Julius
Caesar Study Guide
Answer the following
questions in complete sentences.
1. Why are the workers celebrating in scene 1?
2. What are Caesar’s infirmities?
3. Why did Caesar want his wife to stand in Antony’s way during the race?
4. What is the weather like in scene iii, and what mood does it set?
5. Why do the conspirators need/want Brutus to join them? How do they plan to convince him to join their cause?
For each of the
following quotations, give: 1) the
speaker, 2) the audience (to whom it
was spoken),
3) the meaning or
importance of the quotation.
6. “Beware the Ides of March.” (I, ii, 18)
7. “Why, man, he doth bestride the world like a Colossus, and we petty men walk under his huge legs, and peep about to find ourselves dishonourable graves. Men at some time are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.” (I, ii, 135-141)
8. “Let me have some men about me that are fat, Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep a-nights. Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look; He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.” (I, ii, 192-195)
Answer the following
questions in complete sentences.
9. To what does Brutus compare Caesar?
10. What reasons does Brutus use to persuade himself that Caesar must be killed?
11. What reason does Brutus give for not killing Antony?
12. Who is the king of Rome driven out by Brutus’s ancestor?
13. What did Calpurnia dream?
14. What do the augurers (priests) discover? What is their advice to Caesar?
15. How does Decius get Caesar to leave home and go to the Senate?
16. What does Artimidorus wish to tell Caesar?
17. In scene iv, why is Portia so nervous and upset?
For each of the
following quotations, give: 1) the
speaker, 2) the audience (to whom it
was spoken),
3) the meaning or importance
of the quotation.
18. “But ‘tis a common proof, That lowliness is young ambition’s ladder, Whereto the climber upward turns his face; But when he once attains the upmost round, He then unto the ladder turns his back, Looks in the clouds, scourning the base degrees By which he did ascend.” (II, i, 21-27)
19. “Let’s kill him boldly, but not wrathfully; Let’s carve him as a dish fit for the gods, Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds.” (II, i, 172-174)
20. “Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once. Of all the wonders of that I yet have heard, It seems to me most strange that men should fear, Seeing that death, a necessary end, Will come when it will come." (II, ii, 32-36)
21. “O Constancy, be strong upon my side! Set a huge mountain ‘tween my heart and tongue! I have a man’s mind, a woman’s might. How hard it is for woman to keep council!” (II, iv, 6-8)
Answer the following
questions in complete sentences.
22. What example of dramatic irony appears in the opening lines of scene 1?
23. What does Metellas Cimber ask of Caesar? What is Caesar’s response?
24. Who stabs Caesar first?
25. What do Caesar’s dying words reveal about himself?
26. What is the immediate general reaction to Caesar’s death?
27. What previous event foreshadowed the conspirators’ dipping their hands in Caesar’s blood?
28. Who gives Antony permission to speak at Caesar’s funeral? Why?
29. Who argues against Antony be able to speak at the funeral? Why?
30. What does Antony reveal by his soliloquy after the conspirators have departed?
31. What is the difference between the speeches of Brutus and Antony, and what is the significance of this difference?
32. In his funeral speech, why does Antony repeatedly claim that “Brutus is an honorable man”?
33. Why did Antony read Caesar’s will to the people?
34. Why does the mob attack Cinna the poet, and what does this reveal about them?
35. The third act of Shakespeare’s tragedies usually contain the turning point, the moment when all the action of the play begins to spiral toward the tragic ending. Which event is the turning point of this play: the assassination of Caesar or the decision to allow Antony to speak at the funeral? Why?
For each of the
following quotations, give: 1) the
speaker, 2) the audience (to whom it
was spoken),
3) the meaning or
importance of the quotation.
36. “If I could pray to move, prayers would move me; But I am as constant as the northern star.” (III, i, 59-60)
37. “Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.” (III, ii, 21-22)
38. “As Caesar loved me, I weep for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was valiant, I honor him; but, as he was ambitious, I slew him. There is tears for his love; joy for his fortune; honor for his valor; and death for his ambition.” (III, ii, 24-29)
41. “Et tu, Brute? Then fall Caesar.” (III, i,77)
42. “O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, That I am meek and gentle with these butchers! Thou art the ruins of the noblest man that ever lived in the tide of times. Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood!” (III, i, 254-258)
43. “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears: I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them, The good is oft interred with their bones: so let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus hath told you Caesar was ambitious: If it were so, it was a grievous fault, and grievously hath Caesar answered it. . .” (III, ii, 75-82)
44. “This was the most unkindest cut of all.” (III, ii, 185)
45. “Now let it work. Mischief thou art afoot, Take thou what course thou wilt.” (III, ii, 262-263)
Answer the following
questions in complete sentences.
46. Who are the members of the Second Triumvirate?
47. Which member of the triumvirate is not accepted or respected by the other two?
48. What is Antony planning to do with Caesar’s will?
49. Why are Brutus and Cassius arguing?
50. What difference between Brutus and Cassius is reveal by this argument?
51. What has happened to Portia? What were the reasons?
52. Where does Caesar’s ghost say he will see Brutus again?
For each of the
following quotations, give: 1) the
speaker, 2) the audience (to whom it
was spoken),
3) the meaning or
importance of the quotation.
53. “A friend should bear his friend’s infirmities.” (IV, iii, 85)
54. “There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune: Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries.” (IV, iii, 216-219)
Answer the following
questions in complete sentences.
55. What sign does Cassius see before battle?
56. Whose birthday is the day of battle? Why is this ironic?
57. What horrible mistake does Cassius make? What is the result?
58. Why does Brutus think he must commit suicide?
59. Who helps Brutus die?
60. Why does Antony call Brutus “the noblest Roman of them all”?
For each of the
following quotations, give: 1) the
speaker, 2) the audience (to whom it
was spoken),
3) the meaning or
importance of the quotation.
61. “Caesar now be still: I killed not thee with half so good a will.” (V, v, 50-51)
67. “This was the noblest Roman of them all. All the conspirators save only he did that they did in envy of Great Caesar. He only, in a general honest thought and common good to all, made one of them. His life was gentle, and the elements so mixed in him, that Nature might stand up and say to all the world, This was a man!” (V, v, 68-75)