Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Your Thoughts
You have this space to reflect on Julius Caesar. Remember your blog rubric to make sure appropriate length and quotations. How many stars would you give this play (out of five)? Why? You can pick favorite scenes or themes. The emphasis is on "why" you felt that way and pointing to textual evidence to support that or to draw attention to a certain part in the story.
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****. I would only give it 4 because I did't think that it was that great of a play, but it was an okay over all play. My favorite scene was Act III only because Caesar died and all the ridiculous drama starting about really dumb stuff.
ReplyDelete**** I can say about four because i really liked the story but for me it was hard to follow for me. I like the scene where anthony is at the furnal and all the sudden chages the mob by just letting them know the real Ceasre Then they get all pumped up to kill everybody because he made the mob go crazyy!
ReplyDelete***** I would give it five stars. I personally love a story that will match up with certain events in history. The murder of Caesar is one of the most renowned murders ever. It's cool how someone in a different time period than us is still intrigued by the same events. my favorite scene is the infamous "Friends, Romans, countrymen: Lend me your ears!" speech. that's super cool how her arouses the crowd. it's really awesome, he turns the country against two men. Crazy! Antony is a more powerful orator than Brutus himself!
ReplyDelete**** I would give the play four stars. I believe the story is a bit confusing but when you begin to understand it the story becomes interesting. My favorite act is ACT III because that is where most of the action begins and where the murders start occuring with the most important...Caesars! I feel the climax starts off the story and just builds and builds into a great story
ReplyDeleteShea
I would have to say that Julius Caesar deserves one star. Not only is it hard to understand and takes intense reading and having to pay complete attention, but also most of the main characters die in the end. My favorite Act from this play would have be Act 3 because that is when the climax occurs and when the conspirators go against Caesar and stab him to death, killing him and this leads to letting us learn more about Antony and his character and how he really feels both in front of the conspirators and also when the conspirators leave. I feel that Act 3 is the most exciting because of all the action and intensity that goes on during this Act of the play.
ReplyDeleteBeth Cummings(:
Id give Julius Caesar a four. It had a really good plot and was well written. The reason I won't give a five is because I'm not a big fan of old stories that are written in like the old kind of english. Its hard for me to understand. Act 5 was my favorite because I liked the battle and the surprise about most of the people dying. I wish Brutus hadn't of died because he was my favorite character but the story wouldn't of been the same if he didn't died. I liked how Anthony admitted that Brutus was noble and he killed Caesar for noble reasons.
ReplyDeleteI can honestly say that I would give it five stars for several different reasons. First I think that it is cool that we just read the story that many of our sayings come from. Also I really enjoyed the plot and turn around of the whole story. I agree with Clint on the fact that Antony is a much better orater than Brutus snd revel at the way he turns all of Rome against the conspiriters. My favorite act would have to be act five because of the battle and the way they decide to take their one lives and their reason for doing it.
ReplyDeleteI felt that this play was very well written, mostly because i like all of Shakespeares plays.(even though i cant understand most of them.) I would give this work 4.5 out of 5 stars because of the use of suspense and because Shakespeare used 2 achranysims. I was very suprised at how the story ended with most of the conspiritors killing themselves. I was dissappointed however that Brutus and Antony did not have a big major, blood spilling out everywhee battle to death. I would have enjoyed it more. I hope that in English, we will do more stories and I look foreward to what work we will do in the future.
ReplyDelete- Kyle :)
I would give Julius Caesar 2 stars. I didn't like it at all, there was too much death for my liking. My least favorite scenes would have to be when Caesar died, and when everyone else died in Act V. I didn't like when Caesar died, because Brutus was his friend, and he joined with the conspirators and the murder. I know Brutus' reasons for killing him, but I don't agree with them at all. I would never kill my friend even if he was going to turn into a tyrant. That's just wrong. And I didn't like how everyone killed themselves, because that's so depressing! Yeah they may be sad, but that doesn't mean you should run into your sword.. Overall I just didn't think it was a good story. I love Shakespere and all, but he needs to write some happy stories.
ReplyDelete--Jenae
I would give this play four stars. The Tragedy of Julius Caesar was a very well thought out play. I enjoyed reading the exciting details of Julius Caesar. One of my favorite Acts were Act three, when the conspirators where almost ready to kill Caesar and you know whats coming and your still in suspense mode. "I could be well moved, if I were as you; if i could pray to move, prayers would not move me; But I am as constant as the Northern Star." Little does brutus know that the conspirators are about to stab him, thats what's so suspensefull.
ReplyDeleteAnother one of my favorite parts in this play was when Antony shook all of the conspirators hands and said their names aloud. He says, "Friends am I with you all, and love you all upon this hope, that you shall give me reasons why, and wherein, Caesar was dangerous." Brutus had then explained to him why they had killed him, antony says okay but he wants to speak at the funeral. Then in the same scene after everyone leaves and its just Antony and Caesar Antony reveals his true feelings. "Woe to the hands that shed this costly blood!"
My other favorite Scene was ActIII Scene II, Antony changes the minds of the plebians and asks them to hear him out. Antony says that Caesar was a great man and noble as well, Caesar and Antony had been friends faithful til the death and Antony is going to do just that. "If you have tears, prepare to say them now." Antony shares the will that Caesar had left and everyone had something to recieve. Every man was to get seventy five drachmas. Naturally the towns people think that this is terrible! why would they kill such a great and giving man? This just adds more conflict to the play which makes it all the more intresting.
Overall I really enjoyed this play. The drama was greatand the conflicts made the play even more fun to read.
-carlee
(First of all, I seem to have exceeded the maximum number of characters, so I'm going to have to put my answer in two comments. Part 1.)
ReplyDeleteI've given a lot of thought and consideration into my answer before I decided to actually give it. My ranking for Julius Caesar is…two and a half stars. This surprised me. I love Shakespeare, and I've even been in one of his plays before, but I enjoyed that one much more than this one. Now, I am in no way going to say that I think that I know better or more than Shakespeare does. I'm fifteen and he's a master of classical literature. However, the one thing that I do know is what I like. And this was not it.
First, though, I'm going to list the things that I did like (which shouldn't take very long). First, the plot. The storyline itself was a very good idea. Take something that actually happened and build a story around it. I like historical fiction. Choosing an event about an assassination is even better. Assassinations are very important and potentially impacting events. Let's face it: death's interesting. Second, I was impressed with his use of literary techniques (similes, metaphors, personification, irony, imagery, etc.). I love literary techniques, and Shakespeare sure knows how to use them. For example, in Act II, Scene I, Brutus soliloquizes about Caesar, calling him "as a serpent's egg which hatched, would as his kind grow mischievous…" (Lines 32-33) I love metaphors, and this one is used expertly.
That's about all that I liked, really. The list of what I didn't like so much is quite a bit bigger. I mentioned in the previous paragraph that I liked his plot. And Shakespeare is very good at plot. But he relies on it too much. It seems to me that he focused so much on his plot that he forgot to characterize. In my opinion, a story's primary driving force should be its characters. The characters make decisions, and as a result, the story unfolds because of those choices. Shakespeare does practically the opposite. To me, this play gave off a vibe of "Caesar needs to be killed, so here's this guy to do it. His only purpose is to kill Caesar and then later oppose Antony. I suppose I'll give him a personality and a bit of motivation, but he's primarily a plot device." Really, Shakespeare? Shakespeare horribly neglects his characters. They're all two dimensional at best, and horribly shallow. Brutus is "the one who thinks that killing Caesar is the right thing for the good of Rome" through the entire story. I should not be able to describe a character in one sentence. The most complex character in the story has to be Mark Antony, and that's just sad. Antony has potential, and Shakespeare killed it. Antony seemed like a harmless Caesar-worshiper, and it wasn't hard at all to figure out that he wasn't. Shakespeare practically said it several times before he actually revealed it. By the time I was supposed to figure it out, it was old news to me and I was bored with it.
(Part 2)
ReplyDeleteIf there is one thing I hate in a story, it's characters that are easy to understand. I love complexity, not being able to tell what a character is thinking. But all of these characters just blurt out their deepest secrets. Not only is that a character flaw, but that's depriving the story of much-needed suspense. If we know all of the characters' motives all of the time, we pretty much know what's going to happen, because Shakespeare makes it very clear who has more power. Another character gripe I have with the play is the lack of common sense. Brutus says, in his famous soliloquy which I love to quote, "It must be by his death, and for my part, I know no personal cause to spurn at him, but for the general." (Act II, Scene I, Lines 10-13) Brutus also says later that he loved Caesar. I think about these statements, and then I just get confused. How is that really motivation? Brutus never really needed to kill Caesar, but for some reason he thought he did. Shakespeare tries to justify this by Brutus' idealism and love of fate, but I'm not buying it. Brutus doesn't really make sense, which is bad, considering he's kind of the main character. The only reason that Brutus' words and actions would make complete sense would be if he was crazy. (Personally, I think that would be a good plot twist. If Brutus was crazy, I might bump my ranking up a star.)
Let's move away from my character gripes and on to something else. Shakespeare abused one of the greatest literary tools available to the writer: death. Death is incredibly powerful. It is the last part of characterization for the characters. How you die is ultimately how other characters and the audience view you. Shakespearean tragedies never only have one or two characters die. No, every main character (with the exception of the antagonist, but only sometimes) dies. Shakespeare also uses suicide very often. Suicide is incredibly powerful if you use it correctly, which Shakespeare doesn't. I don't know how many times Cassius said something that I could paraphrase as "I'm going to kill myself," but it was too many. By the time I reached Cassius' suicide, I was almost relieved that he would stop talking about it, which is not the response you want from an audience. By the time Brutus died, I should have been sad. I should have felt pity. Instead, I was making bets with myself on whether Antony or Octavius would be the next person to kill himself.
Someone could probably argue that, in Shakespeare's time and audience, my gripes weren't applicable, because the time and culture was different. Whether that is true or not, I don't know. I don't have to. All I have to know is that I was overwhelmingly underwhelmed with this play, but I think that reading it was a good experience for me, since I want to get into the same trade one day. Now I know what not to do. And for that, I thank Shakespeare greatly.
-Kelsey Weems
I would definitely give The Tragedy of Julius Caesar five stars. I enjoyed pretty much every aspect of the story, even though at some times it was kind of hard for me to understand. However, when I had the different elements of the story explained to me, the tragedy turned into one of my favorite literary composures.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite part of Julius Caesar was almost all of Act III. At first, there is the assassination of Caesar, which was very exciting and included a plethora of dramatic irony. When Caesar realized that one of his great friends, Brutus was also one of the conspirators, "Et tu Brute?" (Act III, Sc. 1, line 77), I almost felt a little sad for Caesar.
Specifically, my favorite part of Act III was Antony's speech at Caesar's funeral. He begins the speech by reciting one of the most famous lines in the history of literature to the plebeians, "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;...." He then goes on to turn all of the common people against Brutus and the conspirators by using his cunning oratory skills. I also love how he referred to the conspirators (especially Brutus) as honorable men, while stressing the sarcasm each time. Antony was my favorite character of the play solely because of Act III.
To finish, I agree with Kelsey when she mentioned that all of the characters spout all of their motives. It does take most of the suspense out of the story. Regardless, I still think Shakespeare pulled it off nicely. Overall, Shakespeare is the bomb.
Daniel Austin