Julius caesar

JULIUS CAESAR

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1599)

“Romans countrymen, and lovers,hear me

for my cause, and be silent, that you hear.

Believe me for mine honour, ande have respect

To mine honour ”

The plot• First act:

In 44 B.C. Julius Caesar defeats his rival.

• Second act:Brutus decides to kill Caesar.

• Third act:Caesar is assassinated, eventually Antony gives his funeral oration.

• Fourth act:A military dictatorship succeeds the ruleof Caesar

• Fifth act:Brutus and Cassius committ suicide.

Julius Caesar: the title character

Julius Caesar:

•Protagonist of the play

•Focus of the discussion

•Reason for the revange

•Julius Caesar: past; conspiracy: future and desire for freedom

The characters

• Brutus:Roman nobleman with sense of principles and nobility, power of words

• Antony: Roman nobleman with charm, more pratical than Brutus and a subtler political mentality,power of words

The rhetoric of politics

• Rhetoric:maker of history,irony and rhetoric forms are ideological-political values in persuading,convincing

Ambition in public man

• Ambition:problem of goodness and honestly in people having public roles (for this reason Antony defeats the “clever”Brutus)

Julius Caesar: the mirror of the Elizabethan order

• Order not only political or social

• Universe ruled by benevolent God

• King’s right from God• Everyone linked together

by a chain• Cassius’s jealousy

destroys the divine harmony

The power of monarchy

• Historical play about a political assassination

• Historical plays were popular at Shakespeare’s time

• Nowadays democracy, Shakespeare’s time strong rulers