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“Julius Caesar: A Modern Perspective” Questions

  1. How long did Rome remain a kingship?
  2. Who led an uprising to drive the reigning dynasty out of Rome and establish the Roman Republic? What connection does he have with a character in the play?
  1. In what year did the above uprising occur?
  2. According to Brutus and Cassius, what is the purpose of the Roman Republic?
  1. How is the government of the United States influenced by the Roman Republic?
  1. What does Brutus think he will accomplish by killing Caesar?
  1. When was Julius Caesar assassinated?
  2. When were the conspirators defeated in the Battle of Philippi?
  3. When was Antony defeated in the Battle of Actium?
  4. What is the tragic irony of the play?
  1. The Roman Republic was supposed to be a combination of what three forms of government? Why?
  1. According to Brutus and Cassius’s ideology, how does one earn a reputation as an honorable man? What makes them angry about Caesar’s success?
  1. How do Brutus and Cassius differ in character? What do they have in common?
  1. Despite his shortcomings, what does Julius Caesar know how to do very well?
  1. What does Antony’s funeral oration demonstrate?
  1. Explain in your own words what the author means when she says, “Thus it would appear that republican ideology can be successfully coopted by ambitious men like Caesar and Antony” (Kahn 219).
  1. According to Shakespeare’s depiction of Caesar, is Brutus’s belief that Caesar “would be crowned” justifiable? Why or why not?
  1. In your own words, how does Kahn describe Caesar?
  1. What do Brutus and Caesar have in common?
  1. What three similarities occur in Scenes 2.1 and 2.2 between Caesar and Brutus?
  1. What does Portia really want when she asks Brutus to “tell [her his] counsels”?
  1. What two things keep Brutus from trusting her?
  1. Why did Portia give herself a “voluntary wound” on her thigh?
  1. What does Portia’s final scene reveal about her?
  1. What does Brutus wish they could do when assassinating Caesar?
  1. What do Brutus and conspirators do immediately after assassinating Caesar? Why? How does Antony turn this against them?
  1. How did Antony beat Brutus and Cassius at the Battle of Philippi?
  1. What do Brutus and Cassius say has led to their downfall? In Kahn’s opinion, what really brought about their downfall?
  1. What might Shakespeare imply is Brutus’s fatal error in judgment?
  1. Explain in your own words what Kahn means when she says, “Brutus himself is not evil, though his uncompromising idealism carries with it a subtle vanity. We might say that he only carries to a misguided extreme the values and expectations implied in the republican ideals he inherited” (224).