Julius Caesar

1. Julius Caesar • Play of Play Julius Ceasar friend assassination revenge Marcus Brutus Marcus Antonius conspirators friend • Cassius • Casca • Trebonius • Ligarius • Decius Brutus • Metellus Cimber M. Aemilius Lepidus The Treatment of Character

2. Julius Caesar • Marcus Brutus • 4 perspectives upon the situation • A private individual • A husband • Co-leader of the conspiracy • An admired associate The Treatment of Character

3. Julius Caesar • A private individual • Bru. What,Lucius,ho! • I cannot,by the progress of the stars, • Give guess how near to day. Lucius, I say! • ---- • Bru.It must be by his death and for my part, (10) • I know no personal cause to spurn at him • But for the general. He would be crown’d: • How that might change his nature, there’s the question • ---- • ---- • And therefore think him as a serpent’s egg • Which, hatch’d, would, as his kind. Grow mischievous, • And kill him in the shell. P. 153 Caesar has not been guilty of abusing his position soliloquy Might become The Treatment of Character

4. Julius Caesar • Calling to Lucius soliloquy indicate the set of scene State of his mind Walking for a long time night Outdoor---garden Mental unrest The Treatment of Character

5. Julius Caesar • Soliloquy---dramatic language • Soliloquy accompanied By audience’s imaginative • Audience participate in the process of thinking • Convince the audience of his humanity • assassinationjust and right cause • Marcus Brutus ---a complex creation • his experience • the content of his speeches • his difficulty in determining what constitutes right action transfer The Treatment of Character

6. Julius Caesar • A husband---familial role • Portia: Y’have ungently, Brutus, • stole from my bed; and yesternight at supper • You suddenly arose, and walk’d about, • Musing, and sighing, with your arms across; • And when I ask’d you what the matter was, • You star’d upon me with ungentle looks. • I urg’d you further; ----- • ---- • ---- • ---- • Gave sign for me to leave you. Sharp contrast between his current behavior and customary manner p. 156 Disturbing effect from the contemplation of assassination The Treatment of Character

7. Julius Caesar • Relationship with his wife • Used be a close one & strong bond • Now unnatural & unusual • Portia is not a handmaid to her husband but a woman with strong and • noble mind, and the devotion of such a woman to Brutus enlists the • sympathiesof the audience on his behalf. Effects on private life The Treatment of Character

8. Julius Caesar • An admired associate & Co-leader of the conspiracy --- Public role • Bru. Would you were not sick! • Cai. I am not sick if Brutus have in hand • Any exploit worthy the name of honour. • Bru. Such an exploit have I in hand, Ligarius, • Had you a healthful ear to hear of it. • Cai. By all the gods that that Romans bow before, • I here discard my sickness. Soul of Rome! • Brave son, deriv’d from honourable loins! • --- • --- • --- • To do I know not what; but it sufficeth • That Brutus leads me on. p. 157 The Treatment of Character

9. Julius Caesar dialogue with Ligarius Brutus’ capacity of inspire devotion demonstrate √ × Charismatic aspect of his personality His gentleness The Treatment of Character

10. Julius Caesar • Brutus and the audience • Audience are allowed an insight into both the way Brutus’s mind • works and the inner uncertainty underlying Brutus’s public • confidence, while the audience are conscious of such limitations • of which Brutus himself is unaware. The Treatment of Character

11. Antony: (to the dead man) O mighty Caesar! Does thou lie so low? Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils, Shrunk to this little measure? Fare thee well. I know not, gentlement, what you intend, Who else must be let blood, who else is rank: If I myself, there is no hour so fit As Caesar’s death’s hour; nor no instrument Of half that worth as those your swords, made rich With the most noble blood of all this world Julius Caesar The Treatment of Character

12. Julius Caesar • Antony’s respond: • 1. attitude of the spectator towards Caesar tyrant—a man of unparalleled nobility2. sympathies of the spectators murderers --- the dead man Caesar his grieving friend Antony The Treatment of Character

13. Let each man render me his bloody hand. First, Marcus Brutus, will I shake with you; Next ,Caius Cassius, do I take your hand; Now, Decius Brutus, yours; now yours, Metellus Yours, Cinna; and, my valiant Casca, yours; Though last, nit least in love, yours, good Trebonius. Gentlemen all- alas, what shall I say? …… Sign’d in thy spoil, and crimson’d in thy lethe (3,1,184-206) Julius Caesar The Treatment of Character

14. Julius Caesar • Antony: • 3,1 admired Caesar passionately ,grief at the assassination • modify the spectator 3,2 a manipulator—rouse the mob against the conspirators 4,1 a ruthless pragmatist, locked in a struggle for political power. The Treatment of Character

15. Julius Caesar • His contemptuous attitude towards his fellow triumvir The readiness to condemn his own nephew to death • alienate the audience from him • The diatancing of Antony from the audience in the course of • 4,1 prepares the way for the play’s most remarkable shift of focus Antony---Cassius The Treatment of Character

16. Julius Caesar • Cassius: • Up to this point most arid ,most calculating of the conspirator • much more complex The Treatment of Character

17. Julius Caesar • Quarrel • Cassius’ apparent refusal to send Brutus money to maintain his army overturn the spectator’s assumption about the characters of the two • men. Cassius---more circumspect of the joint leader The Treatment of Character

18. Julius Caesar • Brutus, this sober form of yours hides wrongs (4.2.37-38) selling ‘office for gold’ and ‘gold to pay legions’ contemptuous tone in which Brutus speak alignment audience with Cassius The Treatment of Character

19. Julius Caesar • Cas. I denied you not. Bru. You did Cas. I didn’t .He was but a fool.That brought my answer back, Brutus ………… when thou didst hate him worst , thou lov’dst him better than ever • lov’dst Cassius. • (4.3.82-106 P163) The Treatment of Character

20. Julius Caesar • Up to this point Cassius appears to be using Brutus in order to lend probity to the assassination. Emerges as the victim of Brutus’ personal magnetism Cassius not the calculating master of political events The Treatment of Character

21. Julius Caesar • The shift focus of that Shakespear engineers from scene to scene in this • play is productive of a highly rewarding theatrical experience. Conspirators and avengers alike are complex human beings whose actions • are shaoed by a varuety of pressure, rather than by consistent impulses to • wards good or evil. The Treatment of Character