William Shakespeare’s

Julius Caesar

Shakespeare

• Julius Caesar is a play about a political assassination.

• The question it asks is:• Is it ever right to use force to remove a ruler from

power? You can answer that question in terms of your own experience But if you’re going to figure out what Shakespeare thought, you’ll have to know something about the values and concerns of the Elizabethan world in which he lived.

Elizabethan Period1558-1603 “The Golden Age”

Where the play was held?

Elizabethan Period

• History plays were popular during Shakespeare’s lifetime (1564-1616) because this was the Age of Discovery, and English men and women were hungry to learn about worlds other than their own.

• The Elizabethans also saw history as a mirror in which to discover themselves and find answers to the problems of their lives. A play like Julius Caesar taught the Elizabethans about Roman politics; it also offered an object lesson in how to live. What was Shakespeare trying to teach his contemporaries?

Elizabethan attitudes toward monarchy and order.

• (A) MONARCHY • Today we believe in democracy and are

suspicious of anyone who seeks unlimited power. We know what can happen when a Hitler or a Stalin takes control of a government, and we know just how corrupting power can be. But Shakespeare and his contemporaries had no such prejudice against strong rulers.

Queen Elizabeth 1st

Queen Elizabeth

• Their queen, Elizabeth I, ruled with an iron hand for forty-five years (from 1558 to 1603), yet her subjects had great affection for her. Under her rule the arts flourished and the economy prospered. While the rest of Europe was in war, mostly between Catholics and Protestants, England enjoyed a period relatively free from war.

• To Shakespeare and his contemporaries the message was clear: only a strong ruler could protect the peace and save the country from plunging into chaos.

• Shakespeare would probably not have approved of the murder of Caesar.

Old Queen???

• ORDER • In 1599, when Julius Caesar was first

performed, Elizabeth was old. • She had never married and had no children to

succeed her. • Shakespeare and his contemporaries must have

worried greatly that someone (like Brutus? like Cassius?) would try to grab power and plunge the country into civil war.

What did people of this time know???

• World was round, and that the earth was one of many planets spinning in space.

• They knew from explorers that there were continents besides their own.

• But most believed that the universe was ruled by a God, and that everything had a divine purpose to fulfill. The king’s right to rule came from God himself.

• Forget chance: if something went wrong, then someone had broken God’s laws, the laws of the universe. Many would suffer, but in the end the guilty would be punished and order restored.

Roman History

Roman History

• Julius Caesar opens in 44 B.C., at a time when Rome ruled territories stretching from as far north as Britain to as far east as Persia.

• Rome was governed by a senate. Rome's senators became factionalized causing problems, which allowed the more successful military generals gain power.

• ALSO, the state suffered from class divisions, and the plebeians had managed to win the right to elect "tribunes," or representatives, giving them some political power. Women and most of the men were not allowed to vote!. Rome showed some signs of democracy, the majority did not participate in the general politics.

Roman History

• When you think of Senators, you naturally think of elected representatives of the people. But in ancient Rome the Senate was made up of wealthy people who wanted to defend their privileges.

• Caesar was a reformer who wanted to reduce the power of the Senate, and to share their lands and privileges with the common people.

•  2 Generals: Pompey and Caesar eventually fight for power.

• Pompey represented the interests of the Senators,—• Caesar defended the reformers. In 47 B.C. Caesar

defeated Pompey; No wonder in the first act the people are happy to see Caesar!!!

Julius Caesar – the play

List of Characters• Brutus -  believes strongly in a government guided by the votes of senators. While

Brutus loves Caesar as a friend, he opposes any man to the position of dictator, and he fears that Caesar aspires to such power.

• only Brutus truly believes that Caesar’s death will benefit Rome. Torn between his loyalty to Caesar and his allegiance to the state, Brutus becomes the tragic hero of the play.

• Julius Caesar -  A great Roman general and senator, recently returned to Rome in triumph after a successful military campaign. While his good friend Brutus worries that Caesar may aspire to dictatorship over the Roman republic, Caesar seems to show no such inclination, declining the crown several times. Yet while Caesar may not be power-hungry, he does possess some flaws.

• Antony -  A friend of Caesar. Antony claims allegiance to Brutus and the conspirators after Caesar’s death in order to save his own life. Later, however, when speaking a funeral oration over Caesar’s body, he persuades the audience to withdraw its support of Brutus and instead condemn him as a traitor.

List of Characters• Cassius -  A talented general and long-time acquaintance of Caesar. Cassius

dislikes the fact that Caesar has become godlike in the eyes of the Romans. He slyly leads Brutus to believe that Caesar has become too powerful and must die, finally converting Brutus to his cause. Has no illusions how the political world actually works.

• Octavius -  Caesar’s adopted son and appointed successor. Returns after Caesar’s death; he then joins with Antony and sets off to fight Cassius and Brutus. Paving the way for his eventual seizure of Roman government.

• Casca -Against Caesar’s rise to power. Casca tells Cassius and Brutus how Antony offered the crown to Caesar three times and how each time Caesar declined it. He believes, however, that Caesar is an actor,getting the people to believe that he has no personal ambition.

• Calpurnia -  Caesar’s wife. Calpurnia invests great authority in omens and portents. She warns Caesar against going to the Senate on the Ides of March, since she has had terrible nightmares and heard reports of many bad omens.

• Portia -  Brutus’s wife; the daughter of a noble Roman who took sides against Caesar. Becomes upset to find him so reluctant to speak his mind when she finds him troubled. Brutus later hears that Portia has killed herself out of grief that Antony and Octavius have become so powerful.

The Play!!

• JULIUS CAESAR In order to discuss Shakespeare’s play intelligently you have to make up your mind about (1) Caesar’s character, and (2) Caesar’s threat to the Roman Republic.

•  • Either Caesar deserves to be

assassinated, or he doesn’t. On your answer hangs the meaning of the play.

Think!!!!• On one hand, Caesar’s ambition poses a real danger to the

Republic. In that case, the hero of the play is Brutus. • On the other hand, Caesar may be vain and arrogant, but he is the

only ruler strong enough to hold the Roman Republic together, and a flawed ruler is better than none at all. In that case, Brutus becomes an impractical idealist who is manipulated by a group of scheming politicians.

• Whatever your position, there’s no doubt that Shakespeare wants to show us the private side of a public man, and to remind us that our heroes are, like the rest of us, only human.

• In public, Caesar is worshipped like a god; in private, he is superstitious, deaf, and subject to fits of epilepsy. Caesar’s public image is like a mask he wears to hide his weaknesses from others and from himself. Yet at the moment of death his mask slips, and we see another Caesar who values friendship above all.

Terms

• Ides of March - The Ides of March was a festive day dedicated to the god Mars and a military parade was usually held

• Feast of Lupercal - The mystery around the beginning of Valentines Day dates back to ancient times with the celebration of the “Feast of Lupercal”, which was in honour of the Roman God of Fertility. The day is February 15th of each year.