Julius Caesar by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

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Julius CaesarbyWILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

• By

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• Caesar is all-powerful in Rome. The Roman Senate
  is subservient to him. All but the semblance of
  democratic government has been lost. What is a
  patriotic Roman to do? Shakespeare's classic play
  of political intrigue, assassination, and civil
  war in Ancient Rome
• Julius Caesar.

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JULIUS CAESAR HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
102/100 BCE Gaius Julius Caesar was born (by
Caesarean section according to an unlikely
legend) of Aurelia and Gaius Julius Caesar, a
praetor. His family had noble, patrician roots,
although they were neither rich nor influential
in this period. His aunt Julia was the wife of
Gaius Marius, leader of the Popular faction.
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• The play reflected the general anxiety of England
  due to worries over succession of leadership. At
  the time of its creation and first performance,
  Queen Elizabeth, a strong ruler, was elderly and
  had refused to name a successor, leading to
  worries that a civil war similar to that of
  Rome's might break out after her death.

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The ghost of Caesar appears to warn Brutus of his
fate.
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Characters

• Julius Caesar
• Octavius Caesar, Marcus Antonius, M. Aemilius
  Lepidus Triumverate after the death of Julius
  Caesar
• Cicero, Publius, Popilius Lena Senators
• Marcus Brutus, Cassius, Casca, Trebonius,
  Ligarius, Decius Brutus, Metellus Cimber,Cinna
  Conspirators against Julius Caesar
• Flavius and Marullus Tribunes
• Artemidorus a Sophist of Cnidos
• A Soothsayer (Also called Fortuneteller)
• Cinna a poet, who is not related to the
  conspiracy
• Lucilius, Titinius, Messala, Cato the Younger,
  Volumnius Friends to Brutus and Cassius
• Varro, Clitus, Claudius, Strato, Lucius,
  Dardanius Servants to Brutus
• Pindarus Servant to Cassius
• Calpurnia wife of Caesar
• Portia wife of Brutus

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Synopsis

• Marcus Brutus is Caesar's close friend his
  ancestors were famed for driving the tyrannical
  King Tarquin from Rome (described in
  Shakespeare's earlier The Rape of Lucrece).
  Brutus allows himself to be cajoled into joining
  a group of conspiring senators because of a
  growing suspicionimplanted by Caius Cassiusthat
  Caesar intends to turn republican Rome into a
  monarchy under his own rule. Traditional readings
  of the play maintain that Cassius and the other
  conspirators are motivated largely by envy and
  ambition, whereas Brutus is motivated by the
  demands of honor and patriotism other
  commentators, such as Isaac Asimov, suggest that
  the text shows Brutus is no less moved by envy
  and flattery. One of the central strengths of the
  play is that it resists categorizing its
  characters as either simple heroes or villains.

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Ides of March

• The soothsayer's (fortuneteller) warning to
  Julius Caesar, "Beware the Ides of March," has
  forever imbued that date with a sense of
  foreboding. But in Roman times the expression
  "Ides of March" did not necessarily evoke a dark
  moodit was simply the standard way of saying
  "March 15.
• Ides (the 15th day in March, May, July, and
  October the 13th in the other months)

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Key Facts

• full title   The Tragedy of Julius Caesar
• author   William Shakespeare
• type of work   Play
• genre   Tragic drama, historical drama
• language   English
• time and place written   1599, in London
• date of first publication   Published in the
  First Folio of 1623, probably from the theater
  companys official promptbook rather than from
  Shakespeares manuscript
• publisher   Edward Blount and William Jaggard
  headed the group of five men who undertook the
  publication of Shakespeares First Folio
• narrator   None

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• protagonists   Brutus and Cassius
• antagonists   Antony and Octavius
• setting (time)   44 b.c.
• setting (place)   Ancient Rome, toward the end
  of the Roman republic
• point of view   The play sustains no single
  point of view however, the audience acquires the
  most insight into Brutuss mind over the course
  of the action

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• tense   Present
• foreshadowing   The play is full of omens,
  including lightning and thunder, the walking
  dead, and lions stalking through the city
  (I.iii).

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• tone  Serious, proud, virtuous, enraged,
  vengeful, idealistic, anguished
• themes   Fate versus free will public self
  versus private self misinterpretation and
  misreading of signs and events commitment to
  ideals versus adaptability and compromise the
  relationship between rhetoric and power
  allegiance and rivalry among men

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• motifs   Omens and portents, letters
• symbols   The women in the play, Portia and
  Calpurnia, symbolize the neglected private lives
  of their respective husbands, Brutus and Caesar.
  The men dismiss their wives as hindrances to
  their public duty, ignoring their
  responsibilities to their own mortal bodies and
  their private obligations as friends, husbands,
  and feeling men.

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Vincenzo Camuccini, Mort de César, 1798.