Act I, Scene 1
1. What is the setting?
2. For what celebration are the people preparing?
3. Name the men who argue with people.
4. Why do these men scold the people?
5. What does this tell you about the loyalties of the people?
Act I, Scene 2
6. What favor does Caesar ask Antonius?
7. What is “Calpurnia’s curse”?
8. What dramatic device does the Soothsayer represent?
9. Brutus seems troubled when he is first presented to us. Why is he disturbed?
10. What does Cassius try to convince Brutus to do?
11. Describe the evidence Cassius uses to persuade Brutus to join his cause.
12. Why does the crowd cheer three times inside the Forum?
13. Casca’s rude remarks about the common people could also be Shakespeare’s attempt to criticize what group of people?
Act I, Scene 3
14. What is the setting?
15. What news of Caesar does Casca give to Cassius?
16. How does Cassius react? (Use a Quote.)
17. What plan does Cassius have to help persuade Brutus?
Act II, Scene 1
1. What is the setting?
2. Brutus soliloquy:
a. Describe why Brutus decides Caesar must die.
b. To what does Brutus compare Caesar in this speech?
3. Explain where the letters came from and what they say.
4. How are the conspirators dressed?
5. Why does Cassius also want to kill Antony?
6. What reason does Brutus give not to kill Antony?
7. How does Brutus describe Antony?
8. What part will Decius play in the plot against Caesar?
9. As the conspirators are about to leave, Brutus gives them some advice about hiding their intentions? What is it?
10. Why is Portia upset with Brutus?
11. What is the purpose of the conversation between Brutus and Caius Ligarius?
Act II, Scene 2
12. What is the setting?
13. Why is Calpurnia upset?
14. What news do the augurers bring Caesar?
15. Why does ...
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... third mistake that Brutus makes.)
14. List the three mistakes of judgment that Brutus makes after joining the conspiracy.
15. What strange event occurs as Brutus is about to retire for the night?
Act V, Scene 1
1. What is the setting?
2. Describe the verbal exchange between Antony/Octavius and Brutus/Cassius before the battle.
3. Why is Cassius worried?
4. How does Brutus feel about suicide?
Act V, Scene 2
5. What are Brutus’ orders?
Act V, Scene 3
6. What is happening to Cassius’ army?
7. What news does Pindarus bring?
8. How does Cassius commit suicide?
9. What error in judgment has Cassius made in committing suicide?
10. What character flaw is illustrated in this final act by Cassuis?
Act V, Scene 4
11. Who attempts to impersonate Brutus?
12. Why does Antony spare his life?
Act V, Scene 5
13. What does Brutus whisper to Clitus?
14. Describe how Brutus dies.
Brutus, Honorable Man Brutus, an honorable conspirator? Honorable is defined as genuine, truthful and displaying integrity, while a conspirator is defined as one that engages in an agreement to commit an illegal or wrongful act. Anyone can clearly see that these two words do not belong together. There are also other reasons why Brutus should not be considered honorable. In the play, three distinct acts can be recalled.
Shakespeare’s complex play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar contains several tragic heroes; a tragic hero holds high political or social esteem yet possesses an obvious character flaw. This discernible hubris undoubtedly causes the character’s demise or a severe forfeiture, which forces the character to undergo an unfeigned moment of enlightenment and shear reconciliation. Brutus, one of these tragic heroes, is a devout friend of the great Julius Caesar, that is, until he makes many execrable decisions he will soon regret; he becomes involved in a plot to kill the omniscient ruler of Rome during 44 B.C. After committing the crime, Mark Antony, an avid, passionate follower of Caesar, is left alive under Brutus’s orders to take his revenge on the villains who killed his beloved Caesar. After Antony turns a rioting Rome on him and wages war against him and the conspirators, Brutus falls by his own hand, turning the very sword he slaughtered Caesar with against himself. Brutus is unquestionably the tragic hero in this play because he has an innumerable amount of character flaws, he falls because of these flaws, and then comes to grips with them as he bleeds on the planes of Philippi.
In addition to this characteristic of Cassius, he also has a devious nature. This attribute allows him to invent informed manipulative plans to eliminate his opponents. For instance, after saying his farewells to Brutus, he gives a soliloquy that reveals his idea of throwing writings of different handwritings in Brutus’ windows “as if they came from several citizens” all of which “tending to the great opinion that Rome holds of his name, wherein obscurely Caesar’s ambition shall be glancéd at” (Shakespeare I. ii. 306-309). Since Brutus and Cassius have been friends for a long period of time, Cassius holds an abundance of knowledge pertaining to his values--in this case being his honor and desire to please Rome’s citizens. This undermining plot Cassius has devised is based on an informed opinion of the most effective way to subvert Caesar’s authority, and because of the valid observations made of Brutus by Cassius, the likelihood that this clever scheme will be carried out successfully should make Caesar concerned about the intentions of his judicial
Mark Antony’s speech, whose aim is to counter Brutus’ speech, enlightens the crowd on the unjust murder of Caesar. Though he never directly communicates to the crowd of his feeling towards the conspirators, Antony was able to effectively convey to the crowd, through the use of verbal irony and other stylistic devices/techniques in his speech, his true views of the assassination. Moreover, Antony was able to shrewdly emphasize his belief of the undeserved assassination of Caesar through the wide use of epiphoral and anaphoral structure in his speech. Antony emphasizes the wrongdoings of Brutus and Cassius through the ingenious use of the epistrophe along with verbal irony as he notes that “I should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong” (III, ii, 125). Moreover, he stresses the importance of punishi...
his ally not for who he is, but what he could become. It is for this
In The Tragedy Of Julius Caesar written by William Shakespeare, the leader Caesar is killed by a group of men who are close to him. He was killed because the group of men thought he was not fit to be the ruler of Rome. Brutus, a close friend of Caesar, was a part of the group. Even though Brutus betrayed Caesar, it shows he cares about others more than himself. This proves Brutus is a better leader for Rome and its people.
Brutus is a good man who is easily turned evil by men filled with abhorrence and jealousy. In the play, Julius Caesar, Brutus is a Roman who is easily manipulated, decisive, and proud. These contradicting traits of Brutus show us why the reader does not want to believe that Brutus is an antagonist in the story.
Brutus was a devious man, even though what he thought he was doing was right. Brutus told his fellow conspirators to kill Caesar “boldly, but not angerly.”(3.1.256-257) Brutus was one of Caesars right hand men, and yet Brutus kills his own friend. When Antony asks to speak at Caesars funeral, Cassius says no, but Brutus tell him that Antony will speak, but only what Brutus tells him to say. Brutus also embraces the fact that he just killed his friend, and also tells the senators who had just witnessed it to not be afraid, but to stay because ambition has paid its debt.
Brutus has several tragic flaws. One of these tragic flaws is how he trusts people a lot. Brutus says that he “know[s] that we shall have [Antony] well to a friend” (1140). He trusts Antony will be a friend of the conspirators, yet he seems to not realize that Antony is obliviously against them, because they killed his friend. Brutus trusts Antony so much, that he lets Antony speak to the public alone. Antony turns the people against Brutus and the conspirators, leading to the wars where Brutus takes his own life. Brutus also receives letters, supposedly from the people of Rome. As he reads the letter out loud, Brutus remarks “‘Speak, strike, redress!’ Am I entreated to speak and strike? O Rome, I make thee promise, if thy redress will follow, thy receivest thy full petition at the hand of Brutus” (1118).
In William Shakespeare's play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, two speeches are given to the people of Rome about Caesar's death. In Act 3, Scene 2 of this play Brutus and Antony both try to sway the minds of the Romans toward their views. Brutus tried to make the people believe he killed Caesar for a noble cause. Antony tried to persuade the people that the conspirators committed an act of brutality toward Caesar and were traitors. The effectiveness and ineffectiveness of both Antony's and Brutus's speech to the people are conveyed through tone and rhetorical devices.
Both Cassius and Brutus play major roles in the play Julius Caesar. Cassius and Brutus both plan Caesar’s death. Although they are working towards a common goal, Cassius and Brutus have very different motivations for doing this. On the one hand, Cassius sees it as a way to gain more power for himself while destroying the king and all his power. On the other hand, Brutus believes that in killing Caesar he is preserving peace for the Romans’ future years. Throughout the play, Shakespeare uses different techniques to create biased characterizations of the two men so that readers and viewers develop identical attitudes towards each of them. In Julius Caesar, Cassius is portrayed as a greedy villain while Brutus is depicted as an honorable hero.
As a “speculative man of high motives and refined sensibility”(Catherine C. Dominic) Brutus does have his confusion of motives. Act I, scene ii, is the first we see his weakness, “his concern with reputation and appearance, his subtle vanity and pride”(Gayle Green). Yet the main bases of Brutus’s bewilderment of motives takes place in Act II, scene I, with his famous soliloquy beginning with “It must be by his death”. This speech may be the turning point in which Brutus feels better about the assassination of his once called friend.
The play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare, has two main tragic heroes. Set in Rome and spanning from forty- four to forty-two B.C., the play tells of Brutus and Caesar whom both fall from the highest positions to the lowest of misfortune and then are enlightened on their mistakes. Brutus is the stronger example of a tragic hero in this story. Throughout this play, Brutus commits many faults, falls more drastically than all other characters, and regrets his previous actions by the end of the play.
He will obey to whatever the Romans convey to him. Brutus also understands that he is putting it all on the line for his Romans. Brutus said that if the conspirators do not join for a common cause, then there is no need for an oath because the conspirators are self-righteous, and they are serving the Romans. He was a follower of idealism, where the Romans would possess peace, liberty and freedom. Brutus was a good friend to Julius Caesar, but not good enough. He had moral values dealing with Rome and its people. Brutus’s values then made him join a conspiracy against Caesar put together by Cassius. Brutus is in fact a dear friend of Caesar’s but kills his beloved friend not for who he is, but what he could become as a King. It is for this reason that when Brutus dies by suicide Mark Anthony describes Brutus as the noblest Roman of them all.
not what you do; do not consent...” Had Brutus been more aware of what was really