he represents is destined to live on.               
-                                                                           
  LINES 193-233                                                             
  Cassius and Decius portray Caesar as a man who is superstitious           
and easy to flatter. They see the man behind the mask, and question         
his ability to rule. What we must decide for ourselves is whether           
human frailty- which the general public never sees- is sufficient           
cause for insurrection.                                                     
  The conspirators leave Brutus alone with the sleeping boy Lucius.         
Lucius seems to represent a world of childhood innocence to which           
Brutus wishes he could return.                                              
  The noble Brutus is by nature unfit for a political world of              
duplicity and intrigue. He would like to regain the inner harmony he        
has lost, but, for better or for worse, he has committed himself to         
political action, and there is no going back for him.                       
  Brutus may be noble or foolish, but he has courageously decided to        
descend from his safe and privileged world of ideas and take a stand        
in a world of practical affairs.                                            
-                                                                           
  LINES 233-325                                                             
  Portia enters and we hear from her what we already know about             
Brutus: that he is introspective and torn by doubts; that he is a           
man of conscience who is struggling to do what is right. How different      
he is from those about him, who spend their time manipulating each          
other for private ends.                                                     
  Brutus does not want to discuss the conspiracy with Portia; in fact,      
he lies to her, blaming his moodiness on ill health. Does he want to        
protect her from the ugly truth? Or is he simply too ashamed to own up      
to what he has done? In either case, he is less than honest, and we         
may condemn him for falling short of his standards, or praise him           
for giving in to the promptings of his heart.                               
  Portia, with an intuitive wisdom, sees right through Brutus, and          
insists on the truth so that she can share his burden with him. He          
agrees to trust her with his secret, and she departs.                       
-                                                                           
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
  NOTE: PORTIA AS A MODERN WOMAN  Some people like to see Portia as         
a modern woman, hundreds of years ahead of her time. But is she             
really? She does refer to Brutus as her other half, and asks to be          
treated as his equal. Genuine respect and affection exist between           
them. She insists that she is stronger than other women- she is Cato's      
daughter, isn't she?- and should not be shielded from a world of men.       
  This image of herself, not as the woman "Portia," but as "Cato's          
daughter," is her public image of herself- the person she would like        
to become. (Brutus wears a mask, too, when he pictures himself as a         
descendant of a founder of the Roman Republic.)                             
  Can Portia escape her private self and live up to her reputation          
as Cato's daughter? All we know to this point is that Brutus addresses      
her as "Portia," and that she greets him as "my lord." It is his world      
she seeks to enter- there is no question of Brutus entering hers.           
Equality seems to exist in terms of mutual respect within the               
framework of a traditional marriage, with pre-defined rights and            
obligations.                                                                
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
-                                                                           
  LINES 326-334                                                             
  Brutus' dilemma- and one of the major issues of the play- is              
summed up in this brief dialogue:                                           
-                                                                           
         Caius. What's to do?                                               
        Brutus. A piece of work that will make sick men whole.              
         Caius. But are not some whole that we must make sick?              
        Brutus. That must we also.                                          
                                  Act II, Scene i, lines 326-329            
-                                                                           
  Brutus would rather focus on his noble end, and forget the means.         
Caius reminds him that people must suffer first. One can imagine the        
pain and resignation in Brutus' voice when he is forced to acknowledge      
that, yes, some must suffer before we can make the country healthy          
again.                                                                      
  Caius does not wish to debate the issue- it is enough that Brutus         
leads him. Like Cassius and others, he defers to Brutus' judgment.          
It speaks well of Brutus that so many friends and associates are            
willing to follow him; and yet, are they any better than the common         
people who blindly follow Caesar? It seems in Shakespeare's play            
that whenever people give up responsibility for their lives and let         
themselves be led by others, the sickness of the state spreads and the      
world sinks further into a state of disorder.                               
                                                                            
ACT_II|SCENE_II                                                             
                           ACT II, SCENE II                                 
-                                                                           
  LINES 1-25                                                                
  The scene opens in Caesar's home the morning of March 15th- the ides      
of March.                                                                   
-                                                                           
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
  NOTE: ON OMENS  The thunder and lightning are stage effects which         
make the moment more dramatic. They also remind us that the order of        
the universe has been disturbed. The gods are unhappy with men and          
apparently will not rest until harmony has been restored.                   
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
-                                                                           
  Three times Calpurnia cried out in her sleep, "They murder                
Caesar!" Her dreams will soon come true- another indication that there      
are forces at work beyond our rational understanding or control.            
Some readers view Caesar's wife as a weak and frightened child, yet no      
one could be closer to the truth.                                           
  Shakespeare must have taken special delight in catching Caesar at         
his most private moment- in his dressing gown at home. If he ever           
intended to show the private man behind the public mask, now was the        
time.                                                                       
  He doesn't disappoint us. Caesar first appears as a frightened,           
superstitious man, asking for sacrifices to the gods. Calpurnia             
humiliates him by announcing, "You shall not stir out of your house         
today"; and Caesar immediately puts on his public mask, and says for        
all the world to hear:                                                      
-                                                                           
                                The things that threaten me                 
           Ne'er looked but on my back; when they shall see                 
           The face of Caesar, they are vanished.                           
                                    Act II, Scene ii, lines 9-11            
-                                                                           
  LINES 26-54                                                               
  Caesar would love to rise above normal human emotions, both to            
satisfy his own image of himself, and to satisfy his public. But the        
next moment he is his old superstitious self again, asking his servant      
what the augurers advise him to do. The fortune tellers caution him to      
stay home, but he is Caesar, isn't he?- more dangerous than danger          
itself.                                                                     
  Back and forth Caesar goes, from the private individual to the            
public figure: one moment succumbing to his private fears, the next,        
drawing back behind his mask, becoming the god he would like to be.         
  Is Caesar aware of the inconsistencies in his behavior? Possibly.         
But like many politicians, he may have worn his mask so often that,         
even in the privacy of his home, he can no longer tell when it is on        
or off.                                                                     
-                                                                           
  LINES 55-68                                                               
  Caesar finally gives in to his wife's wishes and agrees to stay           
home. Perhaps he is being a considerate and loving husband; it is more      
likely, however, that he is using her as an excuse to hide his own          
fears from himself and from the public.                                     
  Worried that his concession to her may be taken for weakness, he          
tries to act like the mighty emperor again, and announces to Decius,        
"I will not come today."                                                    
  That Caesar's concerned about his public image is obvious. What is        
less certain is whether he is blindly obsessed with it, or simply           
shrewd enough to recognize the need to project a strong public image.       
-                                                                           
  LINES 69-106                                                              
  Shakespeare's characters, from a simple cobbler to a noble                
senator, are continuously being manipulated by others- and Caesar is        
no exception. To convince him to visit the Senate, Decius first             
plays upon his vanity- interpreting Calpurnia's dream as "a vision          
fair and fortunate" of Romans bathing in Caesar's blood to restore          
their health. Next, he plays upon Caesar's ambition, telling him the        
Senate plans this very day to offer him the crown. Will the great           
Caesar have the Senators whispering that he is afraid?                      
  Caesar is an actor who comes alive in the eyes of his audience,           
and nothing could upset him more than the loss of his public's esteem.      
To be afraid is to be merely mortal, and Caesar wants to cast               
himself in the role of a god. And so he laughs at Calpurnia's fears-        
fears he shared only a moment ago- and goes to the Senate, and to           
his death.                                                                  
-                                                                           
  LINES 107-129                                                             
  Caesar is strikingly polite to his would-be assassins- thanking them      
for their "pains and courtesy," blaming himself for keeping others          
waiting, and inviting them to share some wine with him.                     
  This is a side of Caesar's nature that we have not seen before. Is        
Shakespeare painting him in a favorable light to emphasize the              
horror of the assassination? Perhaps he is merely showing how               
double-faced politicians can be in public.                                  
                                                                            
ACT_II|SCENE_III                                                            
                          ACT II, SCENE III                                 
-                                                                           
  Artemidorus' note gives Caesar another chance to save his life- will      
he read it? The possibility of a reprieve stretches out the time            
before Caesar meets his fate, and therefore adds to the suspense.           
  Artemidorus considers Caesar a friend, and is willing to risk his         
life for him. How sad it is, he says, that virtuous men like Caesar         
cannot live beyond the reach of jealous rivals:                             
-                                                                           
               My heart laments that virtue cannot live                     
               Out of the teeth of emulation.                               
                                  Act II, Scene iii, lines 12-13            
-                                                                           
  How different a view of Caesar from that of the conspirators!             
Could both be right? Shakespeare makes us realize that there is no          
final verdict on a human being- that a friend to one person may be          
an enemy to another, and that our opinions say as much about ourselves      
as they say about others.                                                   
                                                                            
ACT_II|SCENE_IV                                                             
                           ACT II, SCENE IV                                 
-                                                                           
  Shakespeare again delays the assassination attempt, and thereby adds      
to the suspense.                                                            
  Brutus, true to his word, has shared his secret with Portia, and she      
is having trouble keeping it to herself.                                    
  The elements in Portia, as in Brutus, are at war: "I have a man's         
mind," she says, "but a woman's might." In this disordered world there      
is no harmony anywhere: neither in the heavens, nor in the heart and        
mind of a noble woman.                                                      
  Portia is almost mad with fear. She would like to be "Cato's              
daughter," but she is only "Portia," and must admit:                        
-                                                                           
                          Ay me, how weak a thing                           
                    The heart of woman is!                                  
                                   Act II, Scene iv, lines 39-40            
-                                                                           
  Like Brutus and Caesar, Portia tries to live up to her name and           
brings about her own destruction.                                           
                                                                            
ACT_III|SCENE_I                                                             
                           ACT III, SCENE I                                 
-                                                                           
  It's March 15th, the ides of March. Will the soothsayer's prophecy        
come true? The play has been building towards this dramatic moment          
when Caesar confronts his fate.                                             
-                                                                           
  LINES 1-12                                                                
  The scene begins before the Capitol, where Caesar refuses to              
accept a note warning him about the plot. "What touches us ourself          
shall be last served," he says.                                             
  What do you think: are these the words of a shrewd and deceitful          
politician who puts on airs of false humility to impress the crowds?        
Or does Caesar see himself as the servant of the people? The                
question is the same you already asked about Caesar's motives when          
he refused three times to accept the crown (Act I, Scene ii, lines          
234-250). Whatever your interpretation, it's ironic that, had Caesar        
acted more selfishly, he might have saved his life.                         
-                                                                           
  LINES 13-75                                                               
  The conspirators now have Caesar alone, and petition him to grant         
a reprieve to Metellus' banished brother, Publius Cimber. Why they          
choose this moment is open to interpretation. It may be merely an           
excuse to get Caesar alone. Perhaps they know that Caesar's almost          
certain refusal will harden their hearts, and sharpen their resolve to      
kill him. Perhaps, too, they are offering Caesar a final chance to          
redeem himself through an act of mercy. It's fun to speculate what the      
conspirators would have done if Caesar had relented.                        
  Caesar now makes two speeches that give important clues to his            
character. Read these passages carefully, for they give you a rare          
opportunity to decide just how fit he is to rule.                           
  In his first speech (lines 35-48), Caesar lashes out at Metellus for      
trying to sway him (Caesar) with flattery. Caesar has a point: it's         
not very flattering- it's downright insulting- to be told how great         
you are by someone who is obviously trying to manipulate your               
feelings. Perhaps it's the implication that Caesar can't see through        
someone as unsubtle as Metellus that annoys Caesar most.                    
-                                                                           
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
  NOTE: TWO VIEWS OF CAESAR  Some readers argue that Caesar's               
refusal to submit to flattery or to the pleadings of friends shows          
that he is a strong ruler with the courage of his convictions. Without      
such a strong captain at the helm, these readers argue, the Roman ship      
would flounder.                                                             
  Other readers disagree. Caesar's inflexibility shows that he is           
callous and arrogant, they argue- a tyrant afraid to change his mind        
for fear of appearing weak before his friends.                              
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
-                                                                           
  In his second speech, Caesar compares himself to the Northern Star,       
-                                                                           
               Of whose true-fixed and resting quality                      
               There is no a fellow in the firmament.                       
                                   Act III, Scene i, lines 61-62            
-                                                                           
  To call himself the only Roman who remains constant in his beliefs        
seems outrageous enough- but Caesar goes beyond this. I make my own         
destiny, he seems to be saying; I am stronger than fate. Like a god, I      
am free from the ravages of old age, sickness, and death.                   
  Some readers see this speech as the sad ravings of an aging man           
who has lost all grasp of reality. Others view it as a carefully            
developed political speech meant to reinforce his public image as a         
monarch. In either case, Caesar is guilty of arrogance and blasphemy        
against the gods.                                                           
  However you interpret Caesar's words, they do give the                    
conspirators the excuse they need to murder him; and so, in some            
sense, Caesar's pride is responsible for his own downfall. Whether          
this pride is in itself sufficient justification for murdering him          
is something you'll have to decide for yourself. Your verdict will          
depend in part on whether you judge Caesar (and people in general)          
by what he is or by what he does.                                           
-                                                                           
  LINES 76-77                                                               
  It does speak well for Caesar that at the moment of death he seems        
most upset by the betrayal of Brutus. If you, my closest friend, could      
betray me- Caesar seems to be saying- then let me die.                      
  As death approaches, the mask slips, and the man beneath reveals          
himself. What upsets Caesar most is not the loss of glory, or even          
death itself- but the disloyalty of a friend. Perhaps at this final         
moment Caesar realizes the truth about himself. If that's the case,         
then we have to pity him for learning the truth too late.                   
-                                                                           
  LINES 78-97                                                               
  The conspirators reveal themselves in the different ways they             
react to Caesar's death. Cassius and his followers are political men        
who recognize the need to deal with the crowds. While Brutus, the           
idealist, stands about philosophizing about fate, the others rush           
about, trying to cope with the public outcry. Brutus seems to               
believe that he lives in a moral universe in which good must triumph        
over evil. He believes that people are as rational as he is, and            
will understand the justice of his cause. Cassius, the realist,             
recognizes the need to manipulate the emotions of the people. Rather        
than wait for virtue to triumph, he takes matters into his own hands.       
-                                                                           
  LINES 98-118                                                              
  Casca observes that people live in fear of death. Then we are             
Caesar's friends, says Brutus, for we have shortened the time he had        
to live in fear:                                                            
-                                                                           
            So are we Caesar's friends, that have abridged                  
            His time of fearing death.                                      
                                 Act III, Scene i, lines 104-105            
-                                                                           
  Having murdered Caesar, Brutus now convinces himself that he has          
done the man a favor! So strong is the power of words, and so               
dangerous is logic when cut off from genuine feeling, that they can         
transform butchery into a noble act.                                        
-                                                                           
  LINES 119-121                                                             
  As the conspirators prepare to depart, Cassius remarks:                   
-                                                                           
            Brutus shall lead, and we will grace his heels                  
                                      Act III, Scene i, line 120            
-                                                                           
   Now that Cassius has enlisted Brutus' support, he seems ready to         
let Brutus take charge. Does he lack confidence in his own judgment?        
Or is he simply not motivated by personal ambition? In either case,         
it's interesting to note that Cassius, who refused to stoop to              
Caesar's will, seems happy to give in to Brutus'.                           
-                                                                           
  LINES 122-163                                                             
  Antony would like to meet with Brutus to learn why Caesar was             
killed. If Brutus can justify his actions, Antony agrees to follow him      
as once he followed Caesar. Brutus, always willing to explain the           
justice of his cause, happily consents.                                     
  Antony's devotion to Caesar blinds him to Caesar's faults- as             
Cassius' hatred of Caesar blinds him to Caesar's virtues. Yet, when         
Antony addresses the conspirators, he shows himself to be an                
independent thinker with a deep understanding of human nature. If he        
had simply announced that he was switching sides, the conspirators          
would probably not have believed him- they would have questioned his        
motives. His outpouring of grief over Caesar's death offends them, but      
it makes them trust him, because he seems honest and sincere.               
-                                                                           
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
  NOTE: ANTONY, A SINCERE OPPORTUNIST  A cynical opportunist- that's        
how most people describe Antony. Yet he always speaks with deep             
conviction. His motives are always suspect, and yet- unlike any of the      
other men- he seems to remain faithful to his feelings. Is it possible      
to be an opportunist, then, and also a person who speaks from the           
heart?                                                                      
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
-                                                                           
  LINES 164-223                                                             
  You can see the basic difference between Brutus and Cassius in the        
way they respond to Antony.                                                 
  Brutus appeals to Antony's intellect with the argument that "pity to      
the general wrong of / Rome... Hath done this deed on Caesar" (lines        
170, 172). Is this any way to win the heart of Caesar's most devoted        
friend? Brutus' problem is not so much that he ignores human nature,        
as that he assumes others have natures like his own. Whether his words      
to Antony reveal a man who is cold and unfeeling, or simply too pure        
and noble for this world, is something you'll have to decide for            
yourself. Either way, he's the direct opposite of Antony.                   
  As Brutus appeals to Antony's "higher" instincts, so Cassius appeals      
to his "lower"- offering him a share of political power. This is the        
sort of appeal that would work on Cassius himself.                          
  When Brutus promises to justify the assassination, Antony                 
responds, "I doubt not of your wisdom" (line 184). What he is saying        
to himself is, yes, you are wise and have your reasons, but none of         
them can make the deed less terrible.                                       
-                                                                           
  LINES 225-226                                                             
  Brutus believes his reasons are so strong                                 
-                                                                           
              That were you, Antony, the son of Caesar,                     
              You should be satisfied.                                      
                                 Act III, Scene i, lines 225-226            
-                                                                           
  Could reason or logic ever be strong enough to make a person applaud      
the murder of his father? Brutus thinks so, and in that belief lies         
his weakness- and his strength.                                             
-                                                                           
  LINES 227-253                                                             
  Brutus decides over Cassius' objections to let Antony speak at            
Caesar's funeral. The decision is admirable, but politically                
disastrous.                                                                 
  Brutus plans to speak first, "And show the reason of our Caesar's         
death" (line 237). What he fails to understand is that most people are      
not convinced by reasons. What motivates them are appeals to their          
emotions. (Brutus would never admit it, but he himself was led by           
his feelings when he joined the conspiracy to live up to his family         
name.)                                                                      
-                                                                           
  LINES 254-275                                                             
  Left alone, Antony reveals his true intentions. What we discover          
is a man of genuine passion, overcome by feelings he can neither            
completely understand nor control. As Brutus responds with his head,        
so Antony reacts with his heart. He has no concern about the future or      
about the best interests of Rome. Values, ideals, principles- these         
mean nothing to him. He cannot see beyond the murder of a friend and        
his desire for revenge.                                                     
  Antony becomes the servant of Caesar's vengeful spirit- serving           
him in death as he served him in life. His devotion is total and            
blinds him to everything else- even the "blood and destruction" he          
is about to unleash on guilty and innocent alike. Whether he is an          
instrument of good or evil depends, of course, on how you view the man      
he serves.                                                                  
  One thing that can't be doubted is the sincerity of Antony's              
feelings. In a world of men too circumspect to speak their minds, it        
comes as a relief to find one who can express himself with tears.           
-                                                                           
  LINES 276-297                                                             
  The scene ends with the convenient arrival of Octavius' servant, who      
announces that Octavius and his men are camped about 21 miles from          
Rome. Caesar, apparently sensing danger, had written Octavius for           
his support. Let him stay there, says Antony, until I have made my          
speech and determined whether the time is ripe for his return.              
                                                                            
ACT_III|SCENE_II                                                            
                          ACT III, SCENE II                                 
-                                                                           
  The two funeral orations should be studied for what they say about        
(1) Brutus, (2) Antony, (3) Caesar, and (4) the crowds.                     
-                                                                           
  BRUTUS AND ANTONY                                                         
  You can argue- though not many people do- that Brutus' speech is          
as powerful and convincing as Antony's, and that it fails only because      
Antony has the final word. Defenders of Brutus' speech point out that:      
-                                                                           
  -He flatters the common people by treating them as equals and             
appealing to their powers of reason.                                        
  -He involves the people by asking them questions.                         
  -His questions are rhetorical; their answers are self-evident.            
(The answer to the question, "Who is here so base, that would be a          
bondman [slave]?" is, of course, "No one.") The rhetorical question is      
used by public speakers to make audiences think they are reaching           
their own decisions, when in fact their minds are being made up for         
them.                                                                       
  -He plays upon the sympathy of his audience- offering to sacrifice        
himself for his country.                                                    
  -His speech is brief and to the point.                                    
  -He does convince his audience. When he finishes speaking, the            
citizens exclaim, "This Caesar was a tyrant," and "We are blest that        
Rome is rid of him."                                                        
-                                                                           
  Other readers argue that Brutus' speech is weaker than Antony's.          
They point out that:                                                        
-                                                                           
  -Brutus appeals to the minds of the people; Antony sways them by          
tugging at their emotions.                                                  
  -Brutus appeals to an abstract sense of duty to the state; Antony         
appeals to greed.                                                           
  -Brutus asks the people to appreciate degrees of good and evil;           
Antony plays upon their need to love and hate.                              
  -Brutus begins his speech by addressing the people collectively as        
Romans; Antony addresses them individually as friends. Antony knows         
instinctively that personal relationships mean more to people than          
their identification with the state.                                        
  -Brutus speaks in prose, which appeals to the intellect; Antony           
speaks in verse, which appeals to the emotions. Brutus' speech is           
not strong or important enough to be dignified with verse.                  
  -Brutus makes the politically disastrous mistake of expecting too         
much from the people. He reasons with them as though they were his          
intellectual equals. He uses language, not to manipulate feelings, but      
to communicate ideas. He throws out concepts with balance, precision        
and speed.                                                                  
-                                                                           
        As Caesar loved me, I weep for him; as he was                       
        fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was valiant, I honor              
        him; but, as he was ambitious, I slew him. There is                 
        tears, for his love; joy, for his fortune; honor, for               
        his valor; and death, for his ambition.                             
                                  Act III, Scene ii, Lines 24-29            
-                                                                           
  This verbal juggling act may impress Brutus' educated friends, but        
who can believe that it moves the hearts of the people? Heroes and          
villains are what they want- black-and-white distinctions, not              
shades of gray.                                                             
  Antony's speech may not be as concise or intellectually clever,           
but it appeals to people on a level that they can understand. Avoiding      
fine distinctions, he portrays Caesar as a hero who was betrayed by         
friends:                                                                    
-                                                                           
           ...Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel.                      
           Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him!                  
           That was the most unkindest cut of all;                          
           For when the noble Caesar saw him stab,                          
           Ingratitude, more strong than traitors' arms,                    
           Quite vanquished him.                                            
                                Act III, Scene ii, lines 183-188            
-                                                                           
  This is language the people can relate to, for who has not been           
stung by the ingratitude of a friend?                                       
  -Brutus speaks as though his words were memorized- he could be            
addressing anyone. Antony seems to form his words as he goes along, in      
response to the shifting moods of his audience. His speech, therefore,      
seems more spontaneous, and more deeply felt.                               
  -Brutus projects an image of complete self-control when he speaks;        
Antony pretends to break down and cry. The people listen to Brutus          
with respect, but he is an intellectual, and they do not identify with      
him. Antony is as passionate as the people, and they consider him           
one of their own.                                                           
  -Brutus reaches the people only through their minds; Antony               
touches them through their senses as well, showing them Caesar's            
body and Caesar's bloody cloak- the same one he wore in one of his          
most decisive military victories. Antony wins their admiration by           
repeating that the assassins are all honorable men, and pretending          
that he is just an ordinary fellow who has no grudge to bear.               
  -The failure of Brutus' speech is summed up in the words of the           
Third Plebeian: "Let him [Brutus] be Caesar." No intellectual argument      
is going to reduce the needs of the people for Caesar, and for what he      
represents. If Caesar the man is dead, they will find someone to            
take his place.                                                             
  -Antony may be a cynical opportunist, stopping at nothing to get          
what he wants. And yet he also seems to believe what he says, and to        
speak from the heart. He does appeal to the so-called baser                 
instincts of his audience, but only to accomplish what he considers         
a noble end. Ambition is apparently not his motive: revenge is what he      
seeks- revenge for the death of a dear friend. Is revenge a motive          
less honorable than jealousy (Cassius) or the wish to right wrongs          
that have not yet been committed (Brutus)?                                  
-                                                                           
  CAESAR                                                                    
  Caesar manages to surprise us even after his death. According to          
Antony, Caesar leaves the people his parks, his gardens, and a sum          
of money. Would a tyrant be so generous? Caesar may simply have             
tried to buy himself immortality- to win in death the universal             
respect and admiration he was unable to attain in life. But whatever        
his motives he was interested in the well-being of his public. Would        
Brutus and the other conspirators have been as generous?                    
-                                                                           
  THE CROWDS                                                                
  The crowd's reaction to the two speeches suggests that the common         
people are incapable of ruling themselves. What they seem to need is a      
strong, benevolent authority figure- someone to give order and              
direction to their blind impulses. If Caesar is killed, they will keep      
his spirit alive in Brutus, Antony, or someone else.                        
  Brutus assumes that all Romans are noble, but Rome is not just an         
ideal, it is also a community of people. Like Brutus himself, Rome has      
both a public and a private face. The Rome which Brutus appeals to          
is peopled with wise and virtuous citizens who zealously guard their        
freedom. The actual people, however, are greedy, fun-loving and             
thoughtless- happy to sign over their freedom to anyone who struts          
about like a hero and promises them a day off from work. They can also      
be vicious, as we shall see in the following scene.                         
  Shakespeare's portrait of the common people is not very                   
flattering. The reason may simply be that Shakespeare lived in a            
pre-democratic age. Yet ask yourself: are people today more capable of      
self-government than they were in Roman times?                              
                                                                            
ACT_III|SCENE_III                                                           
                          ACT III, SCENE III                                
-                                                                           
  The poet Cinna is murdered by an angry mob because he has the same        
name as one of the conspirators. Why is a poet the crowd's first            
victim? Perhaps because the murder of someone so obviously innocent         
and apolitical emphasizes the horror of the deed. Perhaps                   
Shakespeare is suggesting- though he does not actually say so- that         
artists have no place in a world torn by civil strife, since it is the      
artist's job to create order from disorder, and to insist upon the          
truth.                                                                      
  The murder reminds us how dangerous the masses are when their             
emotions are unchecked. It also foreshadows months of death and             
destruction, to innocent and guilty alike.                                  
-                                                                           
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
  NOTE: ON THE POWER OF NAMES  Cinna the poet is murdered because he        
has the same name as one of the conspirators. How powerful names            
are, and how often people mistake them for the person beneath! Portia,      
Brutus, Caesar- all try to live up to their names and bring about           
their own destruction. The crowds are happy to call Brutus "Caesar,"        
because it is the name that matters to them, not the man.                   
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
                                                                            
ACT_IV|SCENE_I                                                              
                           ACT IV, SCENE I                                  
-                                                                           
  The "dogs of war" have been set loose. The sickness that began            
with Caesar's death has spread and infected the entire state of             
Rome. In a world without order, brother kills brother and friend kills      
friend.                                                                     
  Antony checks off the names of men to die as casually as someone          
checking off items on a shopping list. This is clearly not the              
"freedom" Brutus envisioned for the people of Rome after the death          
of Caesar.                                                                  
  Antony is ruthless. He is a man without conscience, who will let          
nothing- not honor, not friendship- stand in his way. Yet he remains a      
devoted friend to Caesar. He is also honest with himself and does           
not try to be something he is not. He is brutally effective. He is a        
realist who is willing to dirty his hands to achieve what he considers      
noble ends.                                                                 
  Antony plans to deprive the people of the money promised them in          
Caesar's will. A contemptible act, yes, yet necessary perhaps to raise      
an army to fight the conspirators.                                          
  Antony makes use of Lepidus, then scoffs at him behind his back-          
refusing to share power with such a "barren-spirited fellow" who feeds      
on the fashions of the moment.                                              
  Antony reveals himself both in his willingness to manipulate and          
kill and in his readiness to defy even Caesar's wishes for the people.      
He is wonderfully clearsighted and self-controlled, and yet obsessed        
by the desire for revenge. His mission defines him; it gives him a          
purpose in life without which, it seems, he cannot exist.                   
                                                                            
ACT_IV|SCENE_II                                                             
                           ACT IV, SCENE II                                 
-                                                                           
  The betrayal of a friend disturbs the harmony of the universe and         
brings death and destruction to Rome. In this disordered world,             
relationships are poisoned by distrust. People know as little about         
each other as they know about themselves.                                   
  The disintegration of the Republic continues. Rome is split into two      
warring factions, and the members of the factions are quarreling among      
themselves.                                                                 
  Brutus is angry at Cassius, but rather than give in to his emotions,      
he makes a speech about the nature of love. When love begins to cool        
we put on a formal show of affection, he says; true love needs no such      
formalities to support it. How like Brutus to turn his own emotions         
into a general theory of human nature.                                      
  His feelings under control as usual, Brutus points out the need           
for him and Cassius to put on a show of affection before their troops,      
and to air their grievances in private. Is this a new Brutus-               
advocating deceit? It is strange to see Brutus acting more                  
pragmatically than Cassius. Brutus may be a man of ideas, but he is         
also a man with a practical knowledge of the world.                         
                                                                            
ACT_IV|SCENE_III                                                            
                          ACT IV, SCENE III                                 
-                                                                           
  Your reaction to the quarrel between Cassius and Brutus will say          
as much about you as it says about them. If you are the sort of person      
who compromises his values to get what he wants, you will probably          
sympathize with Cassius. If you are a person who sticks to his              
principles at all costs, you will probably sympathize with Brutus.          
Many readers find their sympathies shifting at this point in the            
play to Cassius, since Brutus treats him coldly, and Cassius tries          
so hard to remain friends.                                                  
-                                                                           
  LINES 1-27                                                                
  Cassius feels wronged because Brutus has ignored his letter               
seeking pardon for his friend Lucius Pella. Brutus has disregarded          
Cassius' plea and publicly disgraced Pella for taking bribes. In times      
like these, says Cassius, we can't afford to pay attention to such          
minor crimes.                                                               
  Brutus, in turn, scolds Cassius for being no better than Pella-           
selling positions to men who don't deserve them. Let's not debase           
ourselves by taking bribes, says Brutus; we killed Caesar because he        
abused his power- his death was pointless if we stoop to the same           
crimes.                                                                     
  Brutus thus refuses to compromise his principles. Should we admire        
him for being so steadfast? Or criticize him for being inflexible           
and not consulting with Cassius before disgracing Pella? Accepting          
bribes in times of war seems trivial- not important enough to risk          
dissension between the two top generals. Brutus may be high-minded,         
but at times like this he also seems smug and self-righteous.               
-                                                                           
  LINES 28-68                                                               
  What begins as a discussion between two grown men soon becomes a          
kids' squabble:                                                             
-                                                                           
    Brutus. You are not, Cassius.                                           
   Cassius. I am.                                                           
    Brutus. I say you are not.                                              
                                  Act IV, Scene iii, lines 33-34            
-                                                                           
    Brutus. Peace, peace, you durst not so have tempted him [Caesar].       
   Cassius. I durst not?                                                    
    Brutus. No.                                                             
   Cassius. What? Durst not tempt him?                                      
    Brutus. For your life your durst not.                                   
                                  Act IV, Scene iii, lines 59-62            
-                                                                           
  By this point, there are no principles at stake- only pride. Brutus,      
the man of high moral standards, steps out from behind his mask of          
stoic resignation, and what does he do? He baits, threatens, and            
insults his friend. Is this the "real" Brutus, at last?                     
  Brutus now retreats again behind high-minded phrases. Wearing his         
words like armor he says:                                                   
-                                                                           
            There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats;                   
            For I am armed so strong in honesty                             
            That they pass me by as the idle wind                           
                                  Act IV, Scene iii, lines 66-68            
-                                                                           
  Brutus is honest, yet there is something offensive about his              
boasting about it. Would he need to, if he believed it himself? He          
seems as sure of himself as Caesar, when Caesar compared himself to         
the Northern Star, moments before his death.                                
-                                                                           
  LINES 69-121                                                              
  Brutus is also angry with Cassius for failing to send money to pay        
for his troops. "I did send to you / For certain sums of gold, which        
you denied me," he complains; "For I can raise no money by vile             
means." (lines 69-71).                                                      
  Brutus can be admired for his principles. He can also be condemned        
as a hypocrite, who is perfectly happy to take money from the               
peasants, so long as Cassius does the dirty work and lets him (Brutus)      
keep his own hands clean.                                                   
  Cassius insists that he did not deny Brutus funds; that his               
messenger "was but a fool / That brought my answer back." Is he             
telling the truth? Whether he is or not, Brutus might have checked          
with Cassius before accusing him of withholding funds.                      
  Brutus seems to care more about his lofty principles than about           
friendship. Cassius cares passionately about friendship, and says,          
convincingly:                                                               
-                                                                           
            A friend should bear his friend's infirmities;                  
            But Brutus makes mine greater than they are.                    
                                  Act IV, Scene iii, lines 85-86            
-                                                                           
  What has gotten into Brutus- what has made him lose his                   
perspective and his self-control? Behind the mask apparently is a           
man no different from the rest of us: a collection of drives and            
passions, painted over with a thin layer of thought.                        
  Note (lines 118-122) that Cassius blames his mother for giving him a      
quick temper ("rash humor"). Was his mother unloving? That might            
explain Cassius' craving for affection.                                     
-                                                                           
  LINES 122-141                                                             
  A Poet now enters and speaks perhaps for Shakespeare when he says,        
"Love, and be friends" (line 130). It is the absence of love and            
friendship that has plunged Rome into civil war, and inflamed the           
heavens. The Poet appears like a Biblical prophet, bearing the              
truth- "Love, and be friends"- and no one hears or cares to listen.         
The Poet, unlike Cinna, escapes with his life, but neither can be           
heard above the sounds of war. As Brutus himself says,                      
-                                                                           
     What should the wars do with these jigging [rhyming] fools?            
                                     Act IV, Scene iii, line 136            
-                                                                           
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
  NOTE: THE VOICE OF SHAKESPEARE HIMSELF  The poet may indeed be a          
fool, with no sense of time and place; but he may also speak for            
Shakespeare, reminding us that artists have a responsibility to             
share their vision with us, just as we have a responsibility to             
listen.                                                                     
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
-                                                                           
  The foolishness perhaps is not in the Poet's simple rhymes, but in        
Brutus' rude and hasty response:                                            
-                                                                           
             Get you hence, sirrah! saucy fellow, hence!                    
                                     Act IV, Scene iii, line 133            
-                                                                           
  Even Cassius is more charitable, and says:                                
-                                                                           
               Bear with him, Brutus, 'tis his fashion.                     
                                          Act IV, Scene iii, 134            
-                                                                           
  LINES 142-160                                                             
  The Poet leaves, and Brutus announces that his wife, Portia, has          
killed herself. Throughout his quarrel with Cassius, he kept the            
news to himself. He reveals the truth in such a cold, abrupt manner         
that we are left wondering if this is a man incapable of love. And yet      
the fact that Brutus can control his emotions may indicate a strong         
self-will rather than an absence of feeling. To accept calmly whatever      
fate brings is a basic principle of his Stoic philosophy. To refuse to      
burden others with his grief is in keeping with his noble nature.           
Perhaps he realizes that a sorrow as great as his cannot be shared,         
and that any effort to reduce it to words can only cheapen it. If           
there is genuine grief behind Brutus' silence, then his childlike           
behavior with Cassius suddenly becomes clear. What we have witnessed        
is the anger and frustration of a man nursing a hidden sorrow.              
  Note that Portia (lines 151-155) kills herself by swallowing fire         
[hot coals]. It is an appropriate way for her to die, since fire is         
a symbol of the destructive powers of the gods, unleashed (some say)        
by the actions of her husband Brutus.                                       
-                                                                           
  LINES 161-194                                                             
  Messala arrives with letters reporting that Octavius and Antony have      
put to death from seventy to one hundred senators, including Cicero.        
The common people, then, are not the only ones who need their emotions      
held in check!                                                              
-                                                                           
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
  NOTE: TWO VERSIONS OF THE PLAY  Brutus tells Messala that he has not      
heard of Portia's death, although just a moment ago Brutus was              
announcing her death to Cassius. It's possible that Brutus is               
putting on an act for Messala, using the opportunity to reinforce           
his public image as a Stoic. Cassius, realizing this, may have              
played along. Most critics believe, however, that Shakespeare later         
revised the scene, and that either he, his editor, or his printer           
forgot to delete one of the two passages relating the news of Portia's      
death.                                                                      
  The second passage- the one in which Brutus learns the news from          
Messala- is much less flattering to Brutus, because of the almost           
inhuman speed with which he dismisses his wife's death and moves on to      
the subject of war. "Why, farewell, Portia," he says; and then after a      
few high-minded words on the inevitability of death, he adds, "Well,        
to our work alive. What do you think / Of marching to Philippi              
presently?" (lines 189-196). It is generally believed that Shakespeare      
wrote this version first, which emphasizes Brutus' stoicism; and            
that he deleted it and added the earlier passage (lines 141-158),           
which emphasizes Brutus' humanity.                                          
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
-                                                                           
  LINES 195-228                                                             
  Brutus and Cassius now discuss strategy: whether to keep their            
position on the heights and wait for the enemy to attack, or to take        
the offensive and try to catch the enemy off guard.                         
  Although Brutus asks Cassius what he thinks, his mind is already          
made up. In his military strategy, as in his philosophy, he is              
convinced that he is right and has no patience for compromise or            
debate. What could be more tactless than his response to Cassius:           
-                                                                           
           Good reasons must of force give place to better.                 
                                     Act IV, Scene iii, line 202            
-                                                                           
  When Cassius politely asks to be heard- "Hear me, good brother,"          
he says- Brutus ignores him and makes one of his high-minded                
speeches about the need to act when the time is ripe (lines                 
215-223). Cassius realizes that it is useless to argue with someone so      
obstinate, and bows to Brutus' stronger will.                               
  Brutus does not hesitate to make difficult military decisions, so it      
is unfair to call him a man of ideas, incapable of action. And yet          
it is perhaps the newness of his job, and his desire to prove               
himself worthy of it, that make him seek a single, decisive victory.        
-                                                                           
  LINES 229-307                                                             
  Brutus, having broken his silence about Portia, seems able to             
relax again, if only for a moment. He asks Lucius- symbol of youth and      
innocence- to play music, perhaps so that he can hear the harmonies of      
a simpler, more carefree time. He puts his own concerns aside and           
considers the comforts of his men. When Lucius falls asleep, he is too      
considerate to wake him up.                                                 
  Lucius has no guilty conscience to interrupt his sleep. Brutus,           
however, is kept awake by Caesar's ghost, who promises to reappear          
at the decisive battle at Philippi.                                         
-                                                                           
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
  NOTE: THE GHOST OF CAESAR  The ghost is a reminder that there are         
powers in the world that control our fate- powers that cannot be            
grasped by logic and reason. The ghost is also a dramatic way of            
portraying an image in a nightmare- an image that embodies the guilt        
and self-doubt beneath Brutus' firm exterior.                               
  The ghost vanishes and Brutus wakens his men. Lucius, not                 
realizing that he has fallen asleep, worries that his instrument is         
out of tune. "The strings, my lord, are false" (line 290), he says.         
  And so they are. The harmonies of life have been drowned out by           
the cries of men in their sleep and by the baying of "the dogs of           
war." Musicians, like poets, won't be heard again until order is            
restored, and the Roman state is back on its heaven-appointed course.       
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
                                                                            
ACT_V|SCENE_I                                                               
                            ACT V, SCENE I                                  
-                                                                           
  Shakespeare has structured his play around the assassination and the      
consequences of the assassination. By the final act the issues have         
all been spelled out; events now take their course, and fate has its        
way. As Brutus says, "This same day / Must end that work the ides of        
March begun" (lines 112-113).                                               
-                                                                           
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
  NOTE: A STRUGGLE FOR POWER  Brutus joined the conspiracy because          
of his love for Rome, yet he never speaks of what the senators might        
do with their newly-restored powers, nor does he envision a better          
world without Caesar. The silence of both factions on all issues            
beyond the current battle suggests that they are engaged primarily          
in a power struggle over two forms of government- a monarchy and a          
republic. Both factions say they care about the people, but both            
manipulate the people for private ends.                                     
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
-                                                                           
  Brutus and Cassius seem gripped by a sense of doom. They go               
through the motions of fighting, but seem to understand intuitively         
that fate has already decided against them. All that is left for            
them is to play their parts as nobly as they can.                           
-                                                                           
  LINES 1-20                                                                
  Brutus' decision to abandon the heights was not wise; even Antony         
did not believe Brutus would be foolish enough to give up his               
strategic advantage. Antony orders Octavius to lead his troops along        
the left side of the battlefield. Octavius refuses, not for any             
military reasons, it seems, but because "I will do so." Octavius            
behaves as willfully as a young Caesar who needs to remind others of        
his power. Antony bows to Octavius, perhaps because he knows the issue      
is not important enough to fight about, or because he recognizes            
Octavius' right to rule.                                                    
-                                                                           
  LINES 21-68                                                               
  The four generals meet on the plains of Philippi and battle each          
other with words. Antony, Cassius and Brutus take turns trying to           
deflate each other's egos. Brutus takes particular delight in this          
verbal sword-play. Only Octavius keeps his perspective, urging them to      
get to the business at hand.                                                
-                                                                           
  LINES 69-125                                                              
  Cassius, sensing that he is about to die, wants the world to know         
that he is following Brutus' battle plan against his will. Two sides        
of Cassius are apparent here. His need to prove himself a man shows in      
his concern for his reputation as a soldier; and his craving for            
affection shows in his willingness to die rather than oppose the            
wishes of his good friend Brutus.                                           
-                                                                           
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
  NOTE: THE IMPORTANCE OF OMENS  Cassius now believes in omens- in          
forces beyond his rational understanding and control. He used to think      
the gods were indifferent to men, but now acknowledges the existence        
of supernatural forces that shape his destiny. What he has learned          
is that people can't control their fate, yet are held accountable           
for their actions, and are ultimately rewarded or punished for              
everything they do.                                                         
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
-                                                                           
  How different Brutus and Cassius behave when they are alone               
together, and can put aside their threats and boasts, and be                
themselves. Because danger and doom press down upon them, they are          
more honest than ever before. Cassius asks the gods for victory, not        
so that he can gain riches and power, but so that he and Brutus can         
grow old together- friends in times of peace as in times of war.            
Though the battle has not even begun, Cassius says farewell to              
Brutus as though defeat were inevitable. He speaks with gentle              
resignation- almost as if he welcomes death.                                
  Brutus, also convinced the end is near, says that suicide is against      
his philosophy, but that he would never suffer the indignity of             
being led, a prisoner, through the streets of Rome. Thus Brutus             
consciously denies his philosophy, and listens to his heart.                
  The two men part with a touching show of gentleness. Names and            
labels, roles and reputations- all fade in the face of death. The           
masks slip, and what we see is the simple humanity of two good              
friends.                                                                    
                                                                            
ACT_V|SCENE_II                                                              
                           ACT V, SCENE II                                  
-                                                                           
  This brief scene indicates the passage of time, and lets us know          
that the battle has begun. Brutus seems confident and in control- a         
man of action as well as words. A moment ago his cause seemed lost;         
now fate is on his side as he takes the offense and orders Cassius          
to attack.                                                                  
                                                                            
ACT_V|SCENE_III                                                             
                           ACT V, SCENE III                                 
-                                                                           
  LINES 1-50                                                                
  The outcome of the battle remains uncertain: Brutus has beaten            
Octavius, but Cassius' troops are surrounded by Antony's. Cassius           
learns that Antony has set fire to his tents and sends his trusted          
friend Titinius to find out whether the approaching troops are friends      
or enemies. Cassius- the man who faulted Caesar for his physical            
imperfections- admits a handicap of his own: nearsightedness. He is         
shortsighted mentally as well as physically for he cannot see beyond        
the moment and assumes his death is near. "My life is run his               
compass," he says. His pessimism has no basis in fact, but he seems to      
want to believe the worst.                                                  
  Pindarus reports that Titinius has been surrounded by the enemy           
and taken prisoner. Cassius calls himself a coward "to live so long, /      
To see my best friend ta'en before my face!" (lines 34-35).                 
Shouting, "Caesar, thou art revenged," he stabs himself with the            
same sword that killed Caesar, and dies.                                    
  Cassius gains, at the moment of his death, a certain dignity.             
Today we consider suicide a form of murder, but the Romans saw it as a      
noble act, particularly when it was done to avoid dishonor. Cassius'        
final thoughts are not for himself- for power or for glory- but for         
a friend whom he believes he has sent to his death. Caesar, too, in         
his final moments, revealed himself as a person who valued                  
friendship above all. Both Cassius and Caesar, facing death, focus          
upon the importance of personal, private relationships, rather than         
public reputation. This wins our affection; it also wins our pity- for      
it comes too late to matter.                                                
-                                                                           
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
 NOTE: THE STRUCTURE OF THE PLAY  Some readers complain that Julius         
Caesar is a poorly constructed play because one of the two main             
characters (Caesar) dies before the end of the third act. Yet though        
Caesar the man dies, his spirit continues to live in the hearts of the      
people, and to dominate the action of the play. His spirit revenges         
itself on Cassius- Brutus will be next. What neither Cassius nor            
Brutus realizes is that Caesarism cannot be destroyed so long as the        
people need a powerful leader to give order and splendor to their           
lives.                                                                      
---------------------------------------------------------------------       
-                                                                           
  LINES 51-110                                                              
  Titinius returns too late for Cassius to learn that Brutus                
defeated Octavius, and that Titinius was not taken prisoner but             
greeted by Brutus' triumphant troops. How shortsighted of Cassius           
not to have confirmed his intelligence reports before taking his life!      
On one hand, forces beyond his control- whether coincidence or fate-        
have determined his destiny and, therefore, the final outcome of the        
battle. On the other hand, Cassius seems to have lost the will to           
fight and thus brings about his own, and Brutus', destruction.              
Titinius compares Cassius' death to the setting sun, which brings           
darkness to Rome:                                                           
-                                                                           
                         O setting sun,                                     
             As in thy red rays thou dost sink to night,                    
             So in his red blood Cassius' day is set.                       
             The sun of Rome is set. Our day is gone:                       
                                   Act V, Scene iii, lines 60-63            
-                                                                           
  The tribute is sincere, we know, because Titinius now takes his life      
to prove "how (he) regarded Caius Cassius." But how do we reconcile         
this picture of Cassius with Caesar's portrait of him as a dangerous        
man with a "lean and hungry look"? Perhaps the most we can say is that      
Cassius- like the rest of us- was a different man to different people-      
as much a friend to Titinius as an enemy to Caesar. It was                  
Shakespeare's genius that he could portray two sides (or more) of a         
single person, without passing final judgment on him. Can any of us         
claim such tolerance, understanding, or dramatic skill?                     
  Brutus discovers the body of his fallen friend and exclaims, "O           
Julius Caesar, thou are mighty yet!" Caesar the man has been slain,         
but his spirit continues to rule.                                           
  Brutus calls Cassius "The last of all the Romans," adding,                
-                                                                           
                   It is impossible that ever Rome                          
                   Should breed thy fellow [equal].                         
                                 Act V, scene iii, lines 100-101            
-                                                                           
  Does his sorrow blind him to Cassius' faults? Is he simply saying         
what is expected at the death of a friend? Or does the finality of          
death restore his perspective on Cassius' good qualities? In any case,      
his words imply that he believes as firmly as ever in the rightness of      
his cause.                                                                  
  Note how Brutus feels he ought to cry, but, true to his nature, is        
either so disciplined or so unfeeling that he saves his tears for a         
more convenient moment. He repeats himself- "I shall find time,             
Cassius; I shall find time" (line 103)- either because he is                
overcome with emotion, or because he doesn't mean what he's saying.         
Brutus wants the funeral to be held away from camp, "Lest it                
discomfort us" (line 106). Either he really wants to protect the            
morale of his troops, or he is using them to hide his own                   
discomfort. True to his nature he puts aside whatever sorrow he             
feels and acts for the general welfare. "Let us to the field," he           
says, where "We shall try fortune in a second fight" (line 110).            
                                                                            
ACT_V|SCENE_IV                                                              
                           ACT V, SCENE IV                                  
-                                                                           
  In this fallen world, people are still assuming other names and           
titles, and trying to be something they are not. Cato tries to live up      
to his father's reputation- "I am the son of Marcus Cato," he says-         
and is killed. (So his sister, Portia, insisted that she was Cato's         
daughter, too, and was rewarded with death.) Lucilius pretends to be        
Brutus, and Antony's soldiers take his word for it. Antony, however,        
is not fooled, and says:                                                    
-                                                                           
                          Keep this man safe;                               
               Give him all kindness. I had rather have                     
               Such men my friends than enemies.                            
                                    Act V, Scene iv, lines 27-29            
-                                                                           
  Not long ago Antony was busy checking off the names of people who         
must die, so it's difficult to believe that he has suddenly                 
developed a taste for mercy or a concern for the sanctity of human          
life. What he probably recognizes is his need to end the bloodshed          
if he is going to reestablish order and unite the people behind him.        
He may still be an opportunist, but he does seek reconciliation rather      
than revenge, which bodes well for the future of Rome.                      
                                                                            
ACT_V|SCENE_V                                                               
                            ACT V, SCENE V                                  
-                                                                           
  LINES 1-59                                                                
  The tide has turned against Brutus. His scout, Statilius, reached         
the enemy lines but was killed or captured on his return. Brutus,           
sensing defeat, asks Dardanius, and then Volumnius, to slay him. The        
man of reason- who all his life has refused to succumb to his               
emotions- now breaks down and cries:                                        
-                                                                           
               Now is that noble vessel full of grief,                      
               That it runs over even at his eves.                          
                                     Act V, scene v, lines 13-14            
-                                                                           
  Brutus' final moments seem almost joyful, without anger or                
regrets. He is still convinced of the justice of his cause, but             
welcomes death as a release from the trials of life. Like Cassius           
and Caesar, his final thoughts are not of Rome or of his own nobility,      
but of friendship:                                                          
-                                                                           
              My heart doth joy that yet in all my life                     
              I found no man but he was true to me.                         
                                     Act V, Scene v, lines 34-35            
-                                                                           
  Cassius, of course, was not true to Brutus when he sent him forged        
letters. And Antony was not true to Brutus when he promised not to          
blame the conspirators in his funeral oration. To the last, Brutus          
continues to see the best in people, and to make them seem better than      
they are; he also remains blind to human nature, and unable to see the      
world for what it is.                                                       
  Brutus predicts (lines 36-38) that he will have more glory "by            
this losing day" than Octavius and Antony, but he is wrong again:           
Antony will soon become the first, and one of the greatest, emperors        
of Rome.                                                                    
  In his final words- "Caesar, now be still; / killed not thee with         
half so good a will" (lines 50-51)- Brutus reveals that he has              
always been troubled by the assassination; that in his heart he is          
happier taking his own life than Caesar's. This is not necessarily          
an admission of wrongdoing, but it is an acknowledgment that he             
could not reconcile his love for Caesar with his public duty to             
assassinate him. Brutus, the man of reason, killed Caesar for the best      
interests of Rome; but Brutus, the man, has never forgiven himself for      
murdering a friend. Whether Brutus is to be praised or blamed for           
putting principles ahead of feelings is something every reader will         
have to decide for himself.                                                 
-                                                                           
  LINES 60-81                                                               
  Octavius agrees to accept all of Brutus' men into his service-            
another indication of his willingness to heal wounds in order to            
reestablish order.                                                          
  Antony's speech praising Brutus may be nothing more than a formal         
tribute to the dead. His words ring true only if he is saying that          
Brutus is the most noble of all the conspirators- not the most noble        
of all Romans.                                                              
  Antony calls Brutus a person in whom the elements were so mixed           
"that nature might stand up / And say to all the world, 'This was a         
man!'" (lines 74-75). Antony must be speaking of the public Brutus,         
and the mask he presented to the world; for the private man was             
haunted by ghosts, and "with himself at war" (Act I, Scene ii, line         
46).                                                                        
  Octavius makes the final tribute, since with him the circle               
closes, and order is restored.                                              
                                                                            
TESTS_AND_ANSWERS                                                           
                            A STEP BEYOND                                   
                          TESTS AND ANSWERS                 (SJULTEST)      
-                                                                           
                                TESTS                                       
-                                                                           
  TEST 1                                                                    
-                                                                           
  _____  1. Tribunes disperse the crowd as the play begins                  
-                                                                           
            A. in fear that the mob will riot                               
            B. fearing that Caesar's popularity may lead to the             
               destruction of democracy in Rome                             
            C. upon the orders of the Senate                                
-                                                                           
  _____  2. Caesar asks Antony to touch Calpurnia as he runs the race       
-                                                                           
            A. to bring him luck                                            
            B. as a signal to Caesar to refuse the crown                    
            C. to shake off her "sterile curse"                             
-                                                                           
  _____  3. "Beware the Ides of March" was spoken by                        
-                                                                           
            A. a soothsayer to Caesar                                       
            B. Cassius to Caesar                                            
            C. Caesar to Brutus                                             
-                                                                           
  _____  4. "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our _____, But in            
            _____, that we are underlings.                                  
-                                                                           
            A. fate... leaders                                              
            B. hands... our minds                                           
            C. stars... ourselves                                           
-                                                                           
  _____  5. Cassius appeals to Brutus by                                    
-                                                                           
            I. pointing out Caesar's weaknesses                             
           II. offering Brutus the crown                                    
          III. alluding to Brutus' noble ancestors                          
-                                                                           
            A. I and II only                                                
            B. II and III only                                              
            C. I and III only                                               
-                                                                           
  _____  6. Caesar tells Anthony that Cassius is dangerous because          
-                                                                           
            A. he does not forget a grudge                                  
            B. he is fat                                                    
            C. he seldom smiles                                             
-                                                                           
  _____  7. Immediately after Caesar refused the crown three times,         
-                                                                           
            I. there is a "tempest dropping fire as if there is             
               strife in heaven"                                            
           II. he suffered an epileptic fit                                 
          III. he offered his throat to be cut                              
-                                                                           
            A. I and II only                                                
            B. II and III only                                              
            C. I and III only                                               
-                                                                           
  _____  8. The conspirators want Brutus to join them because               
-                                                                           
            A. Brutus' strength and courage would insure their              
               success                                                      
            B. Brutus is highly regarded by the people                      
            C. they could more easily escape punishment if their plot       
               failed                                                       
-                                                                           
  _____  9. The message left in Brutus' window reads                        
-                                                                           
            A. "Peace, freedom and liberty!"                                
            B. "Speak, strike, redress!"                                    
            C. "Think them as a serpent's egg and kill them in the          
               shell!"                                                      
-                                                                           
  _____ 10. "Let us be sacrificers, but not butchers" was an argument       
-                                                                           
            A. to prevent mutilating Caesar's body                          
            B. against killing Caesar                                       
            C. against killing Antony                                       
-                                                                           
  11. Was the assassination justified?                                      
-                                                                           
  12. Who delivers the best funeral oration, Brutus or Antony?              
-                                                                           
  13. What is Shakespeare's view of the common people of Rome? How do       
      they help shape events?                                               
-                                                                           
  14. What is Shakespeare's view of women?                                  
-                                                                           
  TEST 2                                                                    
-                                                                           
  _____  1. In his funeral oration, Antony refers to the assassins as       
-                                                                           
            A. traitors                                                     
            B. men of good cause                                            
            C. honorable men                                                
-                                                                           
  _____  2. Caesar's will                                                   
-                                                                           
            A. names Mark Antony as his successor                           
            B. leaves 75 drachmas to every Roman citizen                    
            C. explains why he refused the crown                            
-                                                                           
  _____  3. After the funeral, the Plebians                                 
-                                                                           
            A. kill Cinna the poet, mistaking him for Cinna the             
               conspirator                                                  
            B. vow to follow Mark Antony                                    
            C. go to burn the houses of the assassins                       
-                                                                           
  _____  4. Antony's opinion of Lepidus, his fellow member of the           
            triumvirate, is that he is                                      
-                                                                           
            A. an honorable man, "high-spirited and meritorious"            
            B. to be used as a beast of burden "to ease ourselves of        
               sland'rous loads"                                            
            C. to be feared because "such men are never at heart's          
               ease Whiles they behold a greater than themselves"           
-                                                                           
  _____  5. At Sardis, Brutus' servant tells him that Cassius               
-                                                                           
            A. has shown himself to be "a hot friend cooling"               
            B. is plotting to kill Brutus                                   
            C. is planning to flee the country to escape the wrath of       
               the populace                                                 
-                                                                           
  _____  6. Following the argument over Cassius' refusal to give            
            Brutus gold to pay his legions,                                 
-                                                                           
            A. they part in anger with the intention of fighting            
               Antony with their separate armies                            
            B. Cassius explains that he himself is in financial             
               straits                                                      
            C. are reconciled and attribute their rash statements to        
               ill temper                                                   
-                                                                           
  _____  7. Portia                                                          
-                                                                           
            A. was killed by the mob that stormed Brutus' house             
            B. died by swallowing fire                                      
            C. tried to persuade Brutus to save himself by delivering       
               Cassius to Antony                                            
-                                                                           
  _____  8. Brutus' argument for meeting the enemy at Philippi is           
-                                                                           
            A. he has received an omen in a dream that good fortune         
               awaits him there                                             
            B. that there his forces would be better rested and             
               prepared                                                     
            C. that the opposing army will pick up strength and             
               numbers if allowed to march from Philippi                    
-                                                                           
  _____  9. The ghost of Caesar                                             
-                                                                           
            A. hurls at Brutus the accusation, "Et tu, Brute?"              
            B. tells Brutus he shall see him at Philippi                    
            C. completes the prophetic song that Brutus' slave had          
               begun before he fell asleep                                  
-                                                                           
  _____ 10. Before the battle, Cassius says he saw the following            
            omen:                                                           
-                                                                           
            A. a snake had wrapped itself around his army's ensign          
            B. two eagles perched on his army's ensign were replaced        
               by ravens and crows                                          
            C. his army's ensign had fallen to the ground and was           
               ripped to shreds by two lions                                
-                                                                           
  11. Was Julius Caesar a well-structured play?                             
-                                                                           
  12. Is Brutus a man of honor who is destroyed by forces beyond his        
control? Or is he a self-righteous hypocrite who cloaks his evil deeds      
in high-minded phrases and plunges his country into civil war?              
-                                                                           
  13. Is Rome left in good hands after the death of Brutus?                 
-                                                                           
  14. What role does friendship play in the lives and destinies of the      
characters?                                                                 
-                                                                           
                               ANSWERS                                      
-                                                                           
  TEST 1                                                                    
-                                                                           
  1. B     2. C     3. A     4. C     5. C     6. C     7. B                
  8. B    9. B    10. C                                                     
-                                                                           
  11. Critics have argued this point for hundreds of years, so you can      
defend either point of view as long as you support your case with           
evidence from the text.                                                     
  If you think Caesar deserves to die, you'll need to prove that            
he's unfit to rule. That's not hard to do. Physically, he's                 
partially deaf and suffers from epilepsy- the marks of an aging man         
seriously past his prime. As for his mental shortcomings, he's              
superstitious and (though he hides the truth from himself) he's afraid      
and easily flattered. His ambition threatens to undermine hundreds          
of years of Republican rule. His speech comparing himself to the North      
Star is the height of blasphemy and arrogance. His refusal to pardon        
Publius Cimber is the mark of a tyrant incapable of justice or pity.        
Even Caesar's close friend Brutus thinks Caesar must die- and               
Brutus, despite his shortcomings, is an honorable man who thinks            
only of his country's best interests.                                       
  If you believe the murder is wrong, you can find an equal amount          
of evidence to support your position. Caesar may have physical              
ailments, but so what? Hasn't he just returned triumphantly from            
battle? He may suffer from fears and superstitions, but so do all men:      
what he should be judged for are his accomplishments, not his               
private life. He may be ambitious, but what's wrong with ambition?          
No one has gotten anywhere without it. In our democratic age we're          
suspicious of politicians who seek unlimited power. But the                 
Elizabethans lived under a strong monarch who brought them peace and        
prosperity; they would have had no such prejudice against Caesar.           
Nowhere in the play do we see Caesar suppressing the rights of the          
people. (He does put the Roman officers Flavius and Marullus to death,      
but they are traitors who deserve to die.) He is vain, but deserves to      
be vain. In his personal life he is considerate to his wife, courteous      
to the conspirators, and generous (in his will) to the Roman people.        
He can be inflexible, as when he refuses to pardon Publius Cimber, but      
the times demanded such behavior. Julius Caesar was written near the        
end of Elizabeth's reign, when Shakespeare and his contemporaries were      
deeply troubled by the threats to her life and by the need for an           
orderly succession. Shakespeare's play can be seen, therefore, as a         
defense of order, and a warning to his fellow-Elizabethans of the           
dangers of tyranny and revolution.                                          
-                                                                           
  12. There is no right or wrong answer to the question. But like a         
good defense attorney you can gather your evidence from the facts           
(as presented in the text, Act III, Scene ii) and make a strong case        
for either point of view.                                                   
  If you favor Brutus' speech, you can argue that: (1) it is spoken by      
a man who respects his audience and believes that truth is on his           
side; (2) Brutus reasons with people, he does not talk down to them or      
cater to their base emotions; (3) he is extremely effective in his use      
of rhetorical questions, questions that involve the people and              
encourage them to make up their own minds; (4) he is brief and to           
the point; (5) he convinces his audience (when Brutus finishes, the         
citizens exclaim, "This Caesar was a tyrant," and "We are blest that        
Rome is rid of him"); or (6) the only reason the crowds turn against        
Brutus is that Antony has the last word; the crowds would probably          
have turned against Antony if Brutus had been the last to speak.            
  If you think Antony made the most effective speech- and this is what      
most critics have argued over the years- you can point out that: (1)        
yes, Antony appeals to the emotions of his audience, but people are         
led by their emotions, not by their Intellects; (2) Antony's speech         
seems more spontaneous and therefore more genuinely felt; he forms his      
words as he goes along, in response to the shifting moods of his            
audience; (3) Brutus seems to talk down to the people; Antony               
identifies with them; or (4) Brutus seems to be reading a memorized         
speech; Antony seems to speak from the heart.                               
  When you defend Antony's speech, point out how he breaks down and         
cries and how he shows the crowds Caesar's bloody cloak. Point out          
that he speaks in verse (Brutus speaks in prose), and that he avoids        
fine distinctions, which the public cannot understand, and reduces          
everyone to heroes or villains. Mention that though he does appeal          
to the so-called baser instincts of his audience, he does so for            
what he considers a noble end.                                              
  For further help, turn to "The Play," Act III, Scene ii.                  
-                                                                           
  13. Shakespeare's portrait of the common people is not very               
flattering. When we first see them, they're enjoying a day off from         
work to celebrate Caesar's triumphant return. Politics don't seem to        
interest them: they're too wrapped up in their own private lives to         
care about anything but their holiday. In his funeral oration,              
Brutus tries to reason with the people, but they misunderstand him and      
try to turn him into a Caesar. No intellectual argument is going to         
reduce their need for a leader; if Caesar the man is dead, they will        
find someone else to take his place. Antony succeeds in his speech          
because he appeals to the blind emotions of the crowd. When he              
finishes speaking, the crowds cry, "Revenge! About [let's go!]!             
Burn! Fire! Kill! Slay!" (Act III, Scene ii, line 206). Their murder        
of the innocent poet Cinna (Act III, Scene iii) reminds us how              
dangerous they can be when their emotions are unchecked. If you were        
going to compare the Roman populous to a single person, you would have      
to compare the common people to the body, and the rulers to the             
head. The assassination is justified by the need to continue a              
Republican (representative) form of government. But from what we see        
of the people, they lack the intelligence or interest to select rulers      
to represent them. What interests them are the trappings of greatness,      
the pageantry and the glory. Caesar is murdered to give these people        
their freedom, but it's doubtful that freedom is what they want or          
need.                                                                       
-                                                                           
  14. You can write a strong paper arguing that Shakespeare's women         
are weak, subservient, and superstitious. And you can write an equally      
strong essay arguing that Shakespeare was hundreds of years ahead of        
his time in his view of woman as man's equal, perhaps even his "better      
half."                                                                      
  Let's start with the less flattering view of women. Calpurnia speaks      
only 26 lines, so you have no excuse for not reading them carefully.        
The second time she appears (Act II, Scene ii) she comes across as a        
frightened child haunted by bad dreams and omens. She is                    
undignified, nervous, and weak. Living with Caesar has apparently           
not taught her how to deal with him, for she orders him not to leave        
the house- the surest way, of course, of forcing him to go. Portia          
asks to be treated as her husband's equal; when he does so, she             
falls apart and eventually takes her life. Note, too, that Portia           
wants to be Brutus' equal only so that she can be more a part of his        
life; nowhere does she suggest that he be more a part of hers.              
  If you want to write a paper portraying Shakespeare as a defender of      
women's rights, point out that all of Calpurnia's dreams, and all of        
Portia's fears, come true. Thus Shakespeare's women, in their               
intuitive way, seem closer to the truth than the men. Both Portia           
and Calpurnia have an innate sense of wisdom that lets them see             
through words to the very heart of things. Both women are also devoted      
wives, concerned about the well-being of their husbands. Calpurnia may      
seem a bit shrill, but who wouldn't be, with a pompous husband like         
Caesar? Portia is modest and tender, but she is also strong willed and      
dignified. She is one of the few characters in the play who use             
language to communicate their feelings, rather than to hide from them.      
If the men in Julius Caesar had listened to their women, the                
assassination would never have taken place, and Rome would never            
have been plunged into civil war.                                           
-                                                                           
  TEST 2                                                                    
-                                                                           
  1. C     2. B     3. C     4. B     5. A     6. C    7. B                 
  8. C     9. B    10. B                                                    
-                                                                           
  11. You can argue that it isn't- but only if you believe that Caesar      
is the main character and that it's wrong for the main character to         
die in the middle of a play. In order to prove that Caesar is               
Shakespeare's "hero," point out that the play is named after him,           
and that a reader's feeling toward the assassination, which is the          
central action of the play, depend on his attitude toward Caesar.           
  If you believe that Caesar is the main character and that Julius          
Caesar is a well-structured play, point out that although Caesar            
dies in the third act, his spirit- what he stands for- dominates the        
action of the play from the opening scene until Brutus' death, and          
that it continues to live on in the person of Octavius. To prove            
that Caesarism lives after the man's death, discuss: the way the            
common people want and need a king, whoever he may be; the                  
appearance of Caesar's ghost (Act IV, Scene iii, lines 273-285);            
Cassius' comment as he dies: "Caesar, thou art revenged" (Act V, Scene      
iii, line 45); Brutus' comment that he has seen Caesar's ghost again        
on the fields of Philippi (Act V, Scene v, lines 16-19); and Brutus'        
dying words, "Caesar, now be still" (Act V, Scene v, line 50).              
  If you consider Brutus the main character, you'll have no trouble         
arguing that Julius Caesar is a well-constructed play, since the            
action begins with Brutus' involvement in the plot and ends with his        
death and the eulogy over his body.                                         
  A play can be structured, of course, not only around characters, but      
also around certain actions. You can point out that the assassination,      
the pivotal action of the play, takes place in the very middle of           
Julius Caesar (Act III, Scene i). Acts I and II lead up to the              
assassination, and Acts IV and V trace the consequences of the              
assassination. A more balanced structure would be hard to imagine.          
-                                                                           
  12. As in life itself, it's possible to defend two opposing points        
of view.                                                                    
  If you believe Brutus is a man of high principles who is simply           
too good for the world he lives in, point out how he is defeated (a)        
by the underhandedness of Cassius; (b) by the blind emotions of the         
mob; (c) by Cassius' fatal error on the battlefield; and (d) by the         
common man's need for a king. To prove that Brutus has a conscience,        
note the fact that he hasn't the heart to watch races (Act I, Scene         
ii, lines 25-30) while a tyrant threatens the freedom of his                
countrymen. Point out the high esteem in which he's held by both            
friend and foe, by Senators and commoners alike. (The conspirators          
know they can't win the common people to their cause without Brutus'        
support.) Note how Brutus alone, of all the conspirators, insists that      
Antony's life be spared and that Antony be allowed to speak at              
Caesar's funeral. Study Brutus' own oration as the work of a man who        
believes that right is on his side and that justice will prevail.           
Quote Brutus' speeches defending his honor (for example: "For let           
the gods so speed me, as I love / The name of honor more than I fear        
death" (Act I, scene ii, lines 88-89). Today, in our post-Freudian          
world, we wonder if a truly virtuous man would need to call                 
attention to his virtue. Yet it seems only natural for a man                
contemplating murder to defend himself, and it seems unfair to              
question Brutus' integrity when he expresses how he feels.                  
  If you are feeling less kind to Brutus, you could write a paper           
proving that he is the villain of the play. Note how Cassius gets           
him to join the conspiracy by flattering him and appealing to his           
sense of family pride (Act I, Scene ii, lines 58-62, 158-161). Note         
how in his discussions with Cassius, both before and after the              
assassination, he is incapable of compromise and always insists on          
getting his way. Point out how Brutus begins his speech (Act II, Scene      
i, lines 10-34) with his mind already made up to murder Caesar ("It         
must be by his death"), and how he goes on to rationalize this              
decision with the most tenuous logic. His pride causes him to               
dismiss Cicero, even though Cicero is the most famous orator of the         
day. Brutus insists that he himself is honorable, but a truly noble         
man wouldn't need to go around making pompous speeches about it.            
Brutus likes to think of himself as a Stoic, who lives by reason            
alone; yet he's plagued by a guilty conscience, and, in his quarrel         
with Cassius, he is reduced to a squabbling child. Brutus' funeral          
oration shows how out of touch he is with the hearts and minds of           
the people whom he says he wants to serve. In his unwillingness to          
accept himself for what he is, Brutus is as vain and dangerous as           
Caesar.                                                                     
-                                                                           
  13. To answer this question, you need only to read and carefully          
study Octavius' words during his four appearances- a total of only          
30 lines. He appears in Act IV, Scene i and in Act V, Scene v.              
  When Octavius first appears he's checking off the names of people         
who must die, and behaving as casually as someone checking off items        
on a laundry list. Unlike Brutus, he has no qualms about murder, and        
he doesn't let principles stand in the way of what he thinks is best        
for his cause. As the head of Rome, he would therefore probably be a        
pragmatist and a man of action. He would be willing to sanction any         
action that furthered the greater good of his country. Whether he           
would be a man of vision is unclear, but he would establish specific        
goals and get results.                                                      
  Octavius tries to save Lepidus' life, not, apparently, from any           
sense of mercy- only moments before he was willing to kill Lepidus'         
brother- but from the belief that it would be useful to have another        
"tried and valiant" soldier in his ranks. Later on Octavius offers          
to take all of Brutus' men into his service. Charity doesn't seem to        
be one of his virtues, though; what seems to motivate him is the            
practical need to end the war and reunite the country under his single      
rule.                                                                       
  Octavius is a person who accepts the world for what it is and does        
everything necessary to achieve his goals. His methods may not be           
admirable, but they are effective. To his credit, he seems more             
interested in preserving order than in revenge. Blind ambition seems        
to be less a factor in his decisions than a clear-sighted,                  
single-minded drive to defend what he considers the best interests          
of Rome. Would Brutus the idealist have made a better ruler? To answer      
that question, you'll have to discuss Brutus' behavior before and           
after the assassination, and then decide whether you think a country        
needs a visionary at its helm, or a practical politician.                   
-                                                                           
  14. Brutus, Cassius, Caesar- all three strut across the public            
stage, speaking grandly about power and principles. But underneath,         
what matters most to them is the loyalty of friends. It is an act of        
disloyalty- the murder of Caesar- that undermines the order of the          
world and plunges Rome into civil war. Disloyalty is like a disease         
that can threaten the health not only of individuals but of an              
entire nation. As death approaches, the three men come to recognize         
the truth, that friendship matters more than abstract principles or         
vain ambitions. Health is restored when Octavius takes command and          
extends a friendly hand to his enemies.                                     
  How should you discuss the role of friendship in the lives of             
these three men? Point out that Caesar's last words (Act III, Scene i,      
line 77) are not about the loss of glory, or about death, but about         
the disloyalty of his friend, Brutus. Mention that when Brutus puts         
his abstract sense of justice ahead of his love of Caesar, he rains         
destruction on himself, on his fellow-conspirators, and on all of           
Rome. His betrayal accomplishes nothing, for Caesarism- what Caesar         
represents- lives on in the hearts of the people, and is reborn in the      
person of Octavius. Brutus' final words (Act V, Scene v, lines              
50-51) are an admission that he never forgave himself for murdering         
a friend.                                                                   
  Point out that almost everything Cassius does is motivated by a need      
for friendship, and by a desire to revenge himself on those who deny        
it. Why does he want to destroy Caesar? Because Caesar bears a              
grudge against him. Why does he always follow Brutus' advice, even          
when it's contrary to good sense? Because he's dependent on Brutus'         
affection. Cassius' final thoughts (Act V, Scene iii, 34-35) are not        
for himself- for power and glory- but for a friend whom he believes         
(mistakenly) he has sent to his death.                                      
                                                                            
TERM_PAPER_IDEAS                                                            
                           TERM PAPER IDEAS                 (SJULTERM)      
-                                                                           
  1. What is Caesarism? What are its advantages and disadvantages,          
according to the Senators, according to the common people of Rome, and      
according to you?                                                           
-                                                                           
  2. Why, at this moment in Roman history, does Caesarism seem              
inevitable?                                                                 
-                                                                           
  3. Should people be judged by their intentions, by their actions, or      
by the results of their actions? Defend your point of view with             
specific reference to the characters in Julius Caesar.                      
-                                                                           
  4. What are Caesar's strengths and weaknesses as a ruler, as a            
husband, and as an ordinary citizen of Rome?                                
-                                                                           
  5. Why did Shakespeare choose to include the character Lucius in his      
play?                                                                       
-                                                                           
  6. Discuss Casca. Is he a poorly drawn character, or are his              
apparent inconsistencies merely the different sides of a complex            
personality?                                                                
-                                                                           
  7. What light does the argument scene between Cassius and Brutus          
(Act IV, Scene iii) shed on their personalities? Was Brutus right to        
condemn Lucius Pella for accepting bribes? What moral issue is at           
stake here? What is Cassius' position? What is yours?                       
-                                                                           
  8. Who makes a better ruler, a pragmatist or a man of principle?          
Defend your position with specific references to the play.                  
-                                                                           
  9. Discuss Brutus' relationship with Cassius.                             
-                                                                           
  10. Why does Cassius always give in to Brutus' wishes?                    
-                                                                           
  11. How does Cassius get Brutus to join the conspiracy?                   
-                                                                           
  12. What are Cassius' own reasons for joining the conspiracy, and         
how do they, compare to Brutus'?                                            
-                                                                           
  13. How were Shakespeare's attitudes toward (a) women, (b) politics,      
(c) order, or (d) fate determined by the age in which he lived?             
-                                                                           
  14. Discuss four occasions when characters try to manipulate each         
other through the use of flattery.                                          
-                                                                           
  15. Why is the play called Julius Caesar and not The Tragedy of           
Marcus Brutus?                                                              
-                                                                           
  16. Is Cassius, as Caesar says, a dangerous man who thinks too much?      
Or is Brutus correct when he calls Cassius "the last of all the             
Romans"?                                                                    
-                                                                           
  17. Is Brutus an honorable man or a hypocrite? Discuss his strengths      
and weaknesses.                                                             
-                                                                           
  18. Which of the characters would you vote for as president or            
support as king? Defend your position with reference to the text.           
-                                                                           
  19. How does the first scene introduce most of the major issues of        
the play?                                                                   
-                                                                           
  20. Some critics call Julius Caesar a problem play. What problems         
does it pose that remain unresolved?                                        
-                                                                           
  21. Critics like to point out that Julius Caesar is a transitional        
play that lies between the history plays and the tragedies. How does        
it reflect the themes and structure of the histories; how does it look      
forward to the tragedies?                                                   
-                                                                           
  22. Who is the main character of Julius Caesar? Who is the hero?          
-                                                                           
  23. Would you have joined the conspiracy? Defend your point of            
view with references to the text.                                           
-                                                                           
  24. The Elizabethans looked to Roman times for lessons in how to          
live. What did Julius Caesar teach them?                                    
-                                                                           
  25. Portia is sometimes considered a modern woman. In what sense          
is she modern; in what sense is she a product of the times in which         
she lives?                                                                  
-                                                                           
  26. Compare Portia and Calpurnia- their personalities, their values,      
their relationships to their husbands.                                      
-                                                                           
  27. Can good ever come from evil? Discuss the problem of the              
virtuous murder.                                                            
-                                                                           
  28. Compare the public and private lives of any major character.          
-                                                                           
  29. Discuss Julius Caesar as a play about the different ways in           
which people use language.                                                  
-                                                                           
  30. Discuss the use of fire imagery.                                      
-                                                                           
  31. What role does Fate play in the lives of the characters and in        
the final triumph of Octavius?                                              
-                                                                           
  32. Discuss Julius Caesar as a study of ideals and the reality of         
politics.                                                                   
-                                                                           
  33. Discuss the theme of order and disorder in the play.                  
-                                                                           
  34. Read Shakespeare's source material in Plutarch's Lives. What          
light does it shed on the characters and themes of the play?                
-                                                                           
  35. Compare the characters and themes of Julius Caesar and either         
Henry V or Antony and Cleopatra.                                            
                                                                            
CRITICS                                                                     
                             THE CRITICS                    (SJULCRIT)      
-                                                                           
  ON SHAKESPEARE                                                            
  In approaching Shakespeare, we must remember that he wrote, not           
for a small group of intellectuals, but for every man, from courtier        
to apprentice, for the man in the street, for anyone who could be           
lured to pay a penny or a tuppence to get into the theatre to see a         
play. Shakespeare wrote with one or both eyes on the box office. He         
wanted to be popular and he tried to write in such a manner and on          
such themes that Everyman would welcome his efforts- and pay for them.      
                      -Louis B. Wright, Shakespeare for Everyman 1964       
-                                                                           
  ON OMENS                                                                  
  "He is a dreamer, let us leave him: pass," says Caesar, dismissing        
the Soothsayer who called out to him "Beware the ides of March." The        
event showed that he dismissed him at his peril. Shakespeare was            
growing more convinced that we neglect dreams and dreamers at our           
peril. He was a humanist, to be sure, and remained one to the end of        
his days. But from Julius Caesar on, his greater characters and             
greater plays are touched with the dream-light and dream-darkness of        
something that... transcends the merely human.... The secret of             
human life, [Shakespeare] seems to say, lies beyond... life as well as      
within it.                                                                  
                  Harold C. Goddard, The Meaning of Shakespeare, 1960       
-                                                                           
  ON CAESAR                                                                 
  Caesar, unlike other Shakespearean characters who suffer from             
ambition, never says he wants the crown. But even if he did, would          
it seem so wicked to an Englishman, living under the rule of                
Elizabeth, that a man already at the helm of state should seek to be        
King? We know from the historical plays that Shakespeare thought it         
wrong to usurp a crown, but Caesar would not have been usurping one.        
What the Senate planned to offer him was only the outward and               
visible form of a power he already enjoyed.                                 
  It has also been argued that Caesar is shown in the play as an            
arrogant and unyielding man who has the soul of a despot and who could      
reasonably be expected to trample any remaining liberties of the            
Romans under his feet. Of course, the pomposity of Caesar's speeches        
offers some support for this, but I doubt that Shakespeare intended         
Caesar to be as pompous as his part reads to a twentieth-century            
eye. It is true that he sometimes speaks of himself in the third            
person, which has a grandiloquent ring in a nonmonarch, but he is           
the undoubted ruler of a great empire, and Shakespeare may have             
considered this form of expression perfectly fitting. He allows many        
rulers in his plays to take themselves very seriously indeed without        
seeming to denigrate them. What seems pompous to us, accustomed as          
we are to the compulsive humility of our own political candidates, may      
have appeared to Elizabethans as the gravity and majesty expected of a      
chief of state.                                                             
  Caesar's statements about Cassius and his distrust of thin men are        
frequently read as the mutterings of a dictator who cannot abide the        
least independence of thought. But Caesar has every justification           
for distrusting Cassius, who is already plotting his murder, and he         
puts his finger on Cassius' primary motive, which is simple envy.           
                       -Louis Auchincloss, Motiveless Malignity, 1969       
-                                                                           
  The essential greatness of Caesar being thus assumed, Shakespeare is      
free to exhibit in him human weaknesses apparently inconsistent with        
it. There are many advantages in this method of presentation. It gives      
reality to Caesar, the man; it suggests that Caesar's spirit is             
mightier than his person, a suggestion which is essential to the unity      
of the play; it enables the dramatist to present him in flesh and           
blood without reducing in stature the men who murder him; finally,          
it permits the audience to sympathise with Brutus just sufficiently to      
give poignancy to the disaster which overtakes him.                         
  This last point is of major dramatic importance. The play could           
not easily have risen to the level of tragedy if Caesar had been            
portrayed consistently in full majesty. The conspiracy must then            
have inevitably impressed the audience as no more than a stupid plot        
contrived by a group of self-seeking politicians under the                  
leadership of a misguided political crank. Such, in effect, it was,         
but the skillful dramatist, if he is to retain the sympathetic              
attention of his audience, will not obtrude the fact, but allow it          
to become fully apparent only at the close.                                 
  The infirmities of Caesar are not inventions of the dramatist.            
They are in part historical and in part derived from Plutarch's             
delight in the foibles of great men and his tendency to find such           
foibles more pronounced in his Roman heroes than in the heroes of           
his native Greece.                                                          
                             -John Palmer, "The Character of Caesar,"       
                            from Political Characters of Shakespeare,       
                        reprinted in Shakespeare: Julius Caesar, 1969       
-                                                                           
  Perhaps more than any other figure in history, Julius Caesar has          
evoked a divided response in the minds of those who have written about      
him. Indeed, it would not be an exaggeration to say that such a             
response, made up of attraction and repulsion, admiration and               
hostility, was the prevailing one among informed and educated men           
throughout Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance, so that we      
can speak of it as forming a tradition extending from Caesar's own day      
down to that of Shakespeare.                                                
  In Plutarch's attitude towards Caesar dislike and admiration              
mingle.... However divided in his attitude toward Caesar, Plutarch's        
prevailing opinion seems to have been that his offences were committed      
under the influence of bad friends and against his better nature and        
that, although his motives were unworthy, his influence upon the state      
of Rome was largely beneficial.                                             
  In a sense, all that Shakespeare does is to dramatize the views of        
Caesar and the conspirators which he found in his 'sources', and            
especially Plutarch, distributing what are the divided and                  
contradictory responses of a single writer among several characters         
who take different sides...                                                 
             -Ernest Schanzer, The Problem Plays of Shakespeare, 1963       
-                                                                           
  ON BRUTUS                                                                 
  Brutus is humorlessly good. If his duty is to know himself, his           
performance fails. Nobility has numbed him until he cannot see himself      
for his principles. When his principles are expressing themselves they      
are beautiful in their clarity; but when he speaks to himself he knows      
not who is there; he addresses a strange audience, and fumbles....          
Shakespeare has done all that could be done with such a man, but            
what could be done was limited.... He is not mad, or haunted, or            
inspired, or perplexed in the extreme. He is simply confused.               
                                   -Mark Van Doren, Shakespeare, 1953       
-                                                                           
  Shakespeare's sympathy with Brutus does not imply approval of the         
murder of Caesar; it only means that he ultimately finds the spiritual      
problem of the virtuous murderer the most interesting thing in the          
story. Brutus best interprets the play's theme: Do evil that good           
may come, and see what does come!                                           
                                            -Harley Granville-Barker,       
                               Prefaces to Shakespeare, Vol. 11, 1946       
-                                                                           
  In Brutus, then, Shakespeare discovered the noble hero with a tragic      
flaw. By that discovery he made it possible for English tragedy to          
reach a greatness hitherto attained only by Greek tragedy. All his          
tragedies written after Julius Caesar benefited by the discovery.           
  Julius Caesar is a landmark not merely in the history of                  
Shakespearean tragedy but in the history of English tragedy. Before         
Brutus there had been no tragic hero on the English stage whose             
character had combined noble grandeur with fatal imperfection.              
                                                    -William Farnham,       
           "'High-minded Heroes' from Shakespeare's Tragic Frontier,"       
                        reprinted in Shakespeare: Julius Caesar, 1969       
-                                                                           
  ON CASSIUS                                                                
  Cassius, the man of passion, is set in strong contrast to Brutus,         
the philosopher.                                                            
  An egoist certainly; yet not ignobly so, seeking only his own             
advantage. Convinced in a cause- as we find him convinced; that             
Caesar's rule in Rome must be free Rome's perdition- he will fling          
himself into it and make no further question, argue its incidental          
rights and wrongs no more, as Brutus may to weariness.                      
  Egoist he is, yet not intellectually arrogant. He sees in Brutus the      
nobler nature and a finer mind, and yields to his judgment even when        
he strongly feels that it is leading them astray.                           
                                            -Harley Granville-Barker,       
                               Prefaces to Shakespeare, Vol. 11, 1946       
-                                                                           
  ON THE TWO FUNERAL ORATIONS                                               
  Editor after editor has condemned Brutus' speech as poor and              
ineffective, and most of them have then proceeded to justify                
Shakespeare for making it so. It is certainly not meant to be               
ineffective, for it attains its end in convincing the crowd. Whether        
it is poor oratory must be to some extent a matter of taste.                
Personally, accepting its form as one accepts the musical convention        
of a fugue, I find that it stirs me deeply. I prefer it to Antony's.        
It wears better. It is very noble prose.                                    
  One may so analyze [Antony's] speech throughout and find it a             
triumph of effective cleverness. The cheapening of the truth, the           
appeals to passion, the perfect carillon of flattery, cajolery,             
mockery and pathos, singing to a magnificent tune, all serve to make        
it a model of what popular oratory should be. In a school for               
demagogues its critical analysis might well be an item in every             
examination paper. That is one view of it. By another, there is             
nothing in it calculated or false. Antony feels like this; and, on          
these occasions, he never lets his thoughts belie his feelings, that        
is all. And he knows, without stopping to think, what the common            
thought and feeling will be, where reason and sentiment will touch          
bottom- and it if be a muddy bottom, what matter!- because he is            
himself, as we said, the common man raised to the highest power. So,        
once in touch with his audience, he can hardly go wrong.                    
                                            -Harley Granville-Barker,       
                               Prefaces to Shakespeare, Vol. 11, 1946       
-                                                                           
  [Brutus' speech] is one of the worst speeches ever made by an able        
and intelligent man. Its symmetrical structure, its balanced                
sentences, its ordered procedure, its rhetorical questions, its             
painfully conscious and ornamental style, its hopelessly abstract           
subject matter, all stamp it as the utterance of a man whose heart          
is not in his words. It is a dishonest speech.                              
  The cry of the Third Citizen, "Let him be Caesar," measures its           
practical effectiveness. Those four words have often been pointed           
out as one of the most crushing ironies in the play. They are, and          
with the other comments of the populace show how hopeless the cause of      
the conspirators was. These people did not deserve liberty. They            
were ready for slavery.                                                     
  Antony's speech, on the other hand, for all its playing on the            
passions of the people, and for all its lies, is at bottom an honest        
speech, because Antony loved Caesar. Because to that extent he has the      
truth on his side, he is as concrete as Brutus was abstract. A sincere      
harangue by a demagogue is better than the most "classic" oration from      
a man who speaks only with his lips.                                        
                 -Harold C. Goddard, The Meaning of Shakespeare, 1960       
-                                                                           
  ON THE ASSASSINATION                                                      
  We shall notice throughout it a strong distrust of subversion and         
conspiracy. These were, in the knowledge and experience of all              
Elizabethans, the greatest disruptions of the state. The Homilies:          
appointed to be read in churches throughout the realm, have already         
been mentioned. Shakespeare not only knew these; he apparently              
accepted their instruction. In them he would have found the lesson          
driven home that conspiracy is dangerous, that it is never to be            
trusted, and that directed against the king or ruler it is both             
against God's commandment and doomed to create confusion involving          
both conspirators and the country. It could be nothing but evil.... It      
is probably with a mind made up on these points that Shakespeare            
read Plutarch and wrote his play.                                           
                   -E. F. C. Ludowyk, Understanding Shakespeare, 1962       
-                                                                           
  Caesar's death is followed by a civil war in which Shakespeare            
must have seen a parallel to the Wars of the Roses that had so              
obsessed his earlier years. Certainly we know that Shakespeare stood        
for civil order above everything, and Caesar's death was followed by        
the destruction of the existing order.                                      
                       -Louis Auchincloss, Motiveless Malignity, 1969       
-                                                                           
  ON CASCA                                                                  
  I am going to risk a generalisation about Shakespeare. He was an          
Elizabethan dramatist, and I do not think the Elizabethans were             
conscientious over their characters; they would often alter them in         
the middle in order to get on with the play. Beaumont and Fletcher          
contain glaring examples of this. Good men become bad and then good         
again; traitors turn into heroes and vice versa without any internal        
justification. And Shakespeare sometimes does it too. There is an           
example- not a glaring one- in this play, in the character of Casca.        
Casca first appears as extremely polite and indeed servile to               
Caesar, 'Peace ho! Caesar speaks,' he cries. Then he shows himself          
to Brutus and Cassius as a sour blunt contradictious fellow, who snaps      
them up when they speak and is grumpy when they invite him to               
supper. You may say this is subtlety on Shakespeare's part, and that        
he is indicating that Casca is a dark horse. I don't think so. I don't      
think Shakespeare was bothering about Casca- he is merely concerned to      
make the action interesting and he alters the character at need. Later      
on, during the thunderstorm, Casca becomes different again; he walks        
about with a drawn sword, is deeply moved by the apparitions, and           
utters exalted poetry. At the murder-scene he wounds Caesar in the          
neck, and then we hear of him no more. His usefulness is over.              
                            -E. M. Forster, Two Cheers for Democracy,       
                       reprinted in Shakespeare: Julius Caesar, 1969.       
                                                                            
ADVISORY_BOARD                                                              
                            ADVISORY BOARD                  (SJULADVB)      
-                                                                           
  We wish to thank the following educators who helped us focus our          
Book Notes series to meet student needs and critiqued our                   
manuscripts to provide quality materials.                                   
-                                                                           
  Murray Bromberg, Principal                                                
  Wang High School of Queens, Holliswood, New York                          
-                                                                           
  Sandra Dunn, English Teacher                                              
  Hempstead High School, Hempstead, New York                                
-                                                                           
  Lawrence J. Epstein, Associate Professor of English                       
  Suffolk County Community College, Selden, New York                        
-                                                                           
  Leonard Gardner, Lecturer, English Department                             
  State University of New York at Stony Brook                               
-                                                                           
  Beverly A. Haley, Member, Advisory Committee                              
  National Council of Teachers of English Student Guide Series              
  Fort Morgan, Colorado                                                     
-                                                                           
  Elaine C. Johnson, English Teacher                                        
  Tamalpais Union High School District                                      
  Mill Valley, California                                                   
-                                                                           
  Marvin J. LaHood, Professor of English                                    
  State University of New York College at Buffalo                           
-                                                                           
  Robert Lecker, Associate Professor of English                             
  McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada                               
-                                                                           
  David E. Manly, Professor of Educational Studies                          
  State University of New York College at Geneseo                           
-                                                                           
  Bruce Miller, Associate Professor of Education                            
  State University of New York at Buffalo                                   
-                                                                           
  Frank O'Hare, Professor of English                                        
  Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio                                     
-                                                                           
  Faith Z. Schullstrom, Member of Executive Committee                       
  National Council of Teachers of English                                   
  Director of Curriculum and Instruction                                    
  Guilderland Central School District, New York                             
-                                                                           
  Mattie C. Williams, Director, Bureau of Language Arts                     
  Chicago Public Schools, Chicago, Illinois                                 
-                                                                           
-                                                                           
                    THE END OF BARRON'S BOOK NOTES                          
                 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S JULIUS CAESAR                        
                                                                            
                                                                            
                               BIBLIOGRAPHY                 (SJULBIBL)      
                                                                            
JULIUS_CAESAR                                                               
                           FURTHER READING                                  
-                                                                           
  Here are just a few of the works that will help you understand            
Julius Caesar. Most of them should be available in your school or           
community libraries.                                                        
-                                                                           
  Auchincloss, Louis. "Caesar, the Tudor Monarch," in Motiveless            
Malignity (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1969), pp. 83-94.                      
-                                                                           
  Bloom, Allan, "The Morality of the Pagan Hero," in Shakespeare's          
Politics (New York: Basic Books, 1964), pp. 75-112.                         
-                                                                           
  Dean, Leonard F. Twentieth Century Interpretations of Julius              
Caesar (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1968). A collection of             
nineteen essays on the play.                                                
-                                                                           
  Foakes, R. A. "An Approach to Julius Caesar," in the Signet               
edition of Julius Caesar (New York: Signet, 1963), pp. 193-211.             
-                                                                           
  Goddard, Harold C. "Julius Caesar," in The Meaning of Shakespeare         
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960), Vol. I, pp. 307-330.          
-                                                                           
  Granville-Barker, Harley, "Julius Caesar," in Prefaces to                 
Shakespeare (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1946), Vol II, pp.      
160-222.                                                                    
-                                                                           
  Ludowyk, E. F. C. "Julius Caesar," in Understanding Shakespeare           
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962), pp. 172-198.                 
-                                                                           
  Schanzer, Ernest. "Julius Caesar," in The Problem Plays of                
Shakespeare (New York: Schocken Books, 1963), pp. 10-70.                    
-                                                                           
  Spencer, T. J. B. Shakespeare's Plutarch (Baltimore: Penguin              
Books, 1968). The lives of Caesar, Brutus and Antony- the primary           
source for Shakespeare's play.                                              
-                                                                           
  Traversi, D. A. "Julius Caesar," in An Approach to Shakespeare            
(Garden City: Doubleday, 1956), pp. 492-512.                                
-                                                                           
  Traversi, D. A. "Julius Caesar," in Shakespeare: The Roman Plays          
(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1963), pp. 21-75. This is an          
expanded version of the material that appears in An Approach to             
Shakespeare.                                                                
-                                                                           
  Van Doren, Mark. "Julius Caesar," in Shakespeare (Garden City:            
Doubleday Anchor, 1953).                                                    
-                                                                           
  Wright, Louis B. Shakespeare for Everyman (New York: Washington           
Square Press, 1964).                                                        
-                                                                           
                            AUTHOR'S WORKS                                  
-                                                                           
  Shakespeare wrote 37 plays (38 if you include The Two Noble Kinsmen)      
over a 20-year period, from about 1590 to 1610. It's difficult to           
determine the exact dates when many were written, but scholars have         
made the following intelligent guesses about his plays and poems:           
-                                                                           
         PLAYS                                                              
               1588-93     The Comedy of Errors                             
               1588-94     Love's Labor's Lost                              
               1590-91     2 Henry VI                                       
               1590-91     3 Henry VI                                       
               1591-92     1 Henry VI                                       
               1592-93     Richard III                                      
               1592-94     Titus Andronicus                                 
               1593-94     The Taming of the Shrew                          
               1593-95     The Two Gentlemen of Verona                      
               1594-96     Romeo and Juliet                                 
               1595        Richard II                                       
               1594-96     A Midsummer Night's Dream                        
               1596-97     King John                                        
               1596-97     The Merchant of Venice                           
               1597        1 Henry IV                                       
               1597-98     2 Henry IV                                       
               1598-1600   Much Ado About Nothing                           
               1598-99     Henry V                                          
               1599        Julius Caesar                                    
               1599-1600   As You Like It                                   
               1599-1600   Twelfth Night                                    
               1600-01     Hamlet                                           
               1597-1601   The Merry Wives of Windsor                       
               1601-02     Troilus and Cressida                             
               1602-04     All's Well That Ends Well                        
               1603-04     Othello                                          
               1604        Measure for Measure                              
               1605-06     King Lear                                        
               1605-06     Macbeth                                          
               1606-07     Antony and Cleopatra                             
               1605-08     Timon of Athens                                  
               1607-09     Coriolanus                                       
               1608-09     Pericles                                         
               1609-10     Cymbeline                                        
               1610-11     The Winter's Tale                                
               1611-12     The Tempest                                      
               1612-13     Henry VIII                                       
-                                                                           
         POEMS                                                              
               1592        Venus and Adonis                                 
               1593-94     The Rape of Lucrece                              
               1593-1600   Sonnets                                          
               1600-01     The Phoenix and the Turtle                       
-                                                                           
-                                                                           
         THE END OF THE BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR BARRON'S BOOK NOTES                
                 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S JULIUS CAESAR                        
                                                                            
                                      1906                                  
                                                                            
                                UPTON SINCLAIR'S                            
                                   THE JUNGLE                               
                                                                            
                               by Eric F. Oatman                            
                                                                            
                                 SERIES EDITOR                              
                            Michael Spring, Editor,                         
                      Literary Cavalcade, Scholastic Inc.                   
                                                                            
                                ACKNOWLEDGMENTS                             
        We would like to acknowledge the many painstaking hours of work     
---------------------------------------------------------
Electronically Enhanced Text (C) Copyright 1991 - 1994 World Library, Inc.


