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Julius Caesar | Introduction

Probably written in 1599, Julius Caesar was the earliest of Shakespeare's three Roman history plays. Like Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus, Julius Caesar is a dramatization of actual events, Shakespeare drawing upon the ancient Roman historian Plutarch's Lives of Caesar, Brutus, and Mark Antony as the primary source of the play's plot and characters. The play is tightly structured. It establishes the dramatic problem of alarm at Julius Caesar's ambition to become "king" (or dictator) in the very first scene and introduces signs that Caesar must "beware the Ides of March" from the outset. Before its midpoint, Caesar is assassinated, and shortly after Mark Antony's famous funeral oration ("Friends, Romans, and countrymen … "), the setting shifts permanently from Rome to the battlefields on which Brutus and Cassius meet their inevitable defeat. Julius Caesar is also a tragedy; but despite its title, the tragic character of the play is Brutus, the noble Roman whose decision to take part in the conspiracy for the sake of freedom plunges him into a personal conflict and his country into civil war.

Literary scholars have debated for centuries about the question of who exactly is the protagonist of this play. The seemingly simple answer to this question would be Julius Caesar himself—after all, the play is named after him, and the events of the play all relate to him. However, Caesar only appears in three scenes (four if the ghost is included), thus apparently making him an unlikely choice for the protagonist who is supposed to be the main character. Meanwhile, Brutus, who is in the play much more often than Caesar (and actually lasts until the final scene), is not the title character of the play and is listed in the dramatis personae not only after Caesar but after the entire triumvirate and some senators who barely appear in the play. Determining the protagonist is one of the many engaging issues presented in the play.

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1. Julius Caesar: Introduction
2. William Shakespeare Biography
3. Reading Shakespeare
4. List of Characters
5. Historical Background
6. One-Page Summary
7. Summary and Analysis
   1. Act 1, Scene 1: Summary and Analysis
   2. Act I, Scene 2: Summary and Analysis
   3. Act I, Scene 3: Summary and Analysis
   4. Act II, Scene 1: Summary and Analysis
   5. Act II, Scene 2: Summary and Analysis
   6. Act II, Scenes 3 and 4: Summary and Analysis
   7. Act III, Scene 1: Summary and Analysis
   8. Act III, Scenes 2 and 3: Summary and Analysis
   9. Act IV, Scene 1: Summary and Analysis
   10. Act IV, Scenes 2 and 3: Summary and Analysis
   11. Act V, Scene 1: Summary and Analysis
   12. Act V, Scenes 2 and 3: Summary and Analysis
   13. Act V, Scenes 4 and 5: Summary and Analysis
8. Critical Commentary
   1. Act I Commentary
   2. Act II Commentary
   3. Act III Commentary
   4. Act IV Commentary
   5. Act V Commentary
9. Quizzes
   1. Act I, Scene 1: Questions and Answers
   2. Act I, Scene 2: Questions and Answers
   3. Act I, Scene 3: Questions and Answers
   4. Act II, Scene 1: Questions and Answers
   5. Act II, Scene 2: Questions and Answers
   6. Act II, Scenes 3 and 4: Questions and Answers
   7. Act III, Scene 1: Questions and Answers
   8. Act III, Scenes 2 and 3: Questions and Answers
   9. Act IV, Scene 1: Questions and Answers
   10. Act IV, Scenes 2 and 3: Questions and Answers
   11. Act V, Scene 1: Questions and Answers
   12. Act V, Scenes 2 and 3: Questions and Answers
   13. Act V, Scenes 4 and 5: Questions and Answers
10. Themes
11. Character Analysis
    1. Antony (Character Analysis)
    2. Brutus (Character Analysis)
    3. Julius Caesar (Character Analysis)
    4. Cassius (Character Analysis)
    5. Other Characters (Descriptions)
12. Principal Topics
13. Essays
    1. The Political Dilemma in Julius Caesar
    2. The Character of Brutus: Is He an Honorable Man?
    3. The Character of Marc Antony
    4. Speechmaking in Act III, Scene ii
    5. The Role of Omens in Julius Caesar
    6. The Protagonists and Antagonists of Julius Caesar
    7. Women in Julius Caesar
14. Selected Quotes
15. Criticism
    1. Overviews
    2. Roman Politics
    3. Public and Private Values
    4. Ritual
    5. Imagery and Language
    6. Julius Caesar
    7. Brutus
    8. Cassius
    9. Mark Antony
16. Suggested Essay Topics
17. Sample Essay Outlines
18. Modern Connections
19. Pictures
    1. Cassius, Brutus, and others in Shakespeare Memorial Theatre production (1950)
    2. Caesar in Royal Shakespeare Theatre production (1987)
    3. Mark Antony and the body of Caesar by Bernard Partridge
    4. Mark Antony, the body of Caesar, and Roman citizens by Heinrich Spiess
    5. Brutus and the Ghost of Caesar by William Blake
    6. The armies of Brutus and Octavius Caesar in Shakespeare Memorial Theatre production (1950)
    7. Act I, Scene i: Flavius and Marullus (illustration)
    8. The Soothsayer warns Caesar (illustration)
    9. Act II, Scene i: Brutus and the Conspirators (illustration)
    10. Brutus stabs Caesar (illustration)
    11. Antony and the body of Caesar (illustration)
    12. Brutus addresses the crowd (illustration)
    13. Antony addresses the crowd (illustration)
    14. Cinna, the poet, surrounded by a mob (illustration)
    15. Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus (illustration)
    16. Brutus at his camp in Sardis, Greece (illustration)
    17. Cassius threatens Brutus (illustration)
    18. Brutus works out a battle plan (illustration)
    19. The Ghost of Caesar appears before Brutus (illustration)
    20. The Battlefield at Philippi (illustration)
    21. The farewell between Brutus and Cassius (illustration)
    22. The body of Cassius is discovered (illustration)
    23. Brutus runs into Strato's sword (illustration)
    24. Gathering around Brutus' body (illustration)
20. FAQs
    1. Why did Shakespeare call this play Julius Caesar?
    2. What motivates the conspirators to assassinate Caesar?
    3. Why does Shakespeare insert the death of the poet Cinna into Julius Caesar?
    4. What are we to make of Antony's funeral oration for Brutus?
21. Bibliography and Further Reading
22. Copyright

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