JULIUS CAESAR

William Shakespeare
Baptized on April 26, 1564 in Stratfordupon-Avon, England
Bard of Avon
Greatest Dramatist/Writer of all time
Wrote 34 plays and 154 sonnets
Married Anne Hathaway at age 18
3 children
o Susanna
o Hamnet died at age 3
o Judith
Lost/No records exist for most of his life
before becoming a writer
Died on April 23, 1616 at age 52
Writing Style
Shakespeare used a metrical pattern
consisting of lines of unrhymed iambic
pentameter, called blank verse
Shakespeare's sonnets are written in iambic
pentameter
Genre of plays
Tragedies unpleasant - unpleasant
Comedies pleasant - unpleasant
Histories -history
Romances pleasant pleasant
4 classes of Romans:
1. Patricians
2. Equestrians
3. Plebeians
4. Slaves
First Triumvirate
Pompey the Great
Julius Caesar
Marcus Licinius Crassus
Summary:
ACT I
Flavius and Marullus, disperse a crowd that
is celebrating the victory of Julius Caesar
and the Festival of Lupercalia
Festival of Lupercalia
o Ides of February
o Lupercus god of shepherd

Ensure fertility, prevent sterility in

women and ease the pains of childbirth
Soothsayer comes Beware the ides of
March
Brutus and Cassius remain to discuss
Caesar's thirst for power and his desire to
turn the republic into a dictatorship
4 instances Brutus is better than Julius
1. Cassius recalls a windy day when he and
Caesar stood on the banks of the Tiber
River, and Caesar dared him to swim to
a distant point. They raced through the
water, but Caesar became weak and
asked Cassius to save him. Cassius had
to drag him from the water
2. Cassius also recounts an episode when
Caesar had a fever in Spain and
experienced a seizure or epileptic
attack
3. Julius Caesar is half deaf
4. Brutus can do a rhetorical statement
Julius Caesar does not trust Cassius
Casca tells Brutus and Cassius about the
festival
Antony offered Caesar a crown three times
and three times he refused it
Cascas omens:
1. Left hand on fire
2. Lion in the capitol
3. Man on fire walking in the streets
4. Owl in the daylight
Cassius is pleased with the weather
thunderstorm
ACT II
Brutus paces back and forth in his garden.
He knows with certainty that Caesar will be
crowned king; what he questions is whether
or not Caesar will be corrupted by his
power FRIENDSHIP OR DUTY
Brutus servant enters with a letter forged
by Cassius and reads it, just as Cassius had
hoped, it arouses Brutus' passions
Sleep, Strike, Redress!
o Speak -expressing opinions, strike taking aggressive action, and
redress -addressing a grievance
o Fixing what is not right

Conspirators arrive at Brutuss house

1. Brutus
2. Cassius
3. Casca
4. Decius
5. Trebonius
6. Metellus
7. Ligarius
8. Cinna
Brutus asks for the hands of the
conspirators as he agrees to lead them in
the assassination plot
Plot:
o To let Cicero join the conspiracy
o To kill Antony along with Julius
o Both disagreed by Brutus
o Antony limbs of Julius
o On the Ides of March (the next day)
o Eighth hour (8am)
o Decius flatter Julius to convince him to
go to the senate
Portia arrives: "Make me acquainted with
your grief
Portia cuts her leg to prove her love for
Brutus
Calpurnia, wife of Caesar, has recurring
nightmares that Caesar will be murdered
and begs him to send Antony to the Senate
in his place
Dream: Caesars statue run with blood like a
fountain, romans smile and bathe their
hands in blood 3x
Calpurnias interpretation: assassination of
Julius Caesar
Decius enters, saying that he has come to
bring Caesar to the Senate.
Deciuss interpretation: the dream signifies
that Romans will all gain lifeblood from the
strength of Caesar
Julius Caesar believed Decius
Why?
o Senate has decided to give mighty
Caesar a crown (forgot to mention)
o Hierarchy of Gender
Artemidorus, a scholar, has discovered the
plot to murder Caesar and has written the

names of the conspirators on a paper which

he plans to hand to Caesar as he passes by

Portia is frantically worried about Brutus

and orders the servant to the senate-house
to report on Brutus
She sees the Soothsayer and he tells her
that he has come to once again warn Caesar
ACT III
Artemidorus and the Soothsayer await at
the street but is ignored by Caesar
ASSASSINATION:
o Where: Theater of Pompey
o When: Ides of March (15), Eighth hour
o Who: Julius Caesar
o How:
The group enters the Senate and
Trebonius draws Antony away from
the Senate room
Metellus brings a petition to Julius
Caesar to recall his exiled brother,
Publius Cimber & knelt in front of him
Julius refused
The conspirators including Brutus also
knelt in front of Julius & begged him
to grant Metellus plea still refused
Casca first stabbed Julius Caesar from
behind followed by the other
conspirators
Brutus was the last to stab Caesar
23 stabs
Fell in his own blood in front of
Pompeys statue
Last words: Et tu Brute? Then fall Caesar
Freedom, Liberty! Tyranny is dead the
conspirators proclaimed

Conspirators bathe their hands and swords

in Caesar's blood and walk outside,
proclaiming peace, freedom, and liberty
A servant brings a message from Antony:
o Promises to give his loyalty to Brutus if
they tell him the reason why they killed
Caesar [pretending] [no choice]
o Brutus agrees
Brutus seems confident they will find an ally
in Antony but Cassius deeply fears him
Antony arrives and volunteers to die with
Julius Caesar [still pretending][self-pity]
Antony shakes hand with the conspirators
bloody hands to prove allegiance
Antony asks to take Caesar's body to the
market-place and deliver a eulogy
Caesar covered in black cloth with holes
which symbolizes the stabs
4 Conditions:
1. He cannot blame the conspirators
2. Say only good things about Julius Caesar
3. Speak at the same podium as Brutus
4. He can only talk after Brutus
Antony left alone with Caesar and vows to
seek revenge on Brutus and his cohorts by
launching a civil war
Octaviuss servant enters the Senate and
Antony orders him to return to Octavius
and tell him what has happened, and warn
him that he must not yet return to Rome
Brutus addresses the Plebeians with a
convincing speech, assuring them that
Caesar's murder was necessary to preserve
their freedoms
Brutus reason for killing Caesar: Its not
that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved
Rome more; Caesar is ambitious
Antony speaks and manages to change the
minds of the Plebeians, and produces
Caesar's will
Caesars will:
1. every Roman citizen he gives, to every
individual man, seventy-five drachmas
2. Walkways, in his private gardens and
newly planted orchards
"Revenge! About! Seek! Burn! Fire! Kill!
Slay! Let not a traitor live!"

Cinna the poet was wrongfully accused as

the Cinna the conspirator killed

ACT IV
Antony meets Octavius & Lepidus at his
house to start a war
Uses Caesars will to fund the war
Octavius points out that Lepidus is a tried
& valiant soldier
Antony compared Lepidus to a horse
Brutus and Cassius fought
The two men insult each other & Brutus
expresses
the
reasons
for
his
disappointment in Cassius:
1. He claims to be so honest in himself
that he cannot raise money by ignoble
means
2. He was forced to ask Cassius for money
but Cassius ignored him
Cassius offers his dagger to kill him but
Brutus tells Cassius to put his dagger away
Brutus explains that he has been under
many emotional burdens lately because
Portia killed herself [ate burning charcoal]
Cassius march to Philippi
Brutus sees the ghost of Caesar or thy evil
spirit and tells him that they will meet
again in Philippi
ACT V
Sardis where they stayed
Start of war
Cassius birthday
2 omens:
1. 2 mighty eagles alighted on the
foremost banners of their army &
perched there, feeding from the
soldiers heads
2. Ravens, crows & other scavenger birds
circle over the troops as if the men
were diseased & weak prey
Brutus would rather die than go back to
Rome as a prisoner
Cassius declares that this day must end
that work the Ides of March begun.
Cassius attacks Octavius army

Pindarus thought Titinius was captured,

Cassius commits suicide [Pindarus pierced
Cassius with a sword] out of guilt and
friendship for Titinius but Titinius arrives
uncaptured and also commits suicide
Lucillius pretends he is Brutus and is
captured by the Romans but Antony knew
The ghost of Caesar appeared to Brutus
again
Brutus declares that in killing himself, he
acts on motives twice as pure as those
which he killed Caesar
Clitus, Dardanius, and Volumnius refuse to
kill Brutus
Brutus convinced Strato to hold the sword
for him as he runs upon it [suicide]
Brutus is the noblest of them all
While the other conspirators acted out of
envy of Caesarss power, Brutus acted for
what he believed was the common good
Octavius wanted to bury Brutus in the most
honorable way

SYMBOLS:
Women/Wives symbol for the private,
domestic realm
Omens lends an air of the supernatural to
the cold political machinery of Rome
Body, Blood, & Pain
o The conspirators call Caesar's autocracy
a sickness that must be cured;
o the sleepless Brutus speaks of a
rebellion in his body mirroring the
rebellion he plans;
o Calpurnia's dream
about
Caesar's
bleeding statue is reinterpreted to
mean that Rome draws its life from
Caesar;
o Portia courts pain as a means of proving
her worth, and Caesar's great power is
contrasted by infirmity
Rome Because of its advanced culture and
military might, Rome represented the world
in microcosm
o Symbolizes what is happening to the
world

THEME:
Fate vs Free Will
Brutus: Fate: die Freewill: kill Caesar [joke di
ako sure]
Caesar: Fate: to die Freewill: king
Public Self vs Private Self
Julius Caesar combined his public and
private self
Rhetoric and Power
Ability to make things happen by words
alone is the most powerful type of
authority.
Friendship vs Duty
Country vs Self
Effect of envy and jealousy
Crime of passion
Political power
4 QUALITIES OF ROMANS:
1. Integrity
2. Service to your people
3. Honor protect honor of country then self
4. Concept of decent death die for something
you need to die for

Brutus representation of idealism

Julius Caesar value system of the roman
people and different cultures

MOTIFS:
Omens/Portents failed to interpret
Letters different interpretations
-letter f orged by Cassius to Brutus
Protagonist: Brutus