Julius Caesar memorization assignment
Shakespeare
http://www.argo217.k12.il.us/departs/english/blettiere/Julius_Caesar_Dramatic_Reading.pdf
Julius Caesar: Dramatic Reading Project
Assignment: Memorize 8 12 lines from Julius Caesar. You might want to do more than 12 lines, but 8 ֖
12 is the minimum requirement. Recite these lines to the class. When finished reciting lines to class, spend
half a minute to a minute explaining what the lines said and what they achieve in the play.
Memorize your lines and recite them clearly and with some emotion. You do not need to act, but
your hands and face should be moving and showing the characterՒs emotion.
Explain what the lines mean. Do a quick translation after reading the lines.
Օ Explain the importance of these lines.
o You might explain the importance of these lines to plot development, theme development,
character development, conflict, suspense, irony, foreshadowing, and so on.
o You might explain the importance of these lines to our current society, to universal themes
that are illustrated in other pieces of art.
I am looking to see that you have thought carefully about these lines and that you have
a basic understanding of the entire play.
Turn in a half-page typed paper, which explains which lines you have chosen and their importance.
*You may have one 3x5 index card with keywords for your introduction and conclusion. This index card
must be turned in with your paper.
Grading Rubric:
Memorization Grade:
Grade C Ֆ (8 12 lines)
Grade B ֖ (12 14 lines)
Grade A ֖ (15 or more lines)
Delivery Grade:
Students will be graded on the following:
Introduction (When you stand in front of the class, introduce the part of the play that the lines come
from and the character who will be speaking. Leave about a 5 second pause and then recite your
lines. If you are presenting a few different sections then you must also provide transitions between
each.)
Օ Volume (not only should every one hear you, but also you should effectively change your volume for
emphasis.)
Rate (make sure that your speed of delivery is consistent with the tone of your lines.)
Օ Eye Contact (make sure you provide eye contact with the audience, especially in the short
explanation that follows your lines)
Posture (make sure to move body only when necessary to the lines)
Օ Gestures (make sure your hand and arm movement is consistent with the lines you have chosen. Use
hands to emphasize points.)
Conclusion (Explain the lines and the importance of the lines.)
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Shakespeare •
Julius Caesar Act 1 Study Guide
Shakespeare
1. Where does the first scene take place?
2. What are Flavius and Marullus doing?
3. Who claims to be a mender of bad soles,Ӕ a surgeon to old shoes,Ӕ and one who lives by the awl?Ӕ
4. According to a laborer, why have the people left their shops and assembled?
5. Who was Pompey?
6. How do Marullus and Flavius rebuke the people?
7. Who was Lupercal, and when did the Feast of Lupercal occur?
8. What character establishes the notion that Caesar is ambitious, and that he flies too high and is a danger to free men?
9. The purpose of the Feast of Lupercal was to secure purification and fertility for the spring planting. What other purpose did it serve for women as well?
10. In scene two, who, in particular, is instructed to stand in Antony’s way and why?
11. What warning does the fortuneteller give to Caesar?
12. What is Caesars response to the fortunetellerҒs warning?
13. What do Cassius and Brutus discuss after Caesar and his followers leave?
14. With who is Brutus upset and why?
15. Cassius openly works on contrasting Brutuss humility to CaesarҒs presumptuousness and arrogance. Why?
16. What fear does Brutus blurt out when shots are heard and a trumpet sounds?
17. When Caesar returns from the race, which characters countenance seems to disturb him?
18. How does Caesar contrast Cassius with Antony?
19. Why does Antony have to speak to Caesar from his right side?
20. Why does Brutus grasp CascaҒs cloak? What does he want to know?
21. What does Casca tell him has happened?
22. What other physical impairment does Caesar have?
23. According to Casca, did the Roman people seem to want Caesar to be king?
24. What dramatic action had Caesar taken in front of the people before his fainting?
25. How did Casca react to the events at the Lupercal Festival?
26. What has happened to Marullus and Flavius and why?
27. Cassiuss major plan involves Brutus. What is it?
28. What secretive means does Cassius intend to use to persuade Brutus he is more noble than Caesar?
29. In scene three, it is the evening of the Ides of March. Describe the weather.
30. Casca meets Cicero on the streets. State two unexplainable events.
31. What is Caesar to do tomorrow?
32. Cassius compared the storm to whom?
33. According to Casca, what do the senators plan to do tomorrow?
34. What pledge does Casca give to Cassius?
35. Who is Cinna?
36. According to Cinna, acquiring the cooperation of who would be more beneficial?
37. Cinna is to deliver the forged letters to what three places?
38. According to Cassius, what fraction of Brutus remains to be won over?
39. Who ғsits high in all the peoples hearts?Ҕ
Julius Caesar
Act One Quotations
1. O you hard-hearted people, you cruel men of Rome,
didnӒt you know Pompey the Great?
2. ԓIf we can pluck these growing feathers out of Caesars wing,
we can force him to fly lower.Ҕ
3. barren women, when touched in this holy race,
are able to shake off the curse of sterility.Ӕ
4. I shall remember
When Caesar says ӑDo this,
It is done.Ҕ
5. Beware the Ides of March.Ӕ
6. I fear that the people choose Caesar
for their king.Ӕ
7. I was born as free as Caesar and so were you.
We both have eaten as well, and we can both
Suffer the winterӒs cold as well as Caesar.
8. ԓCassius over there is too lean and hungry looking;
he things too much. Such men are dangerous.
9. ԓSuch and such are reasons, they are natural occurrences,
because I believe that they are completely strange events, full of meaning
for the place where they occur.
10. ԓIts a very pleasing night to honest men.Ҕ
11. O, he has a high place in the hearts of the Roman people,
and what would appear offensive if we did it,
his approval, like precious alchemy,
will transform it to something virtuous and worthy.Ӕ
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Shakespeare •
Julius Caesar resources
Shakespeare
Folger’s curriculum http://www.simonsays.com/assets/series/859/CG9_859.pdf
9 page study guide for students, with questions for each scene: http://www.thewritingtutor.biz/teachers_resources/JCstudyguide.pdf
Signet complete teacher’s guide: http://us.penguingroup.com/static/pdf/teachersguides/caesar.pdf
Globe Theater PDF: http://www.argo217.k12.il.us/departs/english/blettiere/globe.pdf
Julius Caesar overview http://library.thinkquest.org/19539/juliusc.htm
Streaming Video introducing Globe Theater http://video.csupomona.edu/shakespeare/globe-245.asx
Streaming Video staging Shakespeare http://video.csupomona.edu/shakespeare/staging-245.asx
Soldier’s Dilemma http://www.thewritingtutor.biz/teachers_resources/soldiersdilemma.php#Scenario
Historical Introduction (essay)
Study guide by act, with quote quiz
Figures of Speech
Julius Caesar ranks among Shakespeare’s finest plays, in part because of its highly effective imagery. Among the many and varied figures of speech in the play are the following:
Anaphora With Metaphor, Alliteration, and Hyperbole
You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!
Marullus to commoners, Act I, Scene I
.
Anaphora: repetition of you
Metaphor: comparison of spectators to inanimate objects
Alliteration: stones, senseless
Hyperbole: exaggeration saying that the spectators have less sense than senseless things
Simile With Hyperbole and Alliteration
Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonourable graves.
֖Cassius to Brutus, Act I, Scene II
.
Simile: Likening Caesar to a colossus (giant)
Hyperbole: exaggeration of Caesar’s size
Alliteration: we, walk; his, huge
Metaphors
I know he would not be a wolf,
But that he sees the Romans are but sheep:
He were no lion, were not Romans hinds
Casca to Cassius and Brutus, Act I, Scene III
.
Comparison of Caesar to a wolf and a lion
Comparison of the Romans to sheep, hinds.
Metaphor
Since Cassius first did whet me against Caesar,
I have not slept.
֖Brutus, alone, Act II, Scene I
.
Brutus compares himself to a knife that Cassius has sharpened (did whet)
Apostrophe, Personification, Alliteration, Hyperbole
.............................................. O conspiracy,
Shamest thou to show thy dangerous brow by night,
When evils are most free? O, then by day
Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough
To mask thy monstrous visage? Seek none, conspiracy;
Hide it in smiles and affability:
For if thou path, thy native semblance on,
Not Erebus itself were dim enough
To hide thee from prevention.
Brutus, alone, Act II, Scene I
.
Apostrophe and Personification: Addressing conspiracy as if it were a person
Alliteration: thou, thy; where, wilt; mask, monstrous
Allusion: Erebus, a reference to the Greek god who personified darkness; also, the dark passage through which the souls of the dead pass from earth to Hades
Hyperbole: exaggeration saying that not even the darkest of places, Erebus, would not be dim enough to hide the conspiracy unless appropriate measures are taken to conceal it
Irony in the Funeral Oration
Mark Antony’s funeral oration in Act III, Scene II֖beginning with “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your earsis ironic throughout. Though Antony says that he comes to bury Caesar, not to praise him, he praises Caesar for swelling the treasuries of Rome, sympathizing with the poor, and three times refusing the crown Antony offered him. At the same time, Antony praises Brutus֖one of Caesar’s assassinsas an honourable man even though the tenor of his speech implies otherwise. Near the end of the speech, Antony says, “O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts, / And men have lost their reason.” The word brutish occurs after Antony has mentioned Brutus by name nine times. It seems brutish is a not-so-oblique reference to Brutus.
Questions for Discussion: (1) A soothsayer tells Caesar to beware of the ides of March [March 15]. What is a soothsayer? Does the soothsayer really know the future? Or is he merely a good political analyst (or psychologist) who can see trouble coming? (2) Is Antony motivated more by personal ambition or love for Caesar? (3) Who is the villain in the play? Is there a hero? (4) If you had lived in 44 B.C., Caesar’s last year in power, would you have sided with Caesar or Brutus? (5) If Antony were to give his funeral oration in this technological age, where would he deliver it? (6) Do you believe assassination of a head of state can ever be justified? (7) What was the role and status of women in Caesar’s time? (8) What was everyday life like for an ordinary citizen of Rome? (8) Give examples of 20th Century leaders killed by assassins. Explain why these leaders were targets of assassins. (9) Oratoryespecially Antony’s funeral oration֖plays an important role in this play. How important for a politician in ancient Rome was the ability to speak skillfully in public? Did young Roman nobles receive special training in oratory?
Argumentative-Essay Topic: Was Brutus a villain or a hero? Even though he led the conspiracy against Julius Caesar, Marcus Junius Brutus (84-42 B.C.) enjoyed a reputation in his day among Roman republicans as a noble and fair-minded statesman. However, his opponentsnotably supporters of Caesar֖regarded him as a traitor. First, Brutus sided with Pompey the Great against Caesar when the Roman Civil War started in 49 B.C. After Caesar defeated Pompey at Pharsalus, Greece, in 48 B.C., he pardoned Brutus and appointed him governor of Cisalpine Gaul in 46 B.C. and a praetor of Rome in 44 B.C. But Brutus turned against Caesar a second time, helping to organize and lead the conspiracy that led to Caesars assassination in 44 B.C. Brutus believed the action was necessary to prevent Caesar from becoming dictator-for-life, meaning that all power would reside in Caesar and not in the delegates representing the people. Was Brutus a traitorous villain or selfless hero? In an argumentative essay, take a stand on this question. Use the facts of historyҖas well as interpretations of these facts, including Shakespeares depiction of BrutusҖto support the thesis.
More Essay Topics: (1) Compare and contrast the common people of ancient Rome with the common people of modern America, Britain, or another country. (2) Compare and contrast Cassius and Brutus. (3) Omens and the whims of fate play a role in Julius Caesar. Write an expository (informative) essay that explains the attitude of the typical ancient Roman toward charms, omens, gods, the whims of fate, and the supernatural in general. (4) Write an argumentative essay based on one of the questions for discussion (above).
Famous quotes:
1.
Beware the ides of March.
(1.2.23), Soothsayer
2.
Et tu, Brute? Then fall, Caesar!
(3.1.77), Csar
3.
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Csar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar.
(3.2.79-83), Antony
4.
It was Greek to me.
(1.2.289), Casca
5.
Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
(2.2.34), C榦sar
6.
This was the noblest Roman of them all.
(5.5.75), Antony
7.
Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
(1.2.146-8), Cassius
8.
This was the most unkindest cut of all.
(3.2.193), Antony
9.
Lets carve him as a dish fit for the gods.
(2.1.173), Brutus
10.
Not that I loved CҦsar less, but that I loved Rome more.
(3.2.23), Brutus
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Shakespeare •
Sand County Almanac reading schedule
Aldo Leopold
Preface and Foreword pages xii - ix
Part I
pages 3-19
pages 19-36
pages 37-58
pages 58-70
pages 70- 98
Part II
pages 101-119
pages 119-137
pages 137-158
pages 158-173
Part III
pages 177-188
pages 188-210
pages 211-233
Part IV
pages 237-264
pages 264-279
pages 280-295
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Sand County Almanac •
River Runs Through It movie
Maclean
“In Montana there are three things we are never late for. Church, work, and fishing.” Paul to Neal when he arrives late for their fishing trip.
“Look, I don’t know any card tricks. No, I don’t like your brother. But I like you.” To Jessie after she gives him a ride home.
“How the hell do you help that bastard.” Norman
“By taking him fishing.” Paul
After Norman tells Paul he intends to marry Jessie, Paul takes him to a gambling house with whores. His hostility to “family values” is made more clear and explicit than it is in the book.
“Oh, I’ll never leave Montana, brother.” Paul to Norman, after Norman asks him to come to Chicago with him and Jessie.
Norman says Paul stands above the world, “free from all its laws like a work of art” but he is not so free, and, as Norman says, “life is not a work of art.”
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Maclean •