1. Shakespeare

2. Why do we read works by William Shakespeare? Shakespeare’s Language!
Shakespeare’s language is what makes his plays so interesting and beautiful.
Modern day language lacks the emotion, the poetry, the power of his writing.

3. Works 37 plays over 150 Sonnets built the Globe Theater in Stratford
Comedies
Tragedies
Histories
over 150 Sonnets
built the Globe Theater in Stratford

4. Julius Caesar: Background
The play
is one of Shakespeare’s tragedies, even though it is somewhat historically based.
is divided into 5 acts (like all of Shakespeare’s plays)

5. Julius Caesar, the man:
leader and political figure
military campaigns took him as far as Egypt
defeated previous leader, Pompey (this is where the play opens)
married 3 times, had no legitimate children, and left all of his money and power to his grandnephew
In Rome, dissatisfaction grew over his increasing power. The result was a conspiracy. This play is about the conspiracy and a study of the men involved.

6. Tragic Hero: a central character for whom events end disastrously
QUALITIES:
Goodness: Characters who are not good would fail to arouse pity in the reader or viewer.
Superiority: Characters who are not somehow superior or elevated would seem less tragic in their destruction.
Tragic Flaw: Tragic heroes make fatal errors in judgment that contribute to their downfall; often the flaw is a traditionally admirable quality carried to excess.
Tragic Realization: The character must understand how he/she has helped to bring about his/her own destruction; the usual fate of a tragic hero is death.

7. Pathetic Fallacy: Allusion:
A belief that nature reacts according to emotions of the times
Example: storm scene (nature responds to the political unrest in Rome)
Allusion:
A reference to an historical or literary person, place, or event with which the reader is assumed to be familiar

8. Rhetorical Question: Pun:
A question designed to produce an effect (usually an emotional one), not an answer
Pun:
A play on words (homonyms / play with meanings) using words that can have two meanings
Example: Ben Franklin is quoted as saying, “We must all hang together or we will surely hang separately.”

9. Parallelism: Anachronism:
Expresses ideas of equal worth with the same grammatical form
Example: Brutus’ speech at Caesar’s funeral
Anachronism:
Anything out of its proper time in history
Example: costumes that are not historically accurate, clock striking (instead of a sundial which was used to tell time in Ancient Rome), chimney tops (before chimneys existed), etc.

10. Irony: Irony is divided into three types:
Verbal: when what is said is opposite of what is meant
Situational: when what happens is opposite of what is expected/supposed to happen
Dramatic: when the reader/audience knows what is going to happen or what is currently going on while the characters do not have the knowledge

11. Aside:
Character addressing the audience, not other characters (who don’t hear the speech)
Soliloquy:
A speech where the character speaks thoughts aloud and alone on stage (example: Juliet’s balcony speech in Romeo and Juliet)

12. Stoic:
A philosophy of life (like a religion) in which the goal in life is virtue
Emotions are kept to oneself or emotions aren’t felt/recognized
joy and grief should not be outwardly shown
Duty and honor are of highest priority
Belief in an afterlife and therefore concerned with how today is lived
Epicurean:
A philosophy of life in which the goal in life is to keep self free from pain
Pleasure is of highest importance
The greatest evil is fear
No gods and/or no afterlife
“Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you may die.”