Romeo Juliet summary

Romeo Juliet summary

Julius Caesar is a tragedy by William Shakespeare probably written in 1599.It portrays the conspiracy against the Roman dictator,Julius Caesar,his assassination and its aftermath.It is one of several Shakespeare plays that are based on true events from history.
Unlike the other titular characters in Shakespeare's plays (e.g.Hamlet,Henry V),Caesar is not the central character in the action of the play,appearing in only three scenes and dying at the beginning of the third Act.The central protagonist of the play is Brutus and the central psychological drama is his struggle between the conflicting demands of honour,patriotism,and friendship.
The play is notable for being the first of Shakespeare's five great tragedies (the others being Hamlet,Othello,King Lear and Macbeth).
Most Shakespeare critics and historians agree that the play reflected the general anxiety of England due to worries over succession of leadership.At the time of its creation and first performance,Queen Elizabeth,a strong ruler,was elderly and had refused to name a successor,leading to worries that a civil war similar to that of Rome's might break out after her death.
Contents [hide]
1 The plot
2 Text of the play
3 Dramatis Personae
4 Movie versions
5 Notable stage productions
6 External links
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The plot
Spoiler warning:Plot and/or ending details follow.
Marcus Brutus is Caesar's close friend whose ancestors were famed for driving the tyrannical Tarquin kings from Rome.Brutus allows himself to be cajoled into joining a group of conspiring senators because of a growing suspicion鈥攊mplanted by Gaius Cassius鈥攖hat Caesar intends to turn republican Rome into a monarchy under his own rule.Traditional readings of the play maintain that Cassius and the other conspirators are motivated largely by envy and ambition whereas Brutus is motived by the demands of honour and patriotism; in fact one of the central strengths of the play is that it resists categorising its characters as either simple heroes or villains.
The early scenes deal mainly with Brutus's arguments with Cassius and his struggle with his own conscience.The growing tide of public support soon turns Brutus against Caesar.A soothsayer warns Caesar to "beware the Ides of March",which he ignores,culminating in his assassination at the Capitol by the conspirators on that very day.
Caesar's assassination is perhaps the most famous part of the play.After ignoring the soothsayer as well as his wife's own premonitions,Caesar is caught at the senate at the mercy of the conspirators.After a few words exchanged,Casca stabs Caesar in the back of his neck,and the others follow in stabbing him; Brutus last.Caesar famously says at this point,Et tu,Brute?.This translates to "Even you,Brutus?".The conspirators make clear that they did this act for Rome,not for their own purposes.
After Caesar's death,however,another character appears on the foreground,in the form of Caesar's devotee,Mark Antony,who,by a rousing speech over the corpse鈥攖he much-quoted Friends,Romans,countrymen,lend me your ears...鈥攄eftly turns public opinion against the assassins by speaking to the more personal side of his position,rather than the public and rational tactic Brutus uses in his speeches.Antony rouses the mob to drive them from Rome.
The beginning of Act Four is marked by the quarrel scene,where Brutus attacks Cassius for soiling the noble act of regicide by accepting bribes ("Did not great Julius bleed for justice' sake?/ What villain touch'd his body,that did stab,/ And not for justice?",IV.iii).The two are reconciled,but as they prepare for war with Mark Antony and Caesar's great-nephew,Octavian (Shakespeare's spelling:Octavius),Caesar's ghost appears to Brutus with a warning of defeat ("thou shalt see me at Philippi",IV.iii).Events go badly for the conspirators during the battle; both Brutus and Cassius commit suicide rather than be captured.The play ends with a tribute to Brutus,who has remained "the noblest Roman of them all" (V.v) and hints at the friction between Mark Antony and Octavian which will characterise another of Shakespeare's Roman plays,Antony and Cleopatra.
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Text of the play
Julius Caesar was first published in the First Folio in 1623.The Folio text is notable for its quality and consistency,generally leading scholars to believe that it was prepared from a theatrical promptbook.The play's source was Sir Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Life of Brutus and Life of Caesar.
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Dramatis Personae
Julius Caesar
Octavius Caesar,Marcus Antonius,M.Aemilius Lepidus,Triumvirs after the death of Julius Caesar
Cicero,Publius,Popilius Lena,Senators
Marcus Brutus,Cassius,Casca,Trebonius,Ligarius,Decius Brutus,Metellus Cimber,Cinna,Conspirators against Julius Caesar
Flavius and Marullus,Tribunes
Artemidorus,a Sophist of Cnidos
A Soothsayer
Cinna,a poet
Another poet
Lucilius,Titinius,Messala,Young Cato,Volumnius,Friends to Brutus and Cassius
Varro,Clitus,Claudius,Strato,Lucius,Dardanius,Servants to Brutus
Pindarus,Servant to Cassius
Calphurnia,wife to Caesar
Portia,wife to Brutus
It was hinted in the play that Julius Caesar was deaf in one ear and also suffered from epilepsy