ENGL 215 Lecture 4: Engl 215 Feb 16th

• School: McGill University
• Department: English
• Course: ENGL 215
• Professor: Fiona Ritchie

Document Summary

Julius caesar: one of shakespeare"s roman plays, set in rome, you don"t need to know roman history to understand these plays, as was the case for many of the viewers at the time. In rome at the beginning, there were checks on how much power a person could have. He accuses the people of being simple minded and are opiated by the bread and circus act. It describes the roman populous not caring about the way they are ruled: at the end of the roman republic, the people only want aversion and appeasement and they are no longer concerned with protecting civic freedoms. He doesn"t take part if frivolity thinks with reason and not appetite. Characterization of the plebeians: plebs being taken in by distraction, politics giving way to entertainment, caesar presents himself in a false light offering of the crown" scene appears to be a performance. Caesar pretends to be resistant to ruling the republic when in public.