William Shakespeare

The Tragedy of Julius Caesar 

by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare's life
* Baptized April 26, 1564 (Strattford-on-Avon)
* Died April 23, 1616 (Age 52)
* Dad- John, Mom- Mary, One of Eight Siblings
* Married Anne Hathaway (he was 18, she was 26)
* Three children: Susanna (1583) and twins Judith and Hamnet (1585)
* 1585 to 1592 are not on record
* In 1592 William found work as a Common Player
~~~~~~~~> an actor
* He was part of the Lord Chamberlin's Men until he retired in 1612 (Age 48)
* Credits: 38 plays, 154 sonnets
* Julius Caesar was written in 1599 (Age 35)

The Globe Theater
* Its called the "Wooden O"
* Built by Burbage in 1599 across the Thames river from its original site
* Held up to 3,000 theatergoers
* Burned down in 1613 during a performance of Henry VIII

The Actors
* By law, all actors were male, even the female roles
* Violation of this law was considered treason and could be punishable by death

Verse Drama
* A play written in Poetry
* Verse Drama: 
a play in which the dialogue consists almost entirely of poetry
* Blank Verse:
Unrhymed poetry
* Iambic Pentameter:
Five feet of unstressed/ stressed syllables (10 syllables per line)
* Note:
read verse drama just as you would read a regular paragraph (no punctuation, keep going)

Metrical Feet
iamb u/ "believe"
trochee /u "mercy"
spondee // "snow storm"

anapest   u u /  "understand"

dactyl     / u u  "desperate"

Number of Feet

2 = diameter

3 = triameter

4 = tetrameter

5 = pentameter

6 = hexameter

7 = septameter

8 = octameter

Shakespeare's language
• Unfamiliar Vocabulary
• Grammatical Forms
• Grammatical Structure
• Unusual Word Order
• Puns (word play)
• Allusion

Archaic Language
• hence=here; whence=where; thence=there
• knave=servant
• prithee=pray thee or beg thee (please)
• thee, thou, thine, thy=you
• soothsayer=truth teller
• Use your textbook to help you

The TRAGEDY of Julius Caesar

*Tragedy= a work in which a series of actions leads to the disastrous downfall of the mail character, or tragic hero

*Qualities of a Tragic Hero:
~~~ Possesses importance or high rank
~~~ Exhibita extraordinary talents
~~~ Displays a tragic flaw-- an error in judgement or defect in character thank leads to downfall
~~~ Faces downfall with courage and dignity

Element of Drama

* Soliloquy = a long speech given by a character while alone on stage to reveal his or her private thoughts or intentions
* Aside = a character's quiet remark to the audience or another character that no on e else on stage is supposed to hear
* Rhetorical Devices = persuasion; use of language and sound to appeal to the audience's emotions
       ~ Repetition of words and sounds
       ~ Parallelism = repeated grammatical structures
       ~ Rhetorical Question = questions requiring no real answer
* Irony = a contrast between expectation and reality
     ~ Dramatic Irony = when the audience knows what going to happen but the characters don't
           - Purpose is to create suspense or tension in mind of the reader or audience

Themes of the play

* Chaos results when the prescribed social order is broken.
* The best intentions of good, noble men can lead to tragedy.
* Language is a powerful weapon; in the hands of a skilled person, it can be used to manipulate others.
* Violence and bloodshed can never have morally good results.
* Orderliness and a stable rule, even though dictatorial, are preferable to social chaos.