Julius Caesar Diagrams
6. Our Course will seem to bloody , Caius Cassius (Act III Scene 1, Line 162)
a. Brutus says, "Let's be sacrifices, but nor butchers, Caius." Collect together the expressions used by Brutus which are appropriate to butchery.
�It must be by his death�
�And kill him in the shell.�
�To cut the head off and then hack the limbs,�
�And not dismember Caesar!�
�Let's carve him as a dish fit for the gods,
Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds:�
�When Caesar's head is off.�
b. Brutus says that ideally they should be killing Caesar's spirit, not his body. Look up the words of Caesar's ghost in Act IV Scene 3, lines 281, 282, and 284, and comment on the irony.
-Brutus tried to kill off Caesar and his spirit, but the spirit has come back to haunt Brutus and gives a foreboding prediction of the future.
c. Brutus turns harsh words and phrases into softer ones, to make a savage act seem like a civilized one. How does he choose his words to achieve this?
Brutus chooses his words by picking words that mean the same as the harsher words, but are softer in tone and image.
d. How is Brutus's dismissal of Antony consistent in expression with his earlier imagery?
Brutus sees Antony as a limb of Caesar, something that will not work once Caesar has perished.
In pairs of two, complete a Venn Diagram that compares and contrasts Brutus and Caesar, Portia and Calpurnia. Underneath each comparison, write at least 4 sentences explaining the differences between the characters and speculate as to why Shakespeare portrays them in this manner. Upload the diagram to your web site's Julius Caesar Notes
Caesar is a power hungry noble with the support of the plebians. Brutus is a dull witted senator who loves honor more than he fears the threat of death. Both of them ignore the signs that were sent to them by the gods. Shakespeare portrays them in this manner because they create character contrast in the story.
Portia loves her husband dearly, but wants to know everything that happens in his life, and is in that way suspicious of his actions. Calpurnia fears for her husbands safety as of late because of a vision that she has in a dream hours before Caesar is murdered. Both wives choose to ignore their suspicions of what is to happen until it is too late to stop. Shakespeare portrays these characters to create a conscious for Caesar and someone for Brutus to find counsel in.