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Caesar 4 Character Study

Page history last edited by Steve Gibbs 1 year, 7 months ago

Character Studies in Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

 Complete Text of Play...

 

  • List Four Claims of About Four Corner-Piece Characters.
  • Beneath each claim, type the quote that proves your claim. Give the Act, Scene, and Line number.
  • Beneath the quote, write a brief explanation of how the literal words support your inference.

 

External Design:

  • Use editing tools -- fonts, font sizes, boldface, and color -- to distinguish elements in your table.
  • Use Heading options in the toolbar to get quick results.
  • Insert a small graphic to go with each character.

The example below is sufficient. 

 

Traits to consider...

 

Caesar  

Claim 1:

Julius Caesar is superstitious.

Evidence:

CAESAR: Forget not, in your speed, Antonius,
To touch Calpurnia; for our elders say,
The barren, touched in this holy chase,
Shake off their sterile curse. (I, i, 89-92)

 

Analysis: 

Caesar believes his wife can become fertile by being touched in a foot race.

That is superstitious thinking.

 

Claim 2:

Evidence:

Analysis: 

Claim 3:

Evidence:

Analysis: 

Claim 4: 

Evidence:

Analysis: 

Marc Antony 

Claim 1:

Marc Antony behaves obsequiously to the assassins. I infer that he is buying time for revenge.

Evidence:

Antony: Friends am I with you all and love you all,
Upon this hope, that you shall give me reasons
Why and wherein Caesar was dangerous. (III, i, 1443-1445)

 

Analysis: 

There is no proof, because Brutus killed Caesar before he turned dangerous. Thus Antony is pretending to be friends. He says he will be their friend provided they have proof that Caesar was dangerous.

  

Claim 2:    

Evidence:

Analysis: 

Claim 3:

Evidence:

Analysis: 

Claim 4: 

Evidence:

Analysis: 

Brutus 

Claim 1:

Brutus is an honorable man.

Evidence:

Antony: This was the noblest Roman of them all:
All the conspirators save only he
Did that they did in envy of great Caesar;
He only, in a general honest thought
And common good to all, made one of them.  (V, v, 2754-2758)

 

Analysis: 

No one doubts Brutus's noble character. He is an honorable man. All agree. He is the only conspirator who killed Caesar for the good of Rome. Unfortunately, he was also gullible and suceptable to Cassius's lies. We will never know if Julius Caesar would have made a good emperor. We do know his nephew, Octavian aka Augustus Caesar, became the first emperor and took Rome into its Golden Age.

 

 

Claim 2: 

Evidence:

Analysis: 

Claim 3:

Evidence:

Analysis: 

Claim 4: 

Evidence:

Analysis: 

Cassius

Claim 1:

Cassius is an ignoble man

Evidence:

Cassius: Well, Brutus, thou art noble; yet, I see,
Thy honourable metal may be wrought
From that it is disposed: therefore it is meet
That noble minds keep ever with their likes; (I, i, 404-407)

 

Analysis: 

Cassius is saying that Brutus is noble but easily influenced. He should stay with other noble people, and not be hanging around with ignoble people like himself.

 

 

Claim 2: 

Evidence:

Analysis: 

Claim 3:

Evidence:

Analysis: 

Claim 4: 

Evidence:

Analysis: 

 

 

 

 

 




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