William Shakespeare 's Julius Caesar

Shakespeare shows how power and the prospect of power changes people through the character of Brutus. Brutus’ attitude changes as he acquires power and detects the possibility of being powerful. Originally, everything Brutus does is for the good of the people and Rome itself. He recognizes that he has “no personal cause to spurn at [Caesar]” (I.I.11); however, he considers doing it “for the general” (I.I.12). Power has not yet changed Brutus’ attitude; he still focuses on the good of Rome as a whole and not just gaining power for himself. As the play continues, Brutus’ ongoing internal struggle of whether or not he should kill Caesar ends when he decides to kill him. He wants to kill him in a very specific way so that the people hate Caesar rather

The Tragedy of Julius Caesar can be interpreted in multiple ways when it comes to who the characters are and if the name holds true. An immense amount of people would say that the conspirators are the antagonists while Mark Antony is the protagonist. Others may say it was only Cassius who was the antagonist. Many readers believe that the name of the play is completely wrong and William Shakespeare messed up. There are numerous amounts of evidence for each concept. As it does for many, my idea of who was who in the play varied as I continued to read on. Opinions may differ, but I believe the protagonist is Brutus while the antagonist is Mark Antony and the name holds true to the play.

William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar is one of his most monumental plays that cover Julius Caesar’s death and the fallout after it. He got the material for this play from a Greek writing called the Life of Julius Caesar. This was actually a famous biography written by Plutarch in the first century, I was later translated by Sir Thomas North in 1579. Published in 1599 this play is assumed to be the first to be ever preformed in the famous Globe Theater, it was a smash success that moved audiences. This play has stood the test of time being regarded as a timeless masterpiece and work of perfection. Shakespeare did this by displaying deep moving characters, vibrant and astounding settings, and intriguing points of view in Julius Caesar.

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.

The protagonist in this play is Julius Caesar. He is the Protagonist for many reasons. One is that the main plot if the play is to kill Caesar for being a bad ruler against Rome. The consipators were making plans to kill Caesar. There are many warnings in the story that Caesar is going to die, but he ingores all of them because the consipators tell him not to.If he wasn’t the Protagonist then there would be no need to have him in the play for most of them time. Even after his death Caesar still makes many appernices in the book and that makes the other charcters die. Protagonist is the main charcter in a story and that is what caesar is. It is clear that no one else is the Protagonist except for Casear. Caesear lives on in the

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.

Julius Caesar is an historical tragedy, written by Shakespeare in 1599. Set in ancient Rome it depicts the rise and fall of an emperor and a time of vast political change. Presenting a tale of manipulation and a struggle for power Shakespeare uses the uses the art of the orator and rhetoric to describe key moments in Rome’s history. Structurally central to the play is Act III, scene 2, as it is at this pivotal moment, after the conspiracy and assassination of Caesar that the battle for power begins.

In the play Julius Caesar, written by Shakespeare, we are presented with two characters, Brutus, a noble congressman of the Roman republic, and Antony, a loyal lieutenant to Caesar. Brutus, who is manipulated by Cassius to kill Caesar, is led to believe that Caesar was ambitious and was seeking to destroy the Roman republic as well as becoming a tyrannical king. Brutus, being the patriotic congressman all of Rome knows him as, agrees for the good of Rome, to join the radical conspirators and help kill Caesar. Despite his solid reputation and strong ethos, Brutus’s weak pathos and logos doom his speech for failure once Antony gets up to speak.

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

William Shakespeare was born in 1564, only a little while after the start of Queen Elizabeth I’s reign. As such he lived in a time of civil unrest later in his life because of the ruler being a woman, being childless and not naming an heir to the throne. Therefore Shakespeare used his tragedy Julius Caesar and the Roman politics in the play in order to reflect those of his day. Namely that even the government needs the support of its people, that advice given to political leaders should be taken into consideration, the consequences of rebellion, and the need for an heir.

Throughout the play Julius Caesar, different characters struggled to gain power and take on the leadership of Rome. One important character was Caius Cassius. He was intelligent, and had key ideas that could be used to help him gain the leadership he wanted. But, upon executing these ideas, Cassius never stepped up and attempted to lead Rome, while his friend and fellow senator, Brutus, did. Cassius craved power throughout the play, but he was always too weak to rise above more powerful characters, therefore proving that his hatred for Caesar stemmed from their shared weakness.

William Shakespeare, in his historical play Julius Caesar, makes the characters Brutus and Antony utilize rhetorical strategies in order to win the favour of the Roman people for their own purposes. These two speakers try to convince the audience of different things: where Brutus, who speaks first, was trying to subdue the passions of the mob and use logic to win acceptance for his murderous actions, Antony, who had to follow Brutus, was trying to awaken the passions of the mob and stir up the need for revenge. In addition, Antony had the additional challenge that he was not allowed to speak ill of Brutus and his fellow conspirators. To persuade their audience, the characters manipulate the use of persona to move the audience’s perception of themselves, to establish or reinforce the strengths of their positions, and to undermine each other’s arguments.

As society lacks critical thinking, people let those in power manipulate them to get a taste of power. When Caesar returns from the battle with Pompey, the people of Rome are rejoicing in the streets. Yet Marullus accuses that “[the men of Rome] have hard hearts” and “[do not remember] Pompey” (I.i.32-37). The people of Rome abandon Pompey’s side as soon as Caesar wins. If they join Caesar, Caesar will like them more and their fellow citizens will continue to respect them. If they align with Pompey, the masses will attack them because Pompey’s army no longer has all it’s honor and power. Similarly, when Cassius is asking Brutus about his thoughts on Caesar, he philosophizes that “men at some time are masters of their own fates: the fault, [Brutus], is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings” (I.ii.139-141). Cassius’ statement explains that the less power someone has, the less control of their fate they have. Because Brutus has a huge amount of power as Caesar’s friend and as a senator, the people of Rome honor and respect him. Brutus aligns himself with Caesar and Cassius

The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare depicts the dictatorship of a powerful Roman emperor in 44 B.C. This play consists of various elements some of which are historical events, people and places, which disclose the conspiracy to overthrow Julius Caesar. The fates of the characters are predetermined although they attempt to avoid and ultimately change their own fate, which attributes to the humanity each character possesses giving a predetermined fate that is unavoidable and uncontrollable. Individual perception of omens and superstitions controls characters fates.

The Renaissance was a time in which mankind was rediscovering itself. For ages, men were simply trying to exist, survive more than anything else. The Renaissance was a period in which men no longer had to just get by everyday, but could begin exploring morality. No other Renaissance author characterizes this more than William Shakespeare in the early 1600s. His plays highlight the internal moral struggle that every man goes through, the concept of what is right and what is wrong in a world that is full of gray areas. More specifically he deals with the concept of honor and morality in several of his plays. Julius Caesar, Hamlet, and Henry V, to a lesser extent, deal with how men handle these and can reconcile otherwise heinous acts. Now, being well aware that Shakespeare does not account for all the Renaissance writers, however his are the most prevalent still today and it can be argued that Shakespeare did not work alone. For the sake of organization, it is far easier to tackle these literary works in chronological order and analyze the individual pieces first and then view them all as one whole.