Julius Caesar William Shakespeare (1599)
Julius CaesarWilliam Shakespeare
(1599)
The plot:• First act.
• Second act.
• Third act.
• Fourth act.
• Fifth act.
Julius Caesar was first performed at The Globe Theatre in 1599.
First act
Set in a Roman street
February 44 B.C.
Julius Caesar became the most powerful man of Rome.
Casca, Cassius and Cinna plot against Caesar
draw Brutus in their conspiracy
Second act:
Brutus’s republican ideologies
emerge
Brutus decides to kill Caesar
Bust of Brutus
Third act
Caesar is assassinated
Antony
Brutus tries to justify Ceasar’s killing
gives is funeral oration in the market place.
organizes a mutiny against brutus
Bust of Mark Antony
Fourth act
Military dictatorship composed by:
Lepidus Antony Octavius
Draws up a list of cospirators to kill
Fifth act
Cospirators are defeated at Philippi by the army of the
second triumvirate
Brutus and Cassius commit suicide
Antony honours Brutus’s corpse
Julius Caesar:
• Is the protagonist and the title character of the play;
• Embodies an anytesis
causes his downfall
Causes all the action
Even when he is absent
Brutus Can be considered the protagonist
Is most complex characer in his psyche
A tragic flaw His sence of principles and nobility
man of Renaissance
“If then that friend demand why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer: - not that I loved Ceasar less, but that I loved Rome more -”
Act III, Scene II, lines 20-22
Antony- charming- pratical- with a subtle political mentality
the power of words
turns the crowd against the cospirators
praises Brutus as “an honourable man”
Attacks and defeats Brutus and Cassius at Philippi
“ Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.”
Act III, Scene II, line 70
The rhetoric of politics
The maker of history
Two microcosms
irony rhetoric form
make a macrocosm the play
What are virtues in the public man?
• Ambition
• Clever
Antony embodies these virtues
Brutus is unable to judge people
Is too honest and good
Are honesty and goodness virtues in public men?
Julius Caesar The mirror of the Elizabethan order
Universe
ruled by God
the opposition to the king is an opposition to God
causes a disorder in the system
The king’s right to rule came from himself
based on the chain of being
Julius Caesar
Historical playPolitical assassination
Reflection:Is it right
To kill a powerful ruler?
Very popular during the Age of Discovery:
- teaching function- mirror of Elizabethan reality
like Caesar orElizabeth I
Shakespeare
No against strong rulers
Message of “Julius Caesar”:
Only the benevolent ruler
warranty of order and unity
Elizabeth I