The Gender Transformation of Caesar

The Gender Transformation of Caesar Shakespeare's Julius Caesar opens with the concurrent celebrations of Caesar's defeat of Pompey and the annual fertility festival of Lupercal. The coupling of the two historically separate events each celebrating distinct gender roles dramatically highlights the importance of gender characterization. Rome's patriarchal society demands a leader who embodies the virile spirit of the state with leadership marked by strength, courage, and constancy. Caesar quite fittingly assumes this role as he returns valiant and victorious from the battlefields; thus, in order to remove him the strong ruler of Rome, Caesar's enemies must retrench his masculinity. Roman society considers women as the embodiment of weaknesses, thinking that their physical, mental, and political inferiority make them of little use beyond reproductive purposes, explaining why aspirants to the throne feminize the identity of the masculine warrior figure to position him as unfit for the crown. The portrayal of the two female characters of the novel, Portia and Calphurnia, captures the prevailing stereotypical perceptions of women. Caesar's wife, Calphurnia, demonstrates women's predisposition towards fearfulness and superstition when she pleads with Caesar to remain at home after dreaming that a statue made in the likeness was Cesar pouring forth blood. Calphurnia establishes

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Compare Brutus and Antonys speeches in Act III Scene 2 of Julius Caesar. Analyse the dramatic effects created by Shakespeares use of language

Compare Brutus and Antony's speeches in Act III Scene 2 of Julius Caesar. Analyse the dramatic effects created by Shakespeare's use of language. Like most of Shakespeare's tragedies, Julius Caesar is loosely based around true events during the Roman era. Julius Caesar is based upon a Roman emperor who ruled the empire until his death. Caesar was born around 100 B.C. and died in 44 B.C. Although the play is named Julius Caesar, the main characters of the play are Brutus and Mark Antony. Before Brutus began his speech, the third citizen says: "The noble Brutus is ascended: silence!" This reaction from the third citizen reflects the fact that Brutus is a significant figure and reflects also their eagerness to listen to Brutus' statement for Caesar's murder. Brutus begins by addressing the crowds as "Romans, countrymen and lovers!" This helps him appear very courteous. In line 18, Shakespeare uses a chiastic structure "believe me for mine honour and have respect to mine honour, that you may believe" to swing the audience's support towards Brutus. Using a chiasm (repeating words in a different way) makes Brutus' words more emphatic. From line 22 onwards Brutus is explaining his reasons for killing Caesar. Brutus uses memorable sentences such as: "Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more." Here Brutus is stating that he did indeed care about Caesar. However, he

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'Antony's use of rhetoric in Act3, Scene2 is more effective than Brutus'.

'Antony's use of rhetoric in Act3, Scene2 is more effective than Brutus'.' To what extent do you agree with this statement? 26 If one considers merely the apparent 'winner' of the argument in Act 3, Scene 2, then Antony is the obvious choice as the better orator. However, Brutus probably had a more difficult job as he had to convince the crowd to forgive him for the murder of the (effective)1 head of the Roman Empire. In fact, the use of rhetorical devices in both speeches is extensive and generally well balanced. This has been affected by the order in which the men spoke to the crowd, which could, to some extent, alter the opinion of the rhetorical devices used. Rhetorical devices in the passage are well used, especially in the case of Antony and his use of pathos, although one may argue that in this instance pathos is particularly easy to use. An example of pathos2 is,'...I should do Brutus wrong and Cassius wrong (who you all know) are honourable men. I will not do them wrong; I rather choose, to wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you, then to wrong such honourable men.' This quote in some ways appears at first glance to be pro-Brutus but the undertones are more malicious and if said in grief3, could evoke powerful emotional reactions from the audience which is one of Antony's main objectives, so to make the plebeians4 turn against the conspirators in their, and at the

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How is Brutus Presented as a Tragic Hero

How is Brutus Presented as a Tragic Hero | Throughout the tragedies written by William Shakespeare, each contains a tragic hero, a person who possesses heroic qualities but then has a tragic reversal of fortune. This tragic event is often the central element that allows the play to become a tragedy. Tragic heroes also posses something known as a tragic flaw, and it is this flaw which is the main reason the tragic event is brought about. For example in the tragedy of king Lear, the king trusts the wrong people (this is his tragic flaw) and is then tricked and later becomes mad (this is his tragic reversal of fortune) and eventually he dies. It is important however that tragic heroes posses heroic qualities. For example some people say that Julius Caesar is the tragic hero of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, however he lacks any real heroic qualities, and so cannot be considered a hero, let alone a tragic one. One of the important qualities that make Brutus a tragic hero is the fact that he has a tragic flaw. I believe this flaw to be the fact that he is too noble; this leads to naivety and allows him to be deceived by the other characters in the play to his downfall. He is naïve of some of Cassius' true character even though he is his friend. He is also over trusting of Mark Antony which is clearly shown in act 3 scene 1 where he makes the mistake of allowing Antony to make a

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Why is Antony a more effective speaker than Brutus?

Why is Antony a more effective speaker than Brutus? Both Antony and Brutus uses the same persuasive devices in their speech. They both use repetition and rhetorical questions; however they also use other persuasive devices to make their speech effective. Though both are good speakers, what makes Antony more effective is that he appeals more to the Roman people's emotions rather then their rationality. Antony comes effectively halfway through Brutus's speech and carries Caesar's body with him. Already he has the crowd's attention. Though it seems that Brutus has won the public's opinion, Antony is able to persuade them to see it from his point of view. Brutus has tried to win the public by speaking in prose in order to make him seem equal to the plebeians; in contrast Antony speaks in verse which is more effective as it would sound much more interesting. He is also very careful and manipulative with his speech as he makes sure that he is able to go on with it long enough to sway the public's opinion towards him. Antony effectively uses repetition in his speech. Constantly he mentions Brutus to be an 'honourable man.' By repeating Brutus to be honourable, as the plebeians are convinced he is, Antony is able to make it sound worthless as it begins to sound tiresome and so causes the plebeians to question Brutus nobility. Antony also repeats the word 'ambition'. He reminds the

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"The Noblest Roman of them all." How Accurate an Assessment is this of the Character Brutus?

"The Noblest Roman of them all." How Accurate an Assessment is this of the Character Brutus? Brutus was one of the most important men in Ancient Rome and was a great friend of the emperor of Rome and her dominions, Julius Caesar. He loved his friend Caesar and felt a great deal of allegiance to him and wanted him to stay that way. However, Brutus' love for Rome was much greater and still believed in a republic run by senators elected by the people similar to the government of today in Britain. He felt that Caesar was becoming too ambitious and was becoming a threat to the senate. Brutus felt that the only way to stop Caesar was to kill him and end all chance of him getting close to a throne. Although the method may seem, at first glance, evil, cruel and unnecessary, Brutus felt everything he was doing was for the good of the Senate, Rome and her people. While having good intentions, Brutus' actions only served to fuel the one thing he was trying to avoid. It pushed Rome over the edge by turning Antony and Octavius against them. It drove Rome into a civil war which would last around 7 years and led to the death of him. In trying to solve a problem, he had inadvertently created one and caused great unrest in Rome and the outer lying territories. So this raises the question, does Brutus deserve the title of "Noblest Roman of them all" or was he nothing more than a naive

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Critically analyse the powerplay evident in Julius Caesar and in two other related texts.

Critically analyse the powerplay evident in Julius Caesar and in two other related texts A.I. Solzhenitsyn once said, "You can have power over people as long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything, he's no longer in your power." This statement alerts us that to possess power, we must not act in favour of ourselves, but for others. Power is a very complex theme that is present in history as well as the present. For people who assume power who do not understand the full implications of it, power will corrupt to the point of destruction. This can be seen evidently in Julius Caesar, The Wyrd Sisters and the collapse of Enron. Power is dealt with by several major characters throughout Julius Caesar. It can be clearly seen to shift through the hands of the protagonists in a variety of forms. The diagram below illustrates the shift of power: Ceasar v Conspirators v Brutus v Antony v Octavius At the commencement of the play, Caesar is the most powerful man in Rome. This is shown to us through his confidence in speaking to a fiscal audience. He had clearly been in such a high position of power for some time. However, as the play carries on, we can see that he has started to become affected by his power. Minute signs of arrogance are apparent through the use of the third person singular "Caesar" instead of the 1st person

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In which way does Marc Antony’s speech sway the crowd?

Essay on Julius Caesar In which way does Marc Antony's speech sway the crowd? In Shakespeare's plays we can see how useful is the utilization of words. Certainly it was and it is very important to have this "gift" because this was the only mean to make people believe in you. In the play Julius Caesar, we could indicate that Antony carries one and he makes use of it to apply them within a large number of people. Sometimes we can have different opinions about how people thought and they way their characters were to be persuade by a man. But it is a fact that when you are in the middle of a crowd and the majority of them agree what the man is saying, you are carried by this emotion and agree too. An example of this is when Brutus comes out and gives a speech to the people to convince them that the killing of Caesar had to be done. With the words, the people are convinced that although Caesar was valiant, fortunate and many other things, he was ambitious; therefore he had to be assassinated. Until that point, Brutus controlled the mob but as soon Antony comes out and gives his speech, things go wrong for Brutus. Marc Antony a very close friend of Caesar, makes the people realize that these "honourable men" as he says, are not a thing what Caesar was. They only were ambitious of power and did want get to the throne and rule Rome. But we can also appreciate how Brutus with

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In the literary pieces To Kill a Mocking bird , An Enemy of the People, and Julius Caesar the authors use crowds to develop their themes. The townspeople, majority, and the mobs represented

To kill a mokingbird In the literary pieces To Kill a Mocking bird , An Enemy of the People, and Julius Caesar the authors use crowds to develop their themes. The townspeople, majority, and the mobs represented how people go in favor of the more popular side. Most people will go on this side because the benefits will go to the people. They can also fear that having a different opinion will make a bad impression of themselves. In To Kill a Mockingbird, the townspeople's narrow-mindedness didn't allow them to think like " free-thinkers". They never went outside the boundaries of Maycomb County, which limited their knowledge to that which they already knew. The townspeople were all brought up under the same beliefs. Since the town is in the middle of nowhere, they receive no new ideas or information. All this is accountable for the narrow-mindedness of the town.. Harper Lee uses the townspeople to show how narrow-mindedness leads to uniform thinking. This way of thinking leads to the majority always going on the same side. Anyone with a different opinion cannot speak up because nobody else will support him. All of the other people believe him wrong because they grew up thinking that their ways are correct. Thus, the majority in To Kill a Mockingbird always beat the minority because the majority's facts are based on ideas that everyone

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Who is the Protagonist

English Essay- Who is the Protagonist In the play, "Julius Caesar" by William Shakespeare, there are two main characters, Brutus and Caesar. One of these two characters is more important than the other and therefore the protagonist in the play. This essay will show that Brutus is the most important character in the play, and give numerous reasons why, such as; that he is considered the noblest and most honourable of Romans by numerous people, he is the only conspirator that has no selfish intentions, he is a leader to many, and that he is a great friend, but it will also show his many faults and wrongly made choices throughout the play. In various parts of this play, Brutus is proclaimed the most honourable and noblest man of Rome. Brutus' nobility is shown throughout the play, right from the first time he appears to the last few lines. When we first see Brutus, Cassius is already all over him. We see them talk in the backstreets while the games are going on in the background. As they speak shouts and trumpets are heard and here we see Brutus' fear for the good of Rome come out already, "What means this shouting? I do fear the people choose Caesar for their King." He shows early on in the play that he fears for Tyranny in Rome and that Caesar may be changed by the power of the crown. Brutus' nobility is also expressed by the conspirators before he joins them, "If you could

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