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Julius Caesar Study Guide
Act I
1. Why do Flavius and Marralus tell the cobbler and carpenter to go home and weep?
2. What is the Feast of Lupercal and when was it celebrated?
3. Of what does the Soothsayer warn Caesar? What is significant about the fact that
Caesar calls him a dreamer?
4. Name Caesar’s physical weaknesses.
5. How many times did Caesar refuse the crown? What is the significance of this
gesture?
6. Name the weird omens that Casca witnessed.
7. How does Cassius plan to manipulate Brutus using Cinna’s help?
Act II
8. According to Brutus, what happens when a leader reaches the top of ambition’s
ladder?
9. Why does Brutus compare Caesar to a serpent’s egg?
10. The conspirators are set on killing Caesar and question whether or not to also kill
Marc Antony. Name a few reasons why Brutus decides not to kill Antony.
11. Why does Portia cut her thigh?
12. Why does Caesar tell his augurers to sacrifice an animal on March 15?
13. What did Calpurnia have a dream about?
14. Decius has agreed to persuade Caesar to go to the capitol as rumor has said he would
do otherwise. How does Decius interpret Caesar’s dream and persuade him to go to the
capitol?
15. Portia says, “I have a man’s mind, but a woman’s might.” What does she mean by
this?
ACT III
16. Why does Caesar compare himself to the North Star? What impact does this have on
the scene?
17. Caesar says, “Et tu Brute? Then fall Caesar.” Explain this quote.
18. Why doesn’t Cassius want Antony to speak at Caesar’s funeral? What is Brutus
argument against this?
19. When giving the funeral speech, Antony gives reasons to show that Caesar was not
ambitious. What are they?
20. Who did Antony say made the unkindest cut of all?
21. What did Caesar leave the Romans in his will?
ACT IV
22. What clues are we given that Antony and Octavius do not want Lepidus to be a part
of the triumvirate?
23. After the assassination, why is Brutus mad at Cassius?
24. How did Portia die?
25. Where does the battle take place?
26. Why are the two sides fighting?
27. What does Caesar’s ghost tell Brutus?
28. Brutus claims to practice the philosophy of stoicism--what is stoicism?
29. What is Brutus’ fatal flaw?
Act V
30. Before dying Cassius says, “Time is come round, And where I did begin there shall I
end.” What does he mean by this?
31. Why’d Cassius kill himself?
32. What happens to Pindarus?
33. Who helps stab Cassius?
34. Why does Lucillius impersonate Brutus during the war?
35. Why does Brutus kill himself?
36. Who helps stab Brutus?
37. What happens to the armies after Brutus’s and Cassius’s deaths?
38. In Act V, who besides Brutus and Cassius die?