Julius Caesar - REVIEW DAY, May 26

Today, students took a quiz over Act V, received graded Act III & IV quiz, took a few notes, finished the video of Julius Caesar, and received a test review.

Notes: Tragedy, Tragic Hero, Tragic Flaw
• Tragedy: a story in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances.
• Tragic Hero: According to Aristotle, a tragic hero is “Man of high standard who falls from that high because of a flaw that has affected many”
– Modern tragic hero – Anakin Skywalker
• That flaw is called a tragic flaw.

KWL Chart is due Thursday, BEFORE the test!

The Tragedy of Julius Caesar Test Review

Pre-Reading, Acts I – V Vocabulary.


Quotes from Julius Caesar: Who is the speaker? What/who is s/he talking about? What does the quote mean?
• Now let it work. Mischief, thou art afoot, Take thou what course thou wilt.
• Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look; He thinks too much, such men are dangerous.
• Beware the Ides of March!
• The fault, dear Brutus is not in our stars, But in ourselves that we are underlings.
• This was the noblest Roman of them all.
• … You have some sick offense within your mind, Which by the right and virtue of my place I ought to know of…
• And therefore think him as a serpent’s egg Which hatched would as his kind grow mischievous, And kill him in the shell.
• Let us be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius.
• It seems to me most strange that men should fear, Seeing that death, a necessary end, Will come when it will come.
• If thou read this, O Caesar, thou mayst live; If not, the Fates with traitors do contrive.
• When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept; Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.
• Et tu Brute

Characters to know for matching

• Soothsayer
• Metellus Cimber
• Cassius
• Cinna, the poet
• Decius
• Brutus
• Casca
• Calpurnia
• Antony
• Lepidus

Reading Comprehension (refer to Act questions and worksheets)

1. Tragic Hero; Tragic Flaw
2. Feast of Lupercal
3. foreshadowing
4. second triumvirate
5. Act I, Scene i – what happens and why
6. Act I, Scene ii – what troubling things have happened this day?
7. Why does Brutus join the conspiracy?
8. Why not attack Antony?
9. What is Caesar like in Act II, Scene ii?
10. Why doesn’t Calpurnia want Caesar to go to the Senate?
11. Why do the conspirators ask Caesar to pardon Publius Cimber?
12. What is Caesar’s attitude when he is at the Senate in Act III?
13. Why does Antony shake hands with the conspirators?
14. What does calling someone a “hart” (deer) mean?
15. In his funeral oration, how does Antony show that the conspirators were not honorable?
16. Act III, Scene iii – purpose?
17. Why does Antony point to Caesar’s wounds and identify the tears in his cloak?
18. What impression does Shakespeare give of the plebeians in Act III?
19. While reading Act IV, how do we know there is a change in Brutus and Cassius’s friendship?
20. How does Brutus react to Portia’s death?
21. After seeing the ghost, why does Brutus ask his servants why they cried out in their sleep?
22. What does Caesar’s ghost symbolize?
23. Before departing for battle, what do Brutus and Cassius say to each other?
24. What is Cassius’ fatal mistake?
25. How does Antony treat Brutus’ followers when they have been captured? (remember Lucilius?)
26. What is the main reason that Brutus does not want to be captured and taken back to Rome?
27. Why is this play considered a tragedy?
28. Themes (central ideas) of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. (What can be learned about life from this play?)
29. To what does Caesar compare himself before he is assassinated? Why does he make this comparison?
30. Why does Brutus let Antony speak at Caesar’s funeral?
31. What reason does Brutus give for killing Caesar?
32. What is Antony’s true purpose in delivering his funeral oration?
33. How does Antony prove Caesar wasn’t ambitious?
34. Difference between Brutus and Antony’s funeral orations?
35. Why do Brutus and Cassius argue in Act IV? What is the real reason Brutus is so upset?
36. What happens to Portia?
37. In Act V, what ominous sign does Cassius report has caused him to fear the coming battle?
38. What does Cassius say is avenged by his death?
39. Why did Pindarus stab Cassius?
40. How does Titinius respond to Cassius’ death?
41. Why did Antony say Brutus was the “noblest Roman of them all”?
42. What is Brutus’s tragic flaw?

To view YouTube videos of the BBC's animated The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, click here.