Composers build on our perspectives to instil diverse interpretation of events, situations and personalities represented through various mediums shaped by their purpose. Thus the representation of conflicting perspectives within their works enables responders to experience a deeper understanding of the world. This is clearly demonstrated in Shakespeare’s tragic play Julius Caesar (1599) and Jason Reitman’s satirical film Thankyou for Smoking (2005). While the Elizabethan context informs Shakespeare’s differing perspectives of Caesar’s assassination in relation to human beings’ complexities and the manipulation used to gain power, centuries later, Reitman also explores the multi-faceted nature of an individual and the persuasion involved …show more content…
The film opens with Nick appearing on Joan Launden’s daytime talk show Joan, and as he is introduced Reitman uses slow motion shots and freeze frames to capture the audience spitting, pointing and shouting at him, signifying the hatred of his powerful and dubious position. Reitman extends this portrayal with a mid-length shot of Nick holding a lighter in front of the American flag with a caption below indicating the number of people who die from smoking each year. The confrontational nature of this scene conveys to the audience an immediate image of Nick’s despised persona. It is only towards the dénouement of the film when Nick resigns from his job that Reitman ‘offers up’ a more compassionate perspective on him. His vulnerability becomes obvious through cross edits to his son and the voice-over of Nick stating, “Some things are more important in life than paying the mortgage”. Thus both texts explore the conflicting perspectives of Caesar and Nick’s multi-faceted personalities, and enrich the responder’s appreciation of human nature and the world around us. This reflects Shakespeare’s values of political stability and Reitman’s judgment of the nature of political and corporate culture in a capitalist society.
As individuals gain power, their higher authority often strives for an easily controlled and often manipulated
Moreover, Richard’s multifaceted nature in his determination to attain power is further accentuated through the striking metaphor “And thus I clothe my naked villainy …And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.”, which Shakespeare employs to represent Richard as an embodiment of absolute evil and amorality. Hence, the Shakespearean audience becomes aware of the destruction of Richard’s moral compass as he sacrifices the value of honesty in his ambitious plan to gain power and engage in sacrilegious acts to create his own fate. Comparatively, Pacino reshapes the downfall of Richard as a result of his ambition for power to reflect the secular perspective of free will and aspiration. As such, Pacino’s reimagining of the opening soliloquy with a mid shot of Pacino leaning over the sick King Edward effectively encapsulates the control Richard possesses, which allows him to deceive the king and maneuver his way
In the play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare shows how friends often betray each other. Julius Caesar is about to be crowned king of Rome, when some well-known Romans decide that it is not a good idea for this to happen. They form a conspiracy and kill Caesar. Brutus, an honorable Roman and a very good friend of Caesar’s, betrays Caesar by killing him for the good of Rome. Antony, Caesar’s best friend and another honorable Roman, betrays Brutus by turning against the conspirators. Cassius, a respected Roman, and Brutus betray each other by arguing and destroying their friendship. All this betraying lead to many deaths in the play.
Shakespeare’s classic Romeo and Juliet has been reimagined many times across different mediums. One interpretation that stands out among the rest is Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 film of the same name. The most shocking and powerful difference between Luhrmann’s work and other films or stage productions of this piece, is the movie’s setting. Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet is set in the modern city of Verona Beach, New York, ruled by two powerful business families, the Montagues and the Capulets. Themes, language, and ideas remain the same, while places, props, and wardrobes are updated to the twentieth century. This compelling change helps emphasize the violent, fast-paced, and chaotic society of the play, which comes to precipitate the tragic demise of the two main characters.
The topic of leadership in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar has been discussed and argued ever since the play was written. The most prevalent discussion of leadership in the play revolves around Shakespeare’s tragic hero, Marcus Brutus, and the cause of his downfall. According to Shakespeare critic James Bundy, “Brutus... is a man whose affections sway more than his reason, in whom there is this tragic confederacy of passion and imagination against reason” (qtd. in Palmer 402). Ernest Shanzer, however, says that Brutus is “by no means devoid of political shrewdness and practical wisdom”, but he is a “bad judge of character” (Shanzer 1). Although both critics’ descriptions of Brutus have merit, Brutus’ shortcoming, as well as the success of the opposing leader, Mark Antony, is more accurately explained using the observations of Niccolo Machiavelli in The Prince. In this book Machiavelli outlines the characteristics of a successful leader. When using The Prince as a lens to read Julius Caesar, the correlation between a leader’s Machiavellianism and their success becomes very apparent. Marcus Brutus is undoubtedly an honorable and respectable man, but his morality prevents him from adhering to Machiavelli’s principles. Due to his lack of princely virtues, Brutus is doomed to fail, while Antony, a much more Machiavellian prince, successfully seizes power.
There have been many rulers in history who have been betrayed by those they trust, but The Tragedy of Julius Caesar (William Shakespeare,1959) still holds a special place in Western literature as one of the most enigmatic human beings to ever exist. Powerful men like Julius Caesar shaped the life and times of the late Roman Republic, just before Rome would officially become the Roman Empire on the crowning of Augustus as the first Roman emperor. Julius Caesar was a powerful general who expanded Rome's power and who was beloved by the people for his generous charity after his successful conquests. Despite knowing the story of Julius Caesar to some extent, most 16th/17th century English would not have ever visited Rome, nor would know what the Roman Republic was like, which presented a unique opportunity to William Shakespeare to create a play unlike any other he had created before. (Shakespeare Julius Caesar, 1599) Shakespeare's Julius Caesar is a reimagining of Rome from a Elizabethan point of view, and despite some inaccuracies, the play depicts an enlightening view on Roman life, and the life of the Roman general, Julius Caesar.
Answer in complete, detailed, grammatically correct sentences. Each question must have at least one paragraph response. Use support from the play!
The pursuit of individual recognition in the form of power and authority remains intrinsic in texts despite the change in contexts. This is evident in William Shakespeare’s 16th century play, King Richard III and Al Pacino’s 19th century docu-drama, Looking for Richard. Both texts explore that the pursuit of individual recognition can be initiated by an individual’s flaw in character caused by the corruption of their sense of morality in order to gain power. This is depicted through the malicious and treacherous nature of the central character, Richard in both texts. There are central ideas conveyed in these texts, including the nature of authority, the acquisition of power and the significant impact determinism plays in one’s decisions and actions. However, due to the difference in cultural context, Pacino reshapes these values to make Shakespeare accessible to a modern day audience. As a result, Pacino sequentially follows the plot of King Richard III in order to emphasise the relevance of Shakespeare’s plays in a modern society. Pacino addresses this through an emphasis on film techniques instead of dramatic techniques. Therefore, it is evident that the comparative study of these texts allows the responder to appreciate the connection between contexts and values, allowing the responder to reflect upon their own society’s concerns.
Listening to peer pressure has the power to shift one’s fate. William Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar, demonstrates how pressuring a man to execute an atrocity will have a detrimental impact on his life. As a scheme forms to overthrow a rising emperor and his followers, the men in the conspiracy of murdering Caesar create more damage than value. Eventually, the rising tension to kill an upcoming ruler creates a downfall of the Roman Empire, a breaking of trust among companions, and the death of numerous men and women. The pressure present in Shakespeare's play has a drastic outcome on every character’s life (Crowther).
Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”, while surely meant to be entertaining and historically informative, undoubtedly also houses insight into the deep complexity and diversity of human beings. The play shows the constant use of ethos, pathos, and logos in human thought and action. Characters use ethos and logos to persuade in evil ways, which results in the assassination of Caesar and an explosion of pathos. Humans, when doing something unjustifiable will present shaky logic. When a person of high authority or respect does this however, their ethos acts as a shield to their flawed logic making it believable.
	Julius Caesar is a play written by William Shakespeare during the year 1597. Julius Caesar’s story involves a conspiracy against Julius Caesar, a powerful senator.
Marlene Dietrich once said “It’s the friends that you can call up at a.m. that matter”/ he chose this quote because it’s saying that people don’t know who their real friends are until they're in need of help. He chose friendship over social because of three reasons they are number one friendship will last a long time and never attack him unless he did something wrong to his friend.number two a friendship will care about what the other person feels and does more than society will ever. And finally the third reason why he chose friendship is because then he know’s he has a voice being heard by someone who cares.
“Who is the real protagonist in Julius Caesar?” The two options we are presented with are Brutus, and Julius Caesar himself. Although the play is centered around the murder of Julius Caesar, I believe that Brutus is the real protagonist. Not only does Brutus have much more stage time than Julius Caesar, but his internal struggle also makes up the main part of the plot. Then, the play only ends right after Brutus committed suicide. For Julius Caesar, his main part in the play is being murdered, his corpse at his funeral, and later reappearing as a ghost to Brutus. That leaves the title of the play as Caesar’s main advantage in the never-ending “War of the Roles.”
For the group project on The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, the group- Emily, Maha, Emaan, My, Fiza, and Dorathy- decided to perform and present Act 2 Scene 1 of the play. To fulfill an equal amount of work, everyone was assigned a separate task. Each person found aspects of the scene to aid in comprehension of the text and worked together to implement them into a presentation and performance.
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, written by William Shakespeare in 1599, is just one example of a typical Shakespearean tragedy. At the beginning of the book, the reader believes that the Julius Caesar is the main character and that the whole book will revolve around him. By the time the reader finishes the book it is clear that Decius Brutus, or just ‘Brutus’, is the main character and the tragic hero. Shakespeare’s idea of a tragic hero had five specific elements, including the traditional ones; complexity, internal conflict, the choices a character makes and the thought process about the impact the decision will make. Throughout the
William Shakespeare is one of the greatest playwrights of all time. He has written over 30 plays that include comedies, histories, and tragedies. A tragedy is about the downfall of a tragic hero, and the tragic hero is someone of greater power or high standing obtaining a flaw. One of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies is the story of Julius Caesar. In this story, the main character, Julius Caesar, is plotted against his best friend, Brutus, and the head of the conspiracy, Cassius. After Caesar gets assassinated, his right hand man, Mark Antony, tries to get revenge on the people that killed him. However, in this particular story, the main character is not the tragic hero. The tragic hero, Brutus, is the most consistent throughout the play unlike the other three characters, Caesar, Antony, and Cassius.