 The play opens at a holiday creating an atmosphere of
anticipation and excitement.
 Marullus discusses the contrast between love and
ingratitude.
 The commoners typify the “mob” mentality – an
essential collective character throughout the play.
 Antony appears as a total subject of Caesar, a devoted follower.
He is also a man of action – further realized through the race
Antony is about to run.
 Brutus is a more reflective type. He tends to stand aside and
consider, rather than to rush into action. He acknowledges that
he lacks some of the “quick spirit” which Antony possesses.
 Antony is quick to seize an opportunity, and he usually wins.
 Brutus is slow to come to a decision, and is usually wrong
 Cassius is a manipulator; he uses others but is a keen judge
of character and human nature.
 He knows the sort of flattery which will work on the other
characters to achieve his goal.
 He is envious towards Caesar, but he masks it with his love
of Rome.
 He uses the best within Brutus to support the worst within
himself.
 “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in
ourselves” means that men are not helpless pawns of
their destiny but self-determining humans who forge
their own fate.
 Cassius is urging Brutus to act, to take a moral and
honorable stand.
 He is shrewd as shown by his estimate of Cassius.
 He is arrogant about his powers. He is ambitious.
 He is flawed by human frailty. He is an aging man
cursed by partial deafness and the “falling sickness.”
 All men, no matter how powerful, eventually fall
victim to the human condition.
 Cassius refers to the populace as “rag-tag people” and
“the common herd”, yet it is the rights of these lowly
people that the conspirators want to have and protect.
 Ironically, it is not the democracy in the sense of
popular rule that they want to protect but their own
rights and powers.
 Foreshadows the role of the mob in the resolution of
the conflict.
 Cassius refers to Brutus in terms of metal.
 Brutus, whose honor is stiff and immoveable as metal
can be molded by someone who knows how to
manipulate the material at hand.
 Cassius believes that he can mold Brutus.
 When the conspirators’ plot is ready, it is not
surprising that all nature cries out.
 These horrors would be accepted by the Elizabethan as
nature’s protest against the imminence of disruption.
 Cassius calls Casca “dull”.
 Cassius knows Casca for what he is but continues to
use him as he can, just as he hopes to use Brutus.
 He bares his envy of Caesar, once his equal, now his
superior.
 He tries to deny the omens and Caesar’s greatness by
equating the frightening storm to Caesar’s vulnerable glory,
a glory which can be extinguished by assassination.
 Cassius also jokes that he, like all men, have the ability to
escape tyranny – by suicide, if all else fails – a
foreshadowing of his death.
 In the continued “metal” imagery, alchemy was the age-old
attempt to find a magic process for turning lead into gold.
 The conspirators hope that the outstanding public image of
the honorable Brutus will camouflage the nature of the
assassination and make it acceptable to the Roman people.
 Unfortunately, they forget that alchemy was never
successful. Lead remains lead, a base metal, and murder
remains a murder, a base act.
 In a soliloquy a character’s inner thought are revealed.
What a character says may not be true, but it is the
truth as he sees it.
 In this soliloquy Brutus assesses the political situation
in Rome and decides his personal course of action.
 He holds no personal resentment against Caesar. He
wants the assassination to be completed “honestly”
and openly, letting the people judge the action.
 He has committed himself to their cause but cannot
share their attitude.
 The desire to commit an immoral act in moral fashion
is a contradiction in terms, that reveals and creates
clashes in the group.
 Brutus tries to convince the others that the virtue of
their intention is bond enough; he denies the need for
a binding oath.
 Brutus refuses to allow the murder of Antony who
appears harmless. Brutus forgets that Caesar also
appeared harmless.
 Cassius is correct; for the conspiracy to succeed
Antony must die with Caesar, but Brutus has his way.
 Cassius must pay a high price for the prestige which
Brutus brings to his cause.
 This scene portrays Brutus as the affectionate, noble,
honorable man that he is.
 Brutus’ loving concern for Portia stresses the fine
qualities of this man betrayed by his own weakness.
 Brutus is risking everything for the conspiracy – love,
honor, country, and finally his very life.
 The illness which he has used as an excuse to placate
Portia is revealed as his concern for Rome under the
rule of Caesar.
 Brutus views Rome as a man invaded by disease and
tells Ligarius that he plans a deed which “will make
sick men whole.”
 Brutus truly believes in the moral justification of the
assassination.
 Juxtaposed with the scene between Brutus and his wife, it shows
Brutus and Caesar as much alike.
 Both men are good, yet one will soon be involved of the murder
of the other.
 They are alike in their vulnerability to manipulation by others.
 Calpurnia’s omens foreshadows the bloody killing to come.
 Caesar almost listens to his wife, but he cannot resist the appeal
to his pride.
 The conspirators arrive to bring Caesar to the capital.
 Their hypocritical politeness to him contrasts sharply
with his pleasant, trusting welcome to them.
 This scene heightens the tension of the drama.
 Artemidorus functions as a device through which the
outcome may be changed, but will he be able to reach
Caesar in time? Suspense is prolonged and maintained
at a fever pitch.
 Portia reminds us of all Brutus has to lose.
 Suspense is maintained because Portia wants to know
the same things the audience wants to know.
 These are not long speeches but disjointed and brief
questions, answers, and interruptions.
 Caesar talks at length about his own constancy, his
refusal to change his mind in the midst of a tribute to
his own superiority, he is stricken down.
 Though Casca strikes the first blow, it is the treachery
of Caesar’s beloved friend Brutus which destroys him.
 Caesar’s shocked “Et tu, Brute” (“You too, Brutus?”)
expresses his shattered trust in the once-honorable
Brutus.
 Brutus insists on viewing the killing as a moral act.
 Cassius sees the death as the first step to new
government; he predicts that history will remember
them as patriots rather than killers.
 Cassius gets right to business; he wants to know where
Antony stands and whether his loyalties are
transferable.
 Brutus seems anxious to convince Antony that the
decision to kill Caesar was the right one.
 Brutus is a poor judge of character. Just as Cassius
swayed him, so Antony misleads him.
 Cassius is not deceived; he recognizes the ploy as a
very dangerous one and argues that Antony should be
denied the chance to speak. Yet Brutus has his way and
seals the conspirators’ doom.
 Giving Antony permission to speak is the turning
point in the play.
 When Antony speaks to the conspirators he is careful
not to show too much emotion.
 Before the crowd he vows revenge in bloody and
passionate terms.
 Brutus believed that he justified his crime to Antony, so he
uses the same argument to the populace.
 He claims justification for the killing in the name of
patriotism and reason – “not that I lov’d Caesar less but
that I lov’d Rome more.”
 His speech is calm, balanced, and reasonable.
 Brutus deals at the level of ideas and touches only their
minds; Antony’s dramatics capture their hearts.
 Only Cassius recognizes Antony as an antagonist.
 Antony understands psychology. His masterful use of irony
ensnares his listeners. They are forced to realize Antony
means the opposite of what he says, and slowly they are
overwhelmed by the thrust of his accusations.
 Antony claims that he has not come to praise Caesar, but
soon he is praising Caesar vigorously.
 He uses the word “honorable” so that the audience
understands that the conspirators are far from honorable.
 Cassius has underestimated the people by thinking
that they can be fooled into overlooking a foul deed.
 Antony has found it easy to sway their emotions.
 Antony has grown during the funeral scene, assumed a
new seriousness and strength.
 He is disloyal; he views Lepidus as unfit to be his
partner, admitting he chose Lepidus because he could
use him.
 He even consents to his nephew’s execution.
 As rulers, they may be worse than the conspirators.
 They are ruthless, greedy, self-seeking, and power-
hungry.
 Lepidus and Octavius are the legitimate successors to
Caesar.
 The conspirators’ quarrel not only maintains emotion
at a high pitch but shows the disintegration of the
conspiracy.
 It also reinforces the qualities of Brutus and Cassius.
 Cassius has strength and drive but is flawed by a basic
pettiness. Brutus is flawed by an impracticality in
dealing with reality.
 The news of Portia’s death and its gruesome manner
creates sympathy for Brutus.
 Even Cassius forgets the bitterness of their quarrel and
a rapport is re-established.
 Brutus has changed from an honored citizen with a
noble wife, a long tradition of family prestige, and the
high regard of his country; now he has sunk to the
status of a hunted outlaw.
 Brutus realizes that Cassius is flawed and that he
himself has been misled in accepting the leadership of
such a man.
 Brutus no longer believes in the ultimate justice of
their cause.
 A final aftermath of the quarrel is that Cassius seals
the reconciliation by allowing Brutus to plan the battle
strategy…big mistake.
 First, ghosts were crowd-pleasers in Shakespeare’s day.
 Second, it is vital that the the link between cause and effect
is established, that Caesar’s murder –for which Brutus is
about to die – be remembered. When the ghost introduces
himself as “thy evil sprit, Brutus”, it is to remind Brutus that
the evil in his own nature caused his present problems.
 Third, the ghost’s threat to reappear at Philippi increases
the tension and points to a dramatic conclusion.
 He is a man in complete control of the situation.
 Confident that his spies have informed him accurately,
he is pleased to see his enemy’s tactics playing into his
hands.
 The audience would be aware of the historical facts behind
the story. Octavius is the final victor, defeating Antony and
installing himself as the first in the dynasty of imperial
Caesars.
 Octavius has shown no sympathetic side to balance his
ruthlessness.
 The final spat over battle strategy ends with Octavius
saying, “I do not cross you, but I will do so.” That Octavius
gives the play’s final speech is another allusion to Octavius’
ultimate victory.
 It seems to serve little strategic purpose except to give
them a chance to exchange insults, flaunt their
bravery, and whet their appetites for war.
 Cassius and Brutus cheer each other on even though
each had omens of defeat and is resigned to the
outcome.
 Believing the battle is lost and his friend Titanius taken, he asks
his slave to kill him.
 As Brutus is to do shortly after, he devotes his last words to
Caesar.
 His soldiers return to tell him that all is not lost.
 The last appraisal of Cassius is softened by the tears of Brutus.
He knows Cassius is flawed but still beloved friend, recalls his
strengths and virtues.
 The spirit of Caesar is now avenged.
 Ineptly he had selected the disastrous battle site, and now he gives the
signal at the wrong time, ensuring confusion and defeat.
 Brutus marvels at his friends loyalty at their refusal to kill him at his
request.
 Choosing death rather than dishonor, he runs upon his sword.
 Antony and Octavius commend his motives in the assassination and
promise him honorable rites.
 Antony restores him to his respected stature and he dies “the noblest
Roman of them all.”