9 H English
M. Lynch
Julius Caesar Study Guide
Act I, scene i
1. Why are the people on the street celebrating?
2. Why does Marullus criticize the people for taking a holiday?
3. How do Marullus and Flavius seem to feel about Caesar?
“Disrobe the images /If you do find them decked with ceremonies.” (l.69-70)
Scene ii
4. Why does Caesar say to Antony, “Forget not, in your speed…to touch
Calphurnia , for our elders say/The barren touched in this holy chase,/Shake
off their sterile curse” (l. 9-11) ?
5. What does the soothsayer tell Caesar?
6. What’s wrong with Brutus?
7. “Tell me, good Brutus, can you see your face?” What does Cassius mean
when he says this? (line 57)
8. What does Brutus fear has happened when he hears the crowd cheer?
9. “As I love/The name of honor more than I fear death.” (line 95-6)
10. What is Brutus’ ancestor credited with?
11. Why does Caesar want men about him “that are fat”? (line 202)
12. Who does Caesar think is dangerous and why?
13. What was offered to Caesar three times? By whom? How did the crowd
react? How did Caesar react?
14. Why are Marullus and Flavius punished?
15. What does Cassius realize about Brutus? (“Yet I see/ thy honorable mettle
may be wrought/From that it is disposed.” Lines 320-2)
16. What is Cassius’ plan?
Scene iii
17. What are the five unnatural occurrences?
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18. What does Cassius ask Cinna to do? Why?
Act II – scene 1
1. “It must be by his death. And for my part/I know no personal cause to spurn
him,/But for the general…” (lines 10-12) Who is Brutus referring to and
what is he saying?
2. “that what he is, augmented,/Would run to these and these extremities./And
therefore think him as a serpent’s egg,/Which, hatched, would, as his kind, grow/
mischievous,/And kill him in the shell.” (lines 31-36) What does Brutus mean in
this quote?
3. What does the letter say? How does Brutus react?
4. Why doesn’t Brutus want to take an oath? What does this tell us about him?
5. “…but do not stain/The even virtue of our enterprise.” (line 143-5)
6. Why do the conspirators want Cicero to join their cause? Why doesn’t Brutus
want him to join their cause?
7. What is Cassius’ idea about Antony?
8. Why doe Brutus disagree with Antony?
9.
“Let’s be sacrificers, but not butchers.” (line179)
10. “And for Mark Antony, think not of him,/For he can do no more than
Caesar’s arm/When Caesar’s head is off.” (lines 194-6)
11. Why do the conspirators think that Caesar might not show up at the Capitol?
12. How is Decius going to convince Caesar to go to the Capitol?
13. Which additional man will they add to their conspiracy and why?
14. “Let not our looks put on our purposes,/But bear it, as our Roman actors
do…” (lines 244-5)
15. Why is Portia concerned about Brutus?
16. What does Portia do to show that she’s loyal to Brutus?
17. “Set on your foot,/And with a heart new-fired I follow you/To do I know not
what; but it sufficeth/That Brutus leads me on.” (lines 359-62)
SCENE ii
18. What kind of weather do we have at the opening of scene 2? Any
significance?
19. Why doesn’t Caphurnia want Caesar to go to the Capitol?
20. “Cowards die many times before their deaths.” (line 34)
21. Why does Caesar still want to go to the Capitol in spite of what Calphurnia
and the augurers have said?
22. What reason does Caesar give Decius for why he will not go to the Capitol?
23. What has Calphurnia dreamed of?
24. What’s Decius’ interpretation of this dream?
25. How does Decius convince Caesar to go to the Capitol?
26. “And so near will I be/That your best friends shall wish I had been further.”
(lines 132-3)
Scene iii
27. What does Artemidorus’ letter say?
Scene iv
28. What does Portia want Lucius to do? Why?
29. “None that I know will be, much that I fear may/ chance.” (37-38)
ACT III – scene i
1. What does Artemidorus have for Caesar?
2. “What touches us ourself shall be last served.” (line 8)
3. What is Cassius nervous about?
4. What favor does Metellus ask of Caesar? How does Caesar respond?
5. “I could be well moved, if I were as you./ If I could pray to move, prayers
would move me./But I am a constant as the Northern star,/Of whose true
fixed and resting quality/There is no fellow in the firmament.” (lines 64-8)
6. What are Caesar’s last words? What do they mean?
7. What do the conspirators do after the murder? Why?
8. In what way do Brutus and Cassius think that they’ve done Caesar a favor?
(page 101)
9. “So oft as that shall be,/So often shall the knot of us be called/The men that
gave their country liberty.” (lines 131-2)
10. What message does Antony send? How do Brutus and Cassius react
differently?
11. Antony arrives and says what? (page 105-6)
12. “Only be patient till we have appeased the multitude…” (line 195)
13. “I blame you not for praising Caesar so./But what compact mean you to
have with us?/Will you be pricked in number of our friends,/Or shall we on
and not depend on you?” (lines 235-8)
14. What does Antony want to know? (lines 242-3)
15.
What does Antony ask to do at Caesar’s funeral?
16. How do Brutus and Cassius react to his request? Why?
17. What are the stipulations (conditions) for Antony to speak at Caesar’s
funeral?
18. Based on Antony’s soliloquy on page 113, how does he REALLY feel about
the conspirators?
19. “O pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth,/ That I am meek and gentle
with these butchers.” (lines 280-1)
20. “…with a monarch’s voice/Cry ‘Havoc!’ and let slip the dogs of war…” (lines
298-9)
21. Who is Octavius? What does Antony tell his messenger?
Scene ii
22. When Brutus gives his speech at Caesar’s funeral he speaks in prose instead
of poetry, as he has been doing throughout the play. Why do you think he
does this?
23. What reason(s) does Brutus give for killing Caesar?
24. “…not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.” (line 23)
25. How does the crowd react to Brutus’ speech?
26. Brutus leaves after he gives his speech and before Antony gives his; do you
think this is a good idea? Why or why not?
27. “Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears./ I come to bury Caesar,
not to praise him./The evil that men do live after them;/The good if oft
interred with their bones. So let it be with Caesar/” (line 82)
28.
Antony tells the crowd that Caesar has done what for the Romans?
29. How does the crowd react?
30. “If I were disposed to stir/Your hearts to and minds to mutiny and rage,/I
should do Brutus wrong and Cassius wrong,/Who (you all know) are
honorable men.” (lines 133-6)
31. How do the citizens react when they hear that Caesar has a will?
32. What reason does Antony give for not wanting to read the will? (page 127)
33. What are some things that Antony has done to stir the crowd? Do you think
he has accomplished what he set out to do? Explain.
34. “This was the most unkindest cut of all.” (line 195)
35. How does the crowd react to seeing the wounds on Caesar’s body?
36. In Antony’s speech on page 131 in what ways does he lie or exaggerate?
37. On page 133, what has the crowd forgotten about? What does this tell us?
38. What is in Caesar’s will?
39. “ Now let it work. Mischief, thou are afoot;/Take thou what course thou
wilt.” (lines 275-6
40. Who has arrived in Rome?
41. What happened to Brutus and Cassius?
Scene iii
42. Why is Cinna the poet killed? What is the significance of that?
Act IV
Scene 1
1. Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus discuss that which people should be killed?
2. What is their plan regarding JC’s will?
3. How does Antony view Lepidus? What does he compare him to? What is his
plan for him?
4. “Do not talk of him/but as a property” (lines 43-44).
Scene 2
5. Why do Brutus and Cassius decide to talk privately?
Scene 3
6. Why is Cassius upset?
7. “I had rather be a dog and bay at the moon/Than such a Roman” (28-9).
8. When Cassius compares Brutus to Julius Caesar, what does he say?
9. Why is Brutus upset about raising money?
10. Why does Cassius offer his sword to Brutus?
11. “For I know/When thou didst hate him worst, thou lovedst
him/better/Than ever thou lovedst Cassius” (116).
12. What does the poet say to them?
13. What happened to Portia?
14. What does Messala say about Octavius and Antony’s forces?
15. “Even so great men great losses should endure” (222).
16. What is Brutus’ plan? Why?
17. What is Cassius’ plan? Why?
18. Whose plan do they decide to go with?
19. What is the significance of Caesar’s ghost appearing to Brutus?
20. What does the ghost say?
ACT V
Scene 1
1. Why does Antony think Brutus and Cassius’ forces are meeting them in
Philippi?
2. What do Octavius and Antony disagree about?
3. How many wounds did Caesar have?
4. Why is this day special to Cassius?
5. What does Cassius notice about the eagles? What does he think the
significance is?
6. Why do Cassius and Brutus say goodbye to each other?
Scene 2
7. Brutus has Messala give the message to their troops to go into battle.
Scene 3
8. What is Cassius’ mistaken belief? What does he do because of this error?
9. “Caesar, thou art revenged/Even with the sword that killed thee” (50-1).
10. What does Titinius do before he kills himself?
11. “O Julius Caesar, thou art mighty yet;/ Thy spirit walks abroad and turns our
swords/In our won proper entrails” (105-7)
12. Brutus orders his troops to fight.
Scene 4
13. Why does Lucilius say he’s Brutus?
14. “I dare assure thee that no enemy/Shall ever take alive the noble Brutus”
(22-3).
15. “I had rather have/Such men my friends than enemies” (29-30).
Scene 5
16. What does Brutus ask his men to do? Which one helps him?
17. How is Brutus killed?
18. “For Brutus only overcame himself,/And no man else hath honor by his
death” (62-3).
19. “This was the noblest Roman of them all…” (74-81).
20. What does Ocatvius plan? What does this show?