1 / 42

Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar . William Shakespeare. The opening scene establishes the main political conflict of the tragedy: Is Julius Caesar the people’s defender or manipulator?. Act I, Scene 1 (summary).

aimee
Download Presentation

Julius Caesar

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Julius Caesar William Shakespeare

  2. The opening scene establishes the main political conflict of the tragedy: Is Julius Caesar the people’s defender or manipulator? Act I, Scene 1 (summary)

  3. “These growing feathers plucked from Caesar’s wing/ Will make him fly an ordinary pitch,/ Who else would soar above the view of men/ And keep us all in servile fearfulness.” (ll. 72-75) Act I, Scene 1 (quotes)

  4. As Caesar and his retinue walk to the Lupercal games, a soothsayer warns an unheeding Caesar to beware the ides of March. Brutus remains behind, as does Cassius, the protagonist of the first act. When Brutus expresses his fears that the people have crowned Caesar, Cassius seizes the moment to paint Caesar as a dangerous, unworthy tyrant and to push Brutus toward conspiracy. As Caesar and his entourage pass through, Caesar warns Mark Antony of Cassius’ dangerous envy. Casca, detained by Brutus and Cassius, reports that Antony indeed offered Caesar a crown three times, which Caesar grandly (but regretfully) declined. Cassius plots to write anonymous letters to Brutus, praising Brutus’ honor and hinting at Caesar's ambition. Act I, Scene 2 (summary)

  5. “What means this shouting? I do fear the people/ Choose Caesar for their king.” (ll. 79-80) • “I had as lief not be, as live to be/ In awe of such a thing as I myself.” (ll. 95-96) • “he doth bestride the narrow world/ Like a Colossus, and we petty men/ Walk under his huge legs and peep about/ To find ourselves dishonorable graves.” (ll. 135-138) • “Men at some time are masters of their fates:/ The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,/ But in ourselves, that we are underlings.” (ll. 139-141) • “Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;/ He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.” (ll. 194-195) • “No, Caesar hath it not; but you, and I,/ And honest Casca, we have the falling-sickness.” (ll. 255-256) • “For who so firm that cannot be seduced?” (l. 312) Act I, Scene 2 (quotes)

  6. Scene 3 opens a month later, on the night of March 14. Terrifying unnatural occurrences set an ominous tone as Cassius moves to act. Knowing that other senators intend to crown Caesar the next day, Cassius calls together his fellow conspirators, writes further inflammatory letters to Brutus, and sets out to visit him with a last appeal. Act I, Scene 3 (summary)

  7. “Indeed, it is a strange-disposed time:/ But men may construe things after their fashion,/ Clean from the purpose of the things themselves.” (ll. 33-35) • “Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius.” (l. 90) • “three parts of him/ Is ours already, and the man entire/ Upon the next encounter yields him ours.” (ll. 154-156) • “O, he sits high in all the people’s hearts;/ And that which would appear offense in us,/ his countenance, like richest alchemy,/ Will change to virtue and to worthiness.” (ll. 157-160) Act I, Scene 3 (quotes)

  8. At home before dawn on March 15, Brutus struggles to persuade himself that Caesar must die. When Cassius and his faction arrive, Brutus joins the assassination (set for that morning at the Senate) but stops Cassius’s plan to kill Mark Antony. Brutus can see Caesar’s death as a sacrifice; Antony’s death seems like unnecessary butchery. After the men go, Portia chides Brutus for not sharing his internal conflicts, and he reluctantly agrees to do so. Act II, Scene 1 (summary)

  9. “lowliness is young ambition’s ladder,/ Whereto the climber upward turns his face./ But when he once attains the upmost round,/ He then unto the ladder turns his back,/ Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees /By which he did ascend. So Caesar may./ Then, lest he may, prevent.” (ll. 22-28) • “And therefore think him as a serpent’s egg—/ Which, hatched, would as his kind grow mischievous—/ And kill him in the shell.” (ll. 32-35) • “O Rome, I make thee promise,/ If the redress will follow, thou receivest/ Thy full petition at the hand of Brutus!” (ll. 56-58) Act II, Scene 1 (quotes)

  10. “O conspiracy,/ Shamest thou to show thy dangerous brow by night/ When evils are most free? O, then by day/ Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough/ To mask thy monstrous visage? Seek none, conspiracy./ Hide it in smiles and affability.” (ll. 76-85) • “Our course will seem too bloody, Caius Cassius,/ To cut the head off and then hack the limbs,/ Like wrath in death and envy afterwards,/ For Antony is but a limb of Caesar./ Let us be sacrificers but not butchers, Caius./ We all stand up against the spirit of Caesar,/ And in the spirit of men there is no blood./ Oh, that we then could come by Caesar’s spirit/ And not dismember Caesar! But, alas,/ Caesar must bleed for it.” (ll. 162-171). Act II, Scene 1 (quotes)

  11. “for he loves to hear/ That unicorns may be betrayed with trees,/ And bears with glasses, elephants with holes,/ Lions with toils, and men with flatterers;/ But when I tell him he hates flatterers,/ He says he does, being then most flatterèd.” (ll. 203-208) • “Good gentlemen, look fresh and merrily./ Let not our looks put on our purposes,/ But bear it as our Roman actors do,/ With untired spirits and formal constancy.” (ll. 224-227) • “Dwell I but in the suburbs/ Of your good pleasure? If it be no more,/ Portia is Brutus' harlot, not his wife.” (ll. 285-287) • “A piece of work that will make sick men whole./ But are not some whole that we must make sick?” Act II, Scene 1 (quotes)

  12. At home, Caesar is restless after a night of wild storms and freakish events that disturbed all of Rome. He plans to go to the Senate, despite the warnings of his fortunetellers and his wife Calphurnia’s dream that Caesar’s statue spouted blood. At Calphurnia’s pleading, Caesar changes his mind, but the conspirator Decius Brutus goads Caesar about his weakness, interprets the dream favorably, and reports that the Senate will crown Caesar that day. The other conspirators arrive, and Caesar prepares to accompany them to the Senate. Act II, Scene 2 (summary)

  13. “Caesar shall forth. The things that threatened me/ Ne'er looked but on my back. When they shall see/ The face of Caesar, they are vanishèd.” (ll. 10-12) • “Caesar, I never stood on ceremonies,/ Yet now they fright me.” (ll. 13-14) • “When beggars die there are no comets seen./ The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.” (ll. 30-31) Act II, Scene 2 (quotes)

  14. “Cowards die many times before their deaths./ The valiant never taste of death but once./ Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,/ It seems to me most strange that men should fear,/ Seeing that death, a necessary end, Will come when it will come.” (ll. 32-37) • “That every like is not the same, O Caesar,/ The heart of Brutus earns to think upon.” (ll. 128-129) Act II, Scene 2 (quotes)

  15. Scenes 3 and 4, both brief, are set in a street leading to the Capitol. Artemidorus has written a warning of the plot, which he hopes to give to Caesar as he passes. In the final scene, Portia, greatly agitated, is obviously burdened by her knowledge of the assassination. Her distress deepens when she meets the soothsayer, who is also waiting to warn Caesar of danger. Act II, Scenes 3 & 4 (summary)

  16. “If thou beest not immortal, look about you: security gives way to conspiracy.” (ll. 6-7) • “If thou read this, O Caesar, thou mayest live;/ If not, the Fates with traitors do contrive.” (ll. 14-15) Act II, Scene 3 (quotes)

  17. In Greek and Roman mythology, any of three goddesses who determined human destinies, and in particular the span of a person’s life and his allotment of misery and suffering. Homer speaks of Fate in the singular as an impersonal power and sometimes makes its functions interchangeable with those of the Olympian gods. From the time of the poet Hesiod (8th century BC) on, however, the Fates were personified as three very old women who spin the threads of human destiny. Their names were Clotho (Spinner), Lachesis (Allotter), and Atropos (Inflexible). Clotho spun the “thread” of human fate, Lachesis dispensed it, and Atropos cut the thread (thus determining the individual’s moment of death). The Roman goddesses were named Nona, Decuma, and Morta. FATE

  18. Caesar, on his way to the Capitol, discounts the soothsayer’s warning. He accepts Artemidorus’s written warning but fails to read it. At the Capitol, Metellus occupies Caesar’s attention while the others surround him. Casca strikes the first blow; then the others stab their leader in turn. Shocked and angered, Antony pretends to swear allegiance to the deposers. He asks to bear the body to the Forum and to give a eulogy. Brutus agrees, but Cassius correctly fears Antony’s motives. Antony reveals that he will avenge Caesar’s death. Act III, Scene 1 (summary)

  19. “Wilt thou lift up Olympus?” (l. 74) • “Et tu, Brute? Then fall Caesar.” (l. 77) • “Grant that, and then is death a benefit./So are we Caesar’s friends, that have abridged/His time of fearing death. Stoop, Romans, stoop,/And let us bathe our hands in Caesar’s blood/Up to the elbows, and besmear our swords./Then walk we forth, even to the marketplace,/And waving our red weapons o'er our heads/Let’s all cry, ‘Peace, freedom, and liberty!’” (ll. 103-110) Act III, Scene 1 (quotes)

  20. “I wish we may. But yet have I a mind/That fears him much, and my misgiving still/Falls shrewdly to the purpose.” (ll. 144-146) • “Live a thousand years,/I shall not find myself so apt to die./No place will please me so, no mean of death,/As here by Caesar, and by you cut off,/The choice and master spirits of this age.” (ll. 159-163) Act III, Scene 1 (quotes)

  21. “Here wast thou bayed, brave hart;/Here didst thou fall; and here thy hunters stand,/Signed in thy spoil, and crimsoned in thy lethe./O world, thou wast the forest to this hart,/And this indeed, O world, the heart of thee./How like a deer, strucken by many princes,/Dost thou here lie!” (ll. 204-210) • “O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth,/That I am meek and gentle with these butchers!”(ll. 254-255) Act III, Scene 1 (quotes)

  22. Brutus and Antony address the public at Caesar’s funeral. The people first accept Brutus’s reason for the murder. However, Antony’s more powerful oration persuades the people of the conspirator’s treachery. Act III, Scene 2 (summary)

  23. Brutus’s address – ll. 12-35 • “Let him be Caesar./ Caesar’s better parts/Shall be crowned in Brutus.” (l. 52-54) • Antony’s address – ll.75-109 • “They were traitors. Honorable men!/They were villains, murderers! The will! Read the will!” (ll. 155-158) Act III, Scene 2 (quotes)

  24. “What private griefsthey have, alas, I know not,/That made them do it. They are wise and honorable,/And will, no doubt, with reasons answer you./I come not friends, to steal away your hearts;/ I am no orator, as Brutus is;/…/But were I Brutus,/And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony/Would ruffle up your spirits and put a tongue/In every wound of Caesar that should move/The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny.” (ll. 215-232) • “Now let it work. Mischief, thou art afoot./Take thou what course thou wilt!” (ll. 249-250) Act III, Scene 2 (quotes)

  25. Cinna, a poet, is attacked by an angry mob because he has the same name as the conspirator Cinna. Act III, Scene 3 (summary)

  26. This scene opens in Rome. Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus now rule as a triumvirate, but not without conflict. When Antony and Octavius learn that the exiled Brutus and Cassius have raised armies, they combine forces to meet the challengers. Act IV, Scene 1 (summary)

  27. “He shall not live; look, with a spot I damn him./But, Lepidus, go you to Caesar’s house;/Fetch the will hither, and we shall determine/How to cut off some charge in legacies./…/Do not talk of him [Lepidus]/ But as a property.” (ll.6-9, 39-40) • “Let us do so; for we are at the stake,/And bayed about with many enemies;/And some that smile have in their hearts, I fear,/Millions of mischiefs.” (ll. 48-51) Act IV, Scene 1 (quotes)

  28. In this brief scene, Brutus and Cassius exchange grievances. Brutus suggests they go to his tent to avoid arguing before their soldiers. Act IV, Scene 2 (summary)

  29. “Thou hast described/A hot friend cooling. Ever note, Lucillius,/When love begins to sicken and decay,/It useth an enforcèd ceremony./There are no tricks in plain and simple faith./But hollow men, like horses hot at hand,/Make gallant show and promise of their mettle;/But when they should endure the bloody spur,/They fall their crests, and like deceitful jades/Sink in the trial.” (ll. 18-27) Act IV, Scene 2 (quotes)

  30. Brutus and Cassius unleash a flood of emotions that charges the scene and the play’s falling action with dramatic intensity. The quarrel, in which Brutus accuses Cassius of corruption, is eventually reconciled. Brutus then dumbfounds Cassius by revealing that Portia’s suicide has troubled his mind. Brutus devises a plan to advance to Philippi to meet the forces of Antony and Octavius. Before the night ends, however, Caesar’s ghost appears to Brutus warning, “Thou shalt see me at Philippi.” Act IV, Scene 3 (summary)

  31. “Remember March, the ides of March remember./Did not great Julius bleed for justice' sake?/What villain touched his body, that did stab,/And not for justice? What, shall one of us/That struck the foremost man of all this world/But for supporting robbers, shall we now/Contaminate our fingers with base bribes,/And sell the mighty space of our large honors/For so much trash as may be graspèd thus?/I had rather be a dog and bay the moon/Than such a Roman.” (ll. 18-28) • “There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats,/For I am armed so strong in honesty/That they pass by me as the idle wind,/Which I respect not. I did send to you/For certain sums of gold, which you denied me,/For I can raise no money by vile means.” (ll. 66-71) Act IV, Scene 3 (quotes)

  32. “There is a tide in the affairs of men,/Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;/Omitted, all the voyage of their life/Is bound in shallows and in miseries./On such a full sea are we now afloat,/And we must take the current when it serves/Or lose our ventures.” )ll/ 216-222) • “Thy evil spirit, Brutus./ To tell thee thou shalt see me a Philippi” (l. 280-281) Act IV, Scene 3 (quotes)

  33. The opposing armies face each other on the plains of Philippi (and taunt each other). Act V, Scene 1 (summary)

  34. “Why, now blow wind, swell billow, and swim bark!/The storm is up, and all is on the hazard.” (ll. 67-68) • “I know not how,/But I do find it cowardly and vile,/For fear of what might fall, so to prevent/The time of life), arming myself with patience/To stay the providence of some high powers/That govern us below.” (ll. 102-107) Act V, Scene 1 (quotes)

  35. Brutus gains an advantage over Octavius’s army and orders reinforcements. Act V, Scene 2 (summary)

  36. This scene opens elsewhere on the battlefield, where Cassius learns that his army is surrounded by Antony’s men and that Brutus’s soldiers are occupied with looting. After receiving an inaccurate report about his troops’ loyalty, Cassius believes himself to be defeated and orders Pindarus to kill him with the sword that stabbed Caesar. Act V, Scene 3 (summary)

  37. “Caesar, thou art revenged,/Even with the sword that killed thee.” (ll. 45-46) • “Alas, thou hast misconstrued everything!/…/By your leave, gods. This is a Roman’s part./Come, Cassius’ sword, and find Titinius’ heart.” (ll. 84, 89-90) • “O Julius Caesar, thou art mighty yet!/Thy spirit walks abroad, and turns our swords/In our own proper entrails.” (ll.94-96) Act V, Scene 3 (quotes)

  38. Brutus urges his troops on. Cato and Lucilius, who claims to be Brutus, fight against Antony and his troops. Cato is killed and Lucilius captured. Act V, Scene 4 (summary)

  39. “Safe, Antony. Brutus is safe enough./I dare assure thee that no enemy/Shall ever take alive the noble Brutus./The gods defend him from so great a shame!/When you do find him, or alive or dead,/He will be found like Brutus, like himself.” (ll. 20-25) Act V, Scene 4 (quotes)

  40. In the final scene, Brutus, who has seen Caesar’s ghost again, believes defeat inescapable. He, in effect, commits suicide and leaves Octavius and Antony triumphant. Act V, Scene 5 (summary)

  41. “I found no man but he was true to me./I shall have glory by this losing day/More than Octavius and Mark Antony/By this vile conquest shall attain unto./So fare you well at once, for Brutus' tongue/Hath almost ended his life’s history./Night hangs upon mine eyes. My bones would rest,/That have but labored to attain this hour.” (ll. 34-42) • “Caesar, now be still;/I killed not thee with half so good a will.” (ll. 50-51) Act V, Scene 5 (quotes)

  42. “For Brutus only overcame himself,/And no man else hath honor by his death.” (ll. 56-57) • “This was the noblest Roman of them all./All the conspirators save only he/Did that they did in envy of great Caesar./He only in a general honest thought/And common good to all, made one of them./His life was gentle, and the elements/So mixed in him that Nature might stand up/And say to all the world, ‘This was a man.’” (ll. 68-75) Act V, Scene 5 (quotes)

More Related