• Overviews
  In the first excerpt, Lawrence Danson examines Julius Caesar in-depth, looking closely at the linguistic strategies and how they contribute to the play's tragic progression. Danson addresses the question of whether Caesar or Brutus is the tragic hero, and looks at Marc Antony's funeral speech. In the second selection, Robert Knoll presents a comprehensive overview of Julius Caesar, arguing that the play lends itself remarkably well to the five-act dramatic structure, with each of the major characters occupying a significant place in one of the five acts.
• Roman Politics
  In the first excerpt, Alice Shalvi delves into the question of whether Shakespeare condemns or condones Caesar's assassination. Brents Stirling, in the second excerpt, examines the extent to which Shakespeare relied upon his source material in his presentation of the Roman populace. In the third excerpt, Whitaker discusses the political and moral implications of Shakespeare's characterization of Brutus and Caesar. Finally, in the last excerpt, John Dover Wilson maintains that the sole theme of Julius Caesar is the conflict between liberty and tyranny.
• Public and Private Values
  In this excerpt, Maynard Mack discusses the public and private values of Brutus and Caesar in terms of what he views as the primary theme of the play: "the always ambiguous impact between man and history." The private Brutus, the critic asserts, is a gentle, sensitive, and studious man who loves Caesar and deplores violence, while the public figure is a noble idealist who participates in the conspiracy because he believes he must act on behalf of the state.
• Ritual
  In this excerpt, Stirling discusses the significance of ritual and ceremony to the thematic design of Julius Caesar. Nearly every scene prior to Caesar's murder, Stirling asserts, features a ceremony, which is then followed by a counter-ritual mocking it.
• Imagery and Language
  Maurice Charney, in the first excerpt, provides a detailed analysis of the principal image patterns in Julius Caesar—the storm and its supernatural elements, blood, and fire—and demonstrates how each set of images connotes two contradictory meanings that contribute to the thematic ambiguity of the play. In the second excerpt, Gayle Greene examines the use of rhetoric and persuasive language in four crucial passages of Julius Caesar.
• Julius Caesar
  In this excerpt, Ernest Shanzer suggests that Shakespeare intentionally presented an enigmatic, or contradictory, portrait of Caesar to satisfy the different views of him held by Elizabethan audiences. Noting that our view of Caesar depends to a large extent on our estimate of the justifiability of the assassination, Schanzer asserts that although Shakespeare points up the futility of the murder through his emphasis on Caesar's spirit in the last two acts of the play, he offers no conclusive judgment of the morality of the conspiracy.
• Brutus
  In the first excerpt, T.S. Dorsch argues that critics have generally viewed Brutus as a more admirable person than Shakespeare intended him to be. While acknowledging Brutus's honor and virtue, Dorsch contends that he is arrogant, self-righteous, and opinionated.
• Cassius
  In this excerpt, M.W. MacCallum focuses on Cassius's intellectual preoccupations, self-sufficiency, championship of liberty and equality, and rejection of the supernatural, contending that the character's behavior is guided by his belief in the philosophy of Epicureanism. Epicurus was a Greek philosopher who asserted that pleasure was the highest good in life.
• Mark Antony
  Harley Granville-Barker maintains that on the surface Antony appears to be a "good sort," initially supporting the conspirators after they have assassinated Caesar; but underneath he is really an instinctive politician, the critic declares, who demonstrates his opportunism by manipulating the crowd to avenge Caesar's death.

Related Topics

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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