ADVANCED ENGLISH
Module C – Text and Representation
Conflicting Perspectives
Shakespeare, “Julius Caesar”
This module requires students to explore various representations of events, personalities or
situations. They evaluate how medium of production, textual form, perspective and choice of
language influence meaning. The study develops students’ understanding of the relationships
between representation and meaning.
Each elective in this module requires the study of one prescribed text offering a representation
of an event, personality or situation. Students are also required to supplement this study with
texts of their own choosing which provide a variety of representations of that event, personality
or situation. These texts are to be drawn from a variety of sources, in a range of genres and
media.
Students explore the ways in which different media present information and ideas to
understand how various textual forms and their media of production offer different versions and
perspectives for a range of audiences and purposes.
Students develop a range of imaginative, interpretive and analytical compositions that relate to
different forms and media of representation. These compositions may be realised in a variety of
forms and media.
English Stage 6 Syllabus (1999) Board of Studies NSW, Sydney
Rubric from Prescriptions
In their responding and composing, students consider the ways in which conflicting perspectives
on events, personalities or situations are represented in their prescribed text and other related
texts of their own choosing. Students analyse and evaluate how acts of representation, such as
the choice of textual forms, features and language, shape meaning and influence responses.
English Stage 6 Prescriptions, 2009-2012
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Resource 1 By the end of the first week of this module check that you know
how to use all of these words:
WORD BANK
William Shakespeare
Elizabethan theatre
Plutarch
prose narrative
dialogue
blank verse
couplet
iambic pentameter
soliloquy
irony
verbal irony
dramatic irony
ambiguity
rhetorical question
theme
comparison
contrast
antithesis
parallelism
repetition
connotation
denotation
representation
perspectives
images
medium of production
situations
personalities
events
analysis
evaluation
historical, social, cultural context
anachronism
anachronistic
textual forms
features
techniques
positioning
caesura
enjambment
objectivity
subjectivity
bias
dominant, resistant and
alternate readings
prejudice
pronouns
adjectives
oratory
oration
funeral oration
foreshadowing
blocking
stagecraft
abstract
naturalistic
assassination
assassins
conspiracy
conspirators
epitaph
Medium of production
Julius Caesar is a tragedy. There are conventions underpinning its composition, and which
function to convey the text’s meaning. Tragedy as a dramatic form emerged in the 5th century BC in
ancient Athens (Greece). According to the Greek philosopher Aristotle, a tragedy is a drama which
follows the fortunes of a main character, a protagonist, who suffers some terrible downfall through a
combination of fate, and his or her own hamartia (frailty, excess or error of judgment). The intended
effect on the audience is what Aristotle called catharsis: an arousal of the emotions of pity (pathos)
combined with fear, which is purged by the end of the tragedy, with the audience feeling uplifted and
wiser in their understandings of the inter-relatedness of humans, gods and fate. There is an emphasis
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in tragedy, therefore, on the actions and decisions taken by the characters. The seating arrangement in
the ancient Greek amphitheatre, with the audience looking down on and seated around the
performance space, would have encouraged its members to make judgments about the characters and
their actions as they watch the play.
Shakespeare’s tragedy of Julius Caesar was probably first performed in the Globe Theatre in
London, c.1599. The theatre was roughly circular, with a rectangular stage thrusting (hence the term
thrust stage) out into a courtyard, surrounded by 3 storeys of seating. Many people stood in the
central courtyard looking up at the action on stage; many people in the seated part looked down on
the action as did the people of ancient Athens, observing the characters’ actions and decisions that
move them towards inevitable downfall.
As in ancient Greece, the protagonists of Shakespeare’s tragedies were people of high rank:
kings, queens, princes, emperors, members of wealthy families. Tragic plays cut these people down to
human status, showing that even great ones are susceptible to destructive fate if they act rashly.
From the opening of the play the audience is positioned to judge the unfolding action from a
range of perspectives in language rich in imagery. The blank verse (iambic pentameter) form of verse is
very close to natural speech rhythms. Writing plays in verse forms was used because of convention:
English plays had been composed in rhyming verse for centuries. Blank verse was an innovation of
Shakespeare's time with Shakespeare’s contemporary, Christopher Marlowe, being credited with this.
However Shakespeare uses blank verse to effect. It suits the depiction of legendary historical
characters on live stage: the characters are bigger than life, and so is the language. It is also an
excellent vehicle for some very poetic passages, notably Antony’s funeral oration.
Resource 2
Act I
Blank verse – unrhymed
Iambic pentameter – five pairs of syllables in a line; the first is weak, the second is strong
I. ii – Brutus and Cassius dialogue ‘Into what dangers would you lead me, Cassius…’
In this scene we are introduced to the four characters – Cassius, Brutus, Julius Caesar and Mark
Antony.
Brutus and Cassius are represented as members of the Roman ruling class.
Compare and contrast the views of Caesar that are held by the general Roman population and the view
held by Cassius in the opening of the play. Start by compiling a table that also considers how each view
is represented:
Roman population’s view of
Caesar
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Analysis
Resource 3
Activities

Construct a table which records use of animal imagery in the play to represent Caesar (include a
quote and reference):
ANIMAL IMAGERY QUOTE
Cassius
And should Caesar a tyrant then?
Poor man! I know he would not be a
wolf
But he sees the Romans are but sheep;
He were no lion, were not Romans hinds.
1.3.103-6
SIGNIFICANCE
Cassius believes that the Roman people do not
have the spirit to stop Caesar becoming a tyrant
(hinds – peasants/servants but a hind is a deer
that can be attacked and killed by a lion)
Brutus
Antony

Construct a table which records each characters’ perspective on the character of Julius Caesar
(include a quote and reference):
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CHARACTER
Antony
PERSPECTIVE ON CAESAR/QUOTE
Cassius
Brutus
Decius
Flavius and
Murellus
Calpurnia
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Resource 4
Character: Mark Antony
Quotes/Reference (context)
Antony’s funeral oration speech Act III ii 65-99
Summary
Mark Antony speaks, after Brutus, at the funeral of Julius Caesar to the assembled throng. He is in the
awkward situation of not appearing to be in direct opposition to the assassins as his own life may be in
danger. The crowd has been convinced that Julius Caesar was a grave danger to peace, freedom,
liberty and the Roman Republic. He speaks to the plebeians using a series of devices to win their
support and manipulate the situation with the skilful use of language. By the conclusion of his oration
the crowd is aghast that Caesar has been taken from them.
Representation (language features, devices; how is meaning shaped etc.)
 irony – “I come to bury Caesar; not to praise him”
 repetition – “Honorable”; “ambitious”
 rhetorical questions “Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?””
 caesura/enjambment (punctuation) – “I thrice presented him a kingly crown/which he did
thrice refuse. Was this ambition?”
 pause – “Are they all, all honorable men – “ (+ see above and many other examples)
 recount/narrative/anecdote/evidence – refusing the crown; weeping with poor; filling Rome’s
coffers with booty etc.
 flattery – of the crowd (‘Friends’) generally
 structure – Antony’s flattery of the crowd and his adulation of Caesar becomes evident to the
responder as the speech unfolds
Analysis of Perspective
Mark Antony’s perspective of the assassination of Julius Caesar does not change at any stage after the
event; but his language during the oration initially cloaks his view from his audience, which included
the assassins. The speech is ironic and delivered to both the crowd (and the audience of the play) who
have a growing awareness of Antony’s perspective of the ‘honorable’ men who have assassinated the
‘ambitious’ Caesar. He seeks vengeance on the conspirators for murdering Caesar who has “the most
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noble blood of all this world.” (III i 56) Antony realises that he is in an awkward position and that his
“…credit now stands on such slippery ground…” (III i 191) which results in his cleverly crafted oration
that convinces the plebeians Caesar should not have been assassinated. Mark Antony does not seem to
fear the possibility of dictatorship and the fall of the cherished ideal of a republic.
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CLOSE ANALYSIS OF KEY EXTRACTS FROM THE PLAY
Extract 1 Act 1, scene 2
Cassius:
And this man
Is now become a god, and Cassius is
A wretched creature and must bend his body
If Caesar carelessly but nod on him.
He had a fever when he was in Spain,
And when the fit was on him I did mark
How he did shake: 'tis true, this god did shake;
His coward lips did from their colour fly,
And that same eye whose bend doth awe the world
Did lose his luster. I did hear him groan,
Ay, and that tongue of his that bade the Romans
Mark him and write his speeches in their books,
Alas, it cried 'Give me some drink, Titinius,'
As a sick girl. Ye gods, it doth amaze me
A man of such a feeble temper should
So get the start of the majestic world
And bear the palm alone.
Shout. Flourish
BRUTUS
Another general shout!
I do believe that these applauses are
For some new honours that are heaped on Caesar.
CASSIUS
Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow 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.
Brutus and Caesar: what should be in that 'Caesar'?
Why should that name be sounded more than yours?
Question 1 (3 marks)
From this excerpt, what is Cassius’ perspective on Caesar? What emotions dominate Cassius’ attitude to
Caesar? Use one or two brief quotations from the excerpt to illustrate your answer.
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Extract 2 Act 2, scene 2
BRUTUS
It must be by his death: and for my part,
I know no personal cause to spurn at him
But for the general. He would be crowned:
How that might change his nature, there's the question.
It is the bright day that brings forth the adder
And that craves wary walking. Crown him that,
And then I grant we put a sting in him
That at his will he may do danger with.
The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins
Remorse from power. And to speak truth of Caesar,
I have not known when his affections swayed
More than his reason. 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, scorning the base degrees
By which he did ascend. So Caesar may.
Then lest he may, prevent. And since the quarrel
Will bear no colour for the thing he is,
Fashion it thus: that what he is, augmented,
Would run to these and these extremities:
And therefore think him as a serpent's egg
(Which, hatch'd, would, as his kind, grow mischievous)
And kill him in the shell.
Question 2. Explain the image of the serpent’s egg at the end of this monologue. (1 mark)
Question 3.
What is Brutus’ perspective on Caesar? How might his attitudes (and feelings) differ from Cassius’? Use
at least one brief quotation from this excerpt to support your response. (2 marks)
Extract 3 Act 2, scene 2
CAESAR
Cowards die many times before their deaths,
The valiant never taste of death but once.
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Of all the wonders 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.
(Re-enter Servant)
What say the augurers?
Servant
They would not have you to stir forth today.
Plucking the entrails of an offering forth,
They could not find a heart within the beast.
CAESAR
The gods do this in shame of cowardice:
Caesar should be a beast without a heart,
If he should stay at home today for fear.
No, Caesar shall not. Danger knows full well
That Caesar is more dangerous than he.
We are two lions littered in one day,
And I the elder and more terrible.
And Caesar shall go forth.
Question 4. Identify where in the play this excerpt occurs? What is about to happen? (1 mark)
Question 5. What perspective does this excerpt give us of the character of Caesar? Use a brief quotation
from this scene to support your response.
(2 marks)
Extract 4 Act 3, scene 2
Mark Antony:
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 interréd with their bones.
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious.
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If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answered it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest,
(For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all; all honourable men)
Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious
And Brutus is an honourable man.
He hath brought many captives home to Rome,
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept.
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious
And Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honourable man.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?
O judgement! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.... Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.
Question 6. (6 marks)
Explain how Antony uses language techniques to persuade the crowd towards his perspective on Caesar.
Why is this speech regarded as a great example of the skills of public speaking?
Support your response with brief quotations from the extract . You will need to analyse briefly the
context, audience and purpose of the speech in your response.
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Other Key Extracts from Julius Caesar with Questions
Act 1, scene 2 lines 192 to214.
CAESAR: Let me have men about me that are fat,
Sleek-headed men and such as sleep a-nights.
Yond Cassius has a mean and hungry look,
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.
ANTONY: Fear him not Caesar, he’s not dangerous,
He is a noble Roman and well given.
CAESAR: Would he were fatter! But I fear him not.
Yet if my name were liable to fear
I do not know the man I should avoid
So soon as that spare Cassius. He reads much,
He is a great observer, and he looks
Quite through the deeds of men. He loves no plays
As thou dost Antony, he hears no music;
Seldom he smiles, and smiles in such a sort
As if he mocked himself and scorned his spirit
That could be moved to smile at any thing.
Such men as he be never at heart’s ease
Whiles they behold a greater than themselves,
And therefore are they very dangerous.
I rather tell thee what is to be feared
Than what I fear: for always I am Caesar.
Come on my right hand, for this ear is deaf,
And tell me truly what thou think’st of him.
Question:
(a) Identify two traits of Caesar’s character that can be seen in
this brief exchange.
(b) How is this interlude effective in developing our sense of
Caesar as a tragic hero – a great man who through a single
flaw in his nature brings about his own downfall? How does
Shakespeare use irony in this extract?
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Act 3, scene 1 line 55-80
CASSIUS: Pardon, Caesar! Caesar, pardon!
As low as to thy foot doth Cassius fall
To beg enfranchisement for Publius Cimber.
CAESAR: I could be well moved if I were as you;
If I could pray to move prayers would move me.
But I am constant as the northern star,
Of whose true-fixed and resting quality
There is no fellow in the firmament.
The skies are painted with unnumbered sparks,
They all are fire, and everyone doth shine;
But there’s but one in all doth hold his place.
So in the world: tis furnished well with men,
And men are flesh and blood and apprehensive;
Yet in the number I do know but one
That unassailable holds on his rank,
Unshaken of motion, and that I am he
Let me a little show, even in this:
That I was constant Cimber should be banished,
And constant do remain to keep him so.
CINNA: O Caesar –
CAESAR: Hence, wilt thou lift Olympus?
DECIUS: Great Caesar!
CAEASR: Doth not Brutus bootless kneel –
CASCA: Speak hands for me!
They stab Caesar.
CAESAR: Et tu Brute? – then fall Caesar.
CINNA: Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead!
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Explains how Shakespeare crafts both words and actions at this point
to shape our response to the murder of Caesar. Use quotations to
support your answer.
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Act 3, scene 1, line 254 – 275
ANTONY: O pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth,
That I am meek and gentle with these butchers!
Thou are the ruins of the noblest man
That ever lived in the tide of times.
Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood!
Over thy wounds now do I prophesy –
Which like dumb mouths do ope their ruby lips
To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue –
A curse shall light upon the limbs of men:
Domestic fury and fierce civil strife
Shall cumber all the parts of Italy;
Blood and destruction shall be so in use
And dreadful objects so familiar
That mothers shall but smile when they behold
Their infants quartered with the hands of war,
All pity choked with custom of fell deeds;
And Caesar’s spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch’s voice
Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war,
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men groaning for burial.
(a) From this speech what is estimate of Caesar? Quote two lines to
justify your answer.
(b)What does Antony prophesy will happen next?
(c) How does this speech give us a very different perspective on
what the conspirators have done? Compare this speech with
Cinna’s words immediately after the murder of Caesar. Use
quotations in your response.
ACT 5, scene 5, line 67
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ANTONY: 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.
(a)How do these words shift your perspective on the murder of
Caesar and the nature of the conspiracy?
(b) Do you agree with Antony’s assessment of Brutus? Does the
rest of the play support this estimate?
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Resource 5
Assessment Task OPTION 1. COMPOSE A CONVERSATION
Consider the techniques you have examined in class that Shakespeare has used to create conflicting
perspectives towards Julius Caesar and the events contained within the course of the drama. Choose
another two texts that illustrate conflicting perspectives on personalities, events or situations.
Compose a transcript of the conversation that Shakespeare and the two other composers have about
the techniques they have used within their text and medium of production to construct conflicting
perspectives and shape audience response.
Marking Guidelines
In your answer you will be assessed on how well you:

evaluate and show understanding of the relationship between representation and meaning.

organise, develop and express ideas using language appropriate to audience, purpose and form.
Marking Criteria
Criteria: Outcomes assessed include: H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6, H7, H8
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Composes a sophisticated argument or response showing an insightful understanding of the
representation of conflicting perspectives of the event, personality or situation
Convincingly explains and evaluates the effects of different contexts of responders and
composers on texts
Demonstrates insightful understanding and evaluation of the ways texts present information
and ideas and the significance of purpose, audience and media of production on the
language used in texts.
Demonstrates sophisticated expression, using appropriate language forms, features and
structures.
Composes a well developed argument or response showing a well developed understanding
of the representation of conflicting perspectives of the event, personality or situation
Explains and evaluates the effects of different contexts of responders and composers on
texts
Demonstrates well developed understanding and evaluation of the ways texts present
information and ideas, and the impact of purpose, audience and media of production on the
language used in texts.
Demonstrates fluent expression using appropriate language forms, features and structures.
Composes a sound argument or response showing an understanding of the representation
of conflicting perspectives of the event, personality or situation
Explains and attempts to evaluate the effects of different contexts of responders and
composers on texts
Demonstrates sound understanding and evaluation of the ways texts present information
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MARKS
A
17 - 20
B
13 - 16
C
9 - 12
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and ideas, and the impact of purpose, audience and media of production on the language
used in texts.
Demonstrates sound expression, using appropriate language forms, features and structures.
Composes a generalised argument or response showing limited understanding of the
representation of conflicting perspectives of the event, personality or situation
Attempts to explain and evaluate the effects of different contexts of responders and
composers on texts
Explains and evaluates the effects of different contexts of responders and composers on
texts
Demonstrates limited understanding of the ways texts present information and ideas, and
the impact of purpose, audience and media of production on the language used in texts.
Demonstrates variable expression, using some limited appropriate language forms, features
and structures.
Composes an undeveloped response showing little understanding of the relationship of the
representation of conflicting perspectives of the event, personality or situation
Little attempt to explain and evaluate the effects of different contexts of responders and
composers on texts
Demonstrates elementary ability to describe the ways texts present information and ideas.
Demonstrates limited expression, with little use of appropriate language forms, features and
structures.
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D
5-8
E
1-4
Resource 6 – ASSESSMENT TASK OPTION TWO (ESSAY)
Write an essay answering the questions below EITHER Quote A OR Quote B OR Quote C
(Quotes from the introduction to Shakespeare, William, Julius Caesar, Cambridge University
Press, New Cambridge Shakespeare, 2004, ISBN-13: 9780521535137; or Cambridge School
Shakespeare, 1992, ISBN-13: 9780521409032)
Quote A
‘. . . it is concentration, combined with repetition, which gives the real
contours of the plot. . . .The action of the play consists of uninterrupted
conflict situations, personal and political, or personal-political: the
presentation of violence, ranging from the . . . altercation between the
tribunes and the plebeians . . . bloody assassination, the burning of Rome,
civil war, two majestic battles, and two significant suicides. When there is no
actual fighting, there are quarrels; when there are no public meetings, there
is conspiracy or precaution. . . Shakespeare focuses the plot by . . . giving
greater and more continuous prominence to the plebeians than Plutarch
does, thereby stressing a socio-political polarisation and underlining the
disastrous consequences of self-interest . . .’ (pp 9-10)
How does this view compare with the conclusions you have already drawn in terms of how
Shakespeare’s representations and perspectives regarding Julius Caesar compare to other
composers who have chosen the life and death of Julius Caesar as their subject?
In terms of your related material covering different events, situations and personalities,
what is it that provides the texts with their ‘real contours’? (Consider what has been
omitted, gaps and silences, as much as what has been included, chronology and
perspective)
Quote B
There is a widespread view that ‘Shakespeare’s Caesar, so little speaking and
seen, is to a large extent the creation of the personages around him.
Shakespeare polarises his strengths and weakness: Cassius condemns his
weakness; Antony celebrates his strength . . . (p11)
How does this reconcile with your view of Julius Caesar and how Shakespeare creates a
sense of him?
How do the composers of your related texts construct the central personality, event or
situation in terms of acts of representation?
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Quote C
‘Shakespeare’s interest in public affairs, in problems of power and rule, in the
qualities of the ideal governor, in the confrontation of ideologies, in the clash
of armies, in civil conflict, in the collision of the high and low members of the
body politic, in history qua history . . . the crystallisation of character in
history, the emergence of individual personalities and thus the inextricability
of public and private affairs (is apparent). This focus, especially since it
involves a leading figure who is the key to the fate of all the others, serves to
illuminate his individualised psychological features as they emerge from or
respond to overt bustle and battle, secret conspiracy and counsel, society
and isolation. This inexorable mixture of concerns is in itself a record of
human events, one of the major forms of historiography. And the interest in
individual responses is also an added structural device for perceiving and
ordering the episodes of history‘(p 14)
How does this view, particularly the last two lines, align with your understanding of how
Shakespeare and other composers use and manipulate acts of representation, such as the
choice of textual forms, features and language, to shape meaning and influence responses?
Marking Criteria
Criteria: Outcomes assessed include: H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6, H7, H8

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Composes a sophisticated argument or response showing an insightful
understanding of the representation of conflicting perspectives of the event,
personality or situation
Convincingly explains and evaluates the effects of different contexts of
responders and composers on texts
Demonstrates insightful understanding and evaluation of the ways texts present
information and ideas and the significance of purpose, audience and media of
production on the language used in texts.
Demonstrates sophisticated expression, using appropriate language forms,
features and structures.
Composes a well developed argument or response showing a well developed
understanding of the representation of conflicting perspectives of the event,
personality or situation
Explains and evaluates the effects of different contexts of responders and
composers on texts
Demonstrates well developed understanding and evaluation of the ways texts
present information and ideas, and the impact of purpose, audience and media of
production on the language used in texts.
Demonstrates fluent expression using appropriate language forms, features and
structures.
Composes a sound argument or response showing an understanding of the
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MARKS
A
17 - 20
B
13 - 16
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representation of conflicting perspectives of the event, personality or situation
Explains and attempts to evaluate the effects of different contexts of responders
and composers on texts
Demonstrates sound understanding and evaluation of the ways texts present
information and ideas, and the impact of purpose, audience and media of
production on the language used in texts.
Demonstrates sound expression, using appropriate language forms, features and
structures.
Composes a generalised argument or response showing limited understanding of
the representation of conflicting perspectives of the event, personality or
situation
Attempts to explain and evaluate the effects of different contexts of responders
and composers on texts
Explains and evaluates the effects of different contexts of responders and
composers on texts
Demonstrates limited understanding of the ways texts present information and
ideas, and the impact of purpose, audience and media of production on the
language used in texts.
Demonstrates variable expression, using some limited appropriate language
forms, features and structures.
Composes an undeveloped response showing little understanding of the
relationship of the representation of conflicting perspectives of the event,
personality or situation
Little attempt to explain and evaluate the effects of different contexts of
responders and composers on texts
Demonstrates elementary ability to describe the ways texts present information
and ideas.
Demonstrates limited expression, with little use of appropriate language forms,
features and structures.
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C
9 - 12
D
5-8
E
1-4
Julius Caesar: Guided Essay
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Fill out the paragraphs below with detailed evidence from the play to create a
response to the question.
Include quotations
Include analysis of techniques used (eg metaphors, images, dramatic irony,
juxtaposition, puns, alliteration)
Question: How does Shakespeare use the form of a play to represent conflicting
perspectives on Julius Caesar in a way that challenges and intrigues an audience?
Shakespeare reworks the original material of Plutarch’s history to present conflicting
perspectives of Julius Caesar and his assassination. Through his shaping of the events into a
double tragedy – the tragedy of the great but blind Caesar and the tragedy of the honourable
but politically inept Brutus – and through his use of a range of characters, each with their own
view of Caesar, Shakespeare challenges his audience to think about power, greatness, honour
and assassination from conflicting perspectives. Shakespeare through the first half of the play
uses dramatic irony and the conventions of the tragic hero to suggest that Caesar is full of
overweening pride as well as reckless indifference to his own safety. Later in the play, after
Caesar’s death, we come to accept the viewpoint of Mark Antony more and more, viewing
Caesar above all as the great Roman, the hero.
Caesar shows himself to be a great man so obsessed with his own greatness and so
desirous always to appear brave that he brings about his own destruction. Thus,
We not only learn about Caesar from his words and actions but even more from the
speeches of others. To Cassius Caesar is
Brutus, on the other hand, considers Caesar
A conflicting perspective is offered by Mark Antony. To him Caesar is
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Significantly Mark Antony’s funeral speech, addressed to the audience in the theatre as much
as to the Roman crowd, sways us towards a positive view of Caesar, despite the clear
sincerity of Brutus and the ample evidence from Caesar’s own speech of blind monomania.
Antony’s comparison of Caesar to a “deer strucken by princes” (in a speech over the dead
body of Caesar) evokes the image of an innocent murdered by envious rich aristocrats.
Rapidly we forget the vain boasts of Caesar and shift to seeing him as the noble hero wrongly
murdered.
By continuing the play beyond the murder of Caesar and ending it with the death of
Brutus and the defeat of the conspirators, Shakespeare adds a further perspective on Caesar.
A bloody civil war in which thousands die, just as Antony predicted, is the consequence of
the murder and through his portrayal of Brutus Shakespeare suggests that killing Caesar was
indeed indefensible as the impractical political-disaster Brutus offers no real alternative to
Caesar.
Our view of Caesar shifts several times in the play. At the start we see the attitude of
the common people.
Later we see the estimate of Brutus.
In Antony’s soliloquy over the freshly murdered body of Caesar we are told
In the funeral speech we gain more evidence of Caesar’s greatness and humanity, as well as
his love for the common people.
Cassius’ obvious envy and his obsession with his own wounded pride make us
inclined to believe that Caesar does not deserve the death that awaits him.
Overall we are carried along by the pace of the action and it is hard to see
Shakespeare as having a coherent view of Caesar. Perhaps we are meant to be left only with
conflicting perspectives. What compels us is the conflicting mix of impressions: Caesar is a
great man flawed by his excessive need to be seen as brave; Caesar is the champion of the
ordinary people done to death by envious conspirators; Caesar is the god-like Roman leader
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whose presence after death leads Rome on to the Empire under Augustus. Likewise with his
murder we are left with ambiguities. Caesar’s death is a necessary sacrifice to try to preserve
the liberties of Rome and its dignity as a democracy. Caesar’s death is a tragic, misguided act
bringing civil war and mass slaughter that will only end when another Caesar, Octavius
Augustus, becomes Emperor. Shakespeare shapes his historical material into a dramatically
effective narrative but not into a politically, or historically, or even morally consistent text.
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Galway Kinnell poem “When the Towers Fell”. This poem is available on the
web. For copyright reasons it is not reproduced here. It is also available both as
text and as audio CD in Kinnell’s book “Strong is Your Hold”.
To prepare yourself to read the poem, first watch again the videos of September
11. Then, after you have read the poem, consider what Kinnell has done to offer
conflicting perspectives on the event and how what he has done might be
interesting or significant.
Conflicting Perspectives need not be about one person saying an individual is good
while others say he is bad. It can be about different responses to an event. To those in
New York who lived through it or who lost family members in it, September 11 was a
completely unique, horrifying event, unpredictable and unimaginable. Historically,
from the perspective of 20th century history, it can be seen as one further link in a long
chain of warfare, violence and inhumanity. We can view a tragedy from up-close,
feeling its immediacy, its meaninglessness, or we can view it from a distance, seeing
how it is part of a much larger on-going pattern. These two viewpoints can be
considered “Conflicting Perspectives”. Galway Kinnell began writing notes for the
poem on the day of the attack as he took the train into New York to give a poetry
writing class to students at a University there. Over the following months he worked
on the poem.
We can understand Conflicting Perspectives by asking: from whose point of view are
we being told this? The attacker? The victim? The victim’s family? An eye witness?
A student of history who passionately loves everything about America? An American
who for a long time has disapproved of the arrogance and violence of American
foreign policy? A complete outsider?
1. Apart from describing what he sees that day and recording his reactions, what other
purpose guides Kinnell in the writing of this poem? {In his remarks before the reading
on the accompanying CD Kinnel mentions this as the reason why he felt he had to
write.}
2. What are three different perspectives on the events of September 11 you can see in this
poem?
(a)
(b)
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(c)
3.What does the quotation from the medieval poet François Villon mean? (second stanza,
lines 6 – 9)Why does Kinnell include it?
4. Describe TWO techniques used in stanzas 2, 3, 4, 5 to give the reader the sense of what
actually happened and how overwhelming it was for those there.
(a)
(b)
5. What is the purpose of including the two quotations from Paul Celan? (Schawrze Milch
der Fruhe wir trinken sie abends, section 8, Wir schaufeln ein Grab in den Luft da liegt
man nicht eng, last line section 9 “Black milk of day-break we drink it at evening.”
“We’re digging a grave in the air, there you can lie down at ease”)
6. What perspective on September 11 is implied in section 9, “They come before us now
not as a likeness,/ but as a corollary, a small instance in the immense/ lineage of the
twentieth century’s history of violent death”?
7. In what way does section 10 work as a type of opposite to section 9?
8. Section 12 is the shortest in the poem but it may well be the most powerful. What is it
saying? How does Kinnell use words to make it shock the reader?
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9. Section 13 introduces the mid 19th century American poet Walt Whitman who wrote
during the American Civil War? Why does Kinnell include this reference? How does the
inclusion of an excerpt from a poem about the Civil War fit Kinnell’s stated purpose, “to
try to make sense of what had happened”?
10. What image is used in the final section of the poem? Do you find the last section of
the poem an effective ending?
11. The poem is constructed of many short sections marked off from each other. Many of
these sections in turn consist of one-line statements laid down one after another in an
order that feels more about effect that having any given set reason. Why is the poem
constructed this way? What advantage does this structure have for Kinnell’s task – to
capture an event that has just happened of which he is in part a witness and to attempt to
make sense of it?
12. Write a paragraph stating what are the conflicting perspectives Kinnell offers on
September 11, how he conveys them to the reader and what he adds to what the reader
knows already from seeing the film footage.
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13.{Turn the following statement into a long paragraph by giving further details, examples
and quotations.} In Julius Caesar Shakespeare uses the form of a play, in particular different
characters, dialogue, dramatic irony and rhetorical techniques, to provide the audience with
conflicting perspectives on Julius Caesar. In “When the towers fell” American poet Galway
Kinnell uses the form of a non-linear poem created in separate segments and using a variety
of references to other poets to give the reader a kind of double vision of September 11. His
purpose is to come to a deeper understanding of the event for himself and for others.
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