Julius Caesar Act 2 Reading and Study Guide Quizlet
Julius Caesar Introduction
Accept your parents e'er warned you well-nigh hanging out with the wrong crowd? You might be similar, "Pssht, whatever Mom, my friends are awesome." And certain, your friends may seem awesome enough, merely when push comes to shove, will they have your back, or volition they plow effectually and throw you under the bus?
Julius Caesar found this lesson out the hard style—to the tune of 33 stab wounds and a betrayal so scandalous, we're still talking about it 2 thousand years after.
Julius Caesar is a tragedy past William Shakespeare, written erstwhile around 1599. Equally movie posters and volume covers like to say, the play is "based on a true story": the historical events surrounding the conspiracy against the ancient Roman leader Julius Caesar (c.100-44B.C.) and the ceremonious war that followed his death. Fun times—guess they should have idea their plans through a fiddling more. Shakespeare portrays Caesar's assassination on the Ides of March (March fifteen) past a grouping of conspirators who feared the ambitious leader would turn the Roman Republic into a tyrannical monarchy.
Julius Caesar was most likely the kickoff play performed at the Globe Theater. Shakespeare wrote the play around 1599, simply after he had completed a serial of English political histories. Like the history plays, Julius Caesar gives voice to some late-16th-century English language political concerns. When Shakespeare wrote Caesar, it was pretty obvious that the 66-yr-sometime Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) wasn't going to produce an heir to the throne, and her subjects were stressed out near what would happen upon the monarch'southward decease. Would chaos ensue when Elizabeth died? Who would have the queen's place? Would the side by side monarch be a fit ruler or a tyrant? In other words, Julius Caesar asks its audience to think virtually the parallels between ancient Roman history and contemporary politics. Clever, huh?
Shakespeare' south main source for the play is Plutarch's famous biography The Life of Julius Caesar, written in Greek in the 1st century and translated into English in 1579 by Sir Thomas North. This is no big surprise, since Shakespeare and his contemporaries were completely obsessed with Roman civilisation and politics. (In fact, Elizabethan schoolboys spent most of their time reading and translating ancient Roman and Greek literature. Evidently that'southward what kids did in the days earlier TV and the Internet.)
Today, along with Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar is often taught in 9th course classrooms equally an introduction to Shakespeare. The relatively straightforward language and simplicity of plot make it a expert starting point for students new to 16th-century drama. Julius Caesar is also considered to be the least sexy of Shakespeare's dramatic works, which, for some, makes information technology a "condom" selection in classrooms full of teenagers.
What is Julius Caesar About and Why Should I Intendance?
Nothing gets our attending quite like a good, juicy political scandal. Julius Caesar is jam-packed with issues that resonate with our globe today. Deplorable to go all inventory on you, but Shmoop loves lists:
Expose. Brutus places his ethics (Rome as a republic) over his friend, Julius Caesar, and is willing to kill Caesar to protect the Commonwealth.
Fearfulness. Incredibly afraid of losing Rome as a republic, Brutus is willing to murder Caesar before the guy fifty-fifty does annihilation incorrect. In his mind, information technology'south better to cede an innocent ruler than risk his becoming a tyrant.
Political Turmoil. Things don't go co-ordinate to plan. The politicians are like, "the citizens are going to kiss our togas for eliminating the tyrant Caesar! Downward with absolute power." But the citizens are like, "What! Y'all killed Caesar? We loved him." Allow'southward simply say that the politicians aren't exactly tuned in to the citizens' wants and needs.
Reason vs. Passion. With his articulate, cool logic, Brutus convinces the concerned public that Caesar was a tyrant who needed to be eliminated in society for them to be free. So along comes Antony, with his passionate, emotional entreatment, who just as easily swings the public in the other direction, turning them into an angry mob determined to avenge their beloved Caesar.
Sacrificing Personal Morals for the "Greater Good." Brutus is well-known for existence a moral and honest guy, yet he decides to commit murder and sacrifice his morals in hopes of ensuring a better hereafter for Rome.
Nosotros're certain you can find other intense issues from the play that are highly relevant to our modern globe. Chew on these questions for us, and fill in the blanks about how each of these points resonates with your personal life, your experience at school, or even in the country or earth as a whole. Information technology seems like the real question is: how can you not intendance about Julius Caesar?
Julius Caesar Resources
Movie or Television receiver Productions
1953 Motion-picture show
Julius Caesar, with Marlon Brando as Mark Antony.
1970 Moving-picture show
Julius Caesar, with Charlton Heston as Mark Antony.
1979 Movie
BBC Television Shakespeare version of Julius Caesar.
Videos
Marlon Brando equally Antony
A young Marlon Brando, i of the greatest actors of all time, delivers Antony'due south speech, one of the greatest in all of literature.
Audios
Supercool if you lot can brand this work…
These are recorded rehearsals of Welles' production of Julius Caesar, too as a treasure trove of other bits from the The Mercury Theatre on the Air, a radio drama featuring the drama company Orson Welles and John Housman founded in the 1930s.
Images
Manga Shakespeare Cover Art
Check out the cover fine art for Manga Shakespeare's graphic accommodation of Julius Caesar. Nosotros love how the analogy seems to draw its inspiration from Cassius' famous clarification of Caesar: "he doth bestride the narrow earth / Like a Colossus, and nosotros footling men / Walk nether his huge legs and peep near / To observe ourselves dishonourable graves"(1.2.134-137) – fifty-fifty while it adapts Shakespeare'southward setting (ancient Rome) to a futuristic metropolis land.
Documents
John Wilkes Booth'south Diary
Cheque out excerpts from John Wilkes Berth's diary, where the infamous assassin (and professional role player) paints himself equally an American hero and compares himself to Brutus after shooting President Abraham Lincoln.
Online Text of the Play
MIT's online edition of Julius Caesar.
Other
Biography of Julius Caesar
Want to know more about the historical figure Julius Caesar? Check out PBS's Caesar biography.
Source: https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/julius-caesar
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