Julius Caesar

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Julius Caesar By William Shakespeare
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Basic Overview

• Written in 1599.
• Tragic drama/Historical drama
• Believed to have been the 1st play performed at
  the Globe Theater.
• Centers on the conspiracy against Roman leader
  Julius Caesar, his assassination, and the civil
  war that ensued following his death.
• Shakespeare is thought to have based much of the
  play on the English translation of Plutarch's The
  Lives of the Greeks and Romans.

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Several years of Roman history are condensed into
this play, and it is assumed that the audience
would have been familiar with the basic history
surrounding the play's time. This was true in
Elizabethan times.
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Let's play history catch up

• Several hundred years before the time of the
  play
• Rome was ruled by Tarquin the Proud, who was a
  tyrant.

• Tarquin was defeated in a rebellion led by Lucius
  Junius Brutus (ancestor of Marcus Brutus) in 509
  BC.
• Rome was then made a Republic.

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Still playing catch up...

• The Republic was ruled by elected consuls.
• The Senate advised the consuls.

• Tribunes were elected from the citizenry to
  protect the rights of the commoners and keep the
  Senate in check.

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Lots to catch up on...

• This system had weakened by the 1st century BC,
  and a triumvirate had formed to rule Rome.
• Triumvirate a group of three people who share
  administrative responsibilities

• This triumvirate Pompey, Crassus Julius
  Caesar

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Almost there...

• Crassus was killed fighting the Parthians in
  53BC as the other two fought to gain control,
  civil war broke out.

• Julius Caesar defeated Pompey in 48BC and then
  fought and defeated Pompey's sons.

And so, the play begins with Caesar returning to Rome after his victory.
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Shakespeare's Audience

• Relevance to HIS current audience
• Julius was written toward the end of Queen
  Elizabeth I's rule, under which England had
  experienced relative prosperity. Shakespeare
  address this political concern by writing about a
  country's apprehension about what the death of a
  monarch might bring.
• He also wrote about larger themes that refer to
  human nature, which is one reason that his plays
  are universal and timeless.

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They've Got ISSUES... So Do WeIssues found in
Julius Caesar, Elizabethan times, and today.

• Betrayal
• Fear
• Political Turmoil
• Reason vs. Passion
• Sacrificing Personal Morals for the
• Greater Good

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Citations

• www.shmoop.com/julius-caesar
• www.skwirk.com.au/p-c_s-55_u-263_t-663_c-2480/intr
  oduction/nsw/introduction/shakespeare-em-julius-ca
  esar-/em-/summary