This video provides strategic guidance for students preparing for examinations on Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, emphasizing thorough preparation, understanding character motivations, and analyzing key themes and speeches to excel in their assessments.
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Hello, namaskar, welcome. My name is
Sudhir Sastra Naman and I'm the person
on the left hand side of the screen.
With me is Mr. William Shakespeare and
I'm going to discuss in this very
special video Julius Caesar mission
possible banana how to make it mission
possible not mission impossible. So in
this video I'm going to give you
specific tips on how to prepare, what to
prepare and where to prepare from.
Right? This is going to be a special
video that will you will find extremely
useful in the runup to the pre-board
examinations and obviously in the run-up
to the board exams of 2026.
Okay, let's get started. So the first
thing I want to the first thing that I
want to tell you is that
you should not be like Julius Caesar or
like Brutus. Why am I saying that?
So please do not be like Caesar that I
can go even 80% prepared and I will be
able to manage the paper. No, please
don't do that. Be 100% prepared when you
go to the paper. And this I'm talking
specifically about Julius Caesar but the
same policy applies to all your
subjects. Do not be like Caesar. Do not
be like Brutus. Also don't allow
yourself to be manipulated by the cas
around you. There will be people who
take a risk even with one single mark
that one single mark may can make the
difference between all India rank two
and all India rank one right elementary
so do not allow yourself to be
manipulated like Brutus was manipulated
by Casius right you should always have
soothsayer in your midst you should
always have people like Kalpernia in
your midst who will tell you the right
things right that's what I want to do in
this particular video. The second point
that you need to understand is that act
3, four and five that are there as part
of your syllabus in u as part of your as
part of your syllabus in
class 10 board examinations. Understand
the energy of these three acts is in acts.
acts.
You know what is the energy? When I say
energy, let me just break it down
further. In act three and in act five,
you find death happening. You have the
assassination of Julius Caesar. You have
the deaths of Cas and then the death of
Brutus and some other minor characters
in act five. So act three and act five
are about death. They're about dead
bodies and they are about mourning. The
way Antonyine delivers his speech and
mourns the death of Julius Caesar. The
way people mourn the death of Casas and
later on the death of Brutus. Right? So
there is an element of mourning which is
a very important element as far as
Julius Caesar is concerned or as we move
towards more competency focused
questions in 2026 even in 2027 and 28.
You will find a lot of these kind of
elements also coming to the four and
being asked as questions by the
examiners because they would want to
have at least one googly question with
prepare act four.
Act three or act five it's about death
dead bodies and mourning. Act four is
essentially about the differences that
come between the two main conspirators
Brutus and Casius. Right? Also we get to
know more about Mark Cantonese character
in act four scene one. Right? So that's
why I'm saying act four is a revelation
is a revelation of kind. we get to know
more about the principal characters
surrounded by deaths in the two acts of
act three and act five. So if you write
these kind of charts and put it up in
your on on your your study table you
will have a very clear idea. Okay.
See always go prepared. I can tell you
that in my 35 years of professional
career I've never gone anywhere without
being prepared about what I will say. stage
I will always have five to six points in
my mind that always has to be very
important. So understand the energy
understand what Shakespeare is saying
through each one of those three acts.
Now okay before I go this is precisely
why I have prepared these test papers.
Seven test papers which are going to be
available on studybasudi.com. The first
three are available. The next two, four
and five will be available through
December. Then the la last one which
will be the tough papers which is why
I've classified them as easy, moderate
and tough. So the first three may there
are easy and moderate ones. The tough
ones will come in January and May I you
can just read the answers that's
perfectly all right but at least two
papers I would want you to attend before
you go into the board examinations.
along with literature you have
comprehension and grammar which is a
brilliant test paper history civics and
geography out of this world and biology
which I'm preparing right now and should
be out in the next one week amazing I
don't think you will get a question bank
a comprehensive question bank or
especially explanation points
revision that is my idea you test
yourself but you also revise the entire
chapter so if you do a question bank on
let's say reproductive system the entire
reproductive system will should be like
a revision for you after you have
studied attempt the test paper and then
you see my explanation points for each
question that will be the son pesuhaga
so go to studywsudi.com
register yourself by clicking on get
started then you sign in and then you
can see the different icon subscribe
button free test papers button mobile
phone to just look at the three dots,
three lines click, you will have the
entire dropdown. Very simple website
prepared by an ex-colague of mine and it
is shaped up pretty well. Okay. So the
people who have bought this already,
they say that it's out of this world
already. I'm getting great reactions. In
fact, for the similar video that I done
on Megpet, there are so many positive
reactions that I got that I thought
Julius Caesar Kai. Okay.
And do not forget to buy these books.
I'm saying this in your own best
interest. These two books will ensure an
80 on 80 as far as your English language
paper is concerned.
So please make sure that you get hold of
these two books. Very important. Both of
them available on Amazon. Okay. Now
speech is very important and I do not mean
mean speech
speech
word to word meaning contextual meaning
and what does it tell us about the
characters number one what does it tell
about the theme of that play
for example when Mark Anthony is giving
the speech in act three the theme of
deception the theme of manipulation
The theme of mob psychology, how the mob
is reacting, how the Romans are reacting
to first how Brutus, what Brutus said,
but the Brutus about what Anthony said,
how they are reacting to him. So how the
mob is reacting all those things can
come as questions. So you should have
before you go into the examination all
these prepared key prepare with
keywords. Somebody asked me the other
day, what are keywords? Keywords are
essentially words that tell us something
more about a particular character mainly
adjectives. So if you remember those
adjectives of which are used by
Shakespeare for a particular character,
use it in your answers. That's why if
you read my answers, that's why my test
papers come in so handy because when you
read my answers, you will get an idea
about how to weave in those keywords in
the answer itself. It should not stick
out like a sore thumb. it should be
woven into the answers. So the speeches
are extremely important for your
reference to context questions for your
MCQ questions right for example uh the
speeches you know it is I mean what
happens during the entire thing uh the
assassination it is a turning point in
the play Julius Caesar is not going to
be there in act four and five but he the
name of the play is still Julius Caesar
he still remains the dominant factor as
far as the entire play plot is
concerned. So the entire deception
simber deception
question because sometimes we think
especially students who go reading only
the main part
for example is merchant of Venice
I don't remember the exact year when it
was done I think 2020 if I'm not
mistaken what they did was they gave a
googly question from one of the
involving one of the minor characters.
Okay, nobody expected it because that
particular minor character was a bit of
a joker in the play, right? So, nobody
reference to cont.
So the board is very capable of
surprising you, shocking you and if you
have gone with percentage study,
[clears throat]
you could be in for a nasty surprise. So
don't take that kind of a chance. So
Antony speech of course is very
important, right? You need to contrast
it with Brutus's earlier speech. So
let's assume Anthony speech portion.
You may be asked a question relating it
to contrasting it with Brutus's earlier
speech. So you should be able to know
what happens before, what happens after
that particular speech. Then the entire
way he manipulates the crowd, how the
crowd reacts to him, all those things
you should be fully aware of. So let's
look at actwise questions. Okay. So the
question paper could be a brutus. Okay.
I'm sorry for the last nine days I have
been coughing.
So if if you do not want to be surprised
like brutus. So please take a look. So
let's look at the first one at brute
as a quote
answers because it is the most important
line as far as the play Julius Caesar is
concerned. And what does it mean? Please
look at my exhaustive explanation
Okay?
Please ensure that you listen. It's a
one-time investment. Listen to my
detailed explanation video so that you
are able to understand it word by word,
line by line. Right? Not that I love
Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.
Now, this kind of in a sense
is a justification Brutus gives for
being part of the conspiracy to murder
Caesar. It shows his idealism. It shows
his patriotism, but it also shows that
he misjudged
how the entire crowd could react later.
And he also made a mistake of allowing
Antony to speak despite uh the
whenever you read you think okay if this
comes as a question how will I deal with
it? You have to constantly be your own
examiner and that's what I have given
that's why I've given you seven very
meaty question papers going to give
three given four to come because that
will really help you prepare in a very
exhaustive manner because everything
will get covered in those questions
friends Romans countrymen another very
important line me your ears the entire
Anthony personality how Anthony deals
with the crowd what is Antony's motive
Antony's relationship for Caesar
Antony's relationship with Brutus the
contrast the role of Cas that whether
Casas was justified in telling Brutus
not to allow Antony to speak because he
suspected this guy could not be trusted
right so all those things so each
paragraph may say each passage may say
you could get you know you could get
okay brutal is an honorable man. That
whole thing of being sarcastic, the
whole thing of irony, the element of
irony that even though he's actually
criticizing but he's sugarcoating it by
saying Brutus is an honorable man. [cough]
[cough]
Sorry. [clears throat]
Okay. So you need to So what I'm saying
is whenever you read a passage, think of
the different ways in which you could be
asked a question. Then focus focus.
Okay. Anony's character in act four,
scene one. Very important because
it shows us a different side to Anthony.
Uh you yourself are much condemned to
have an itching palm. The the fight, the
quarrel, the differences between Casius
and Brutus. Very important. Act four
scene three. Thou shalt see me at
Philippi. The role of Caesar's ghost.
What kind of role does it play? It kind
of you know it takes on the role of you
know being a symbol of guilt of fate of
retribution means revenge that Brutus
will have to pay the price for what he
did to Caesar then the supernatural
element each one of these can be asked
as a question right the theme of foreshadowing
foreshadowing
brutus because he's constantly seeing
this ghost of Caesar so Caesar's ghost
is again an extremely important element
which can be asked as a form Mark
question in the reference to context.
Please prepare. Please read my answers.
It will help you. Somebody asked me can
we write whatever you have written. Of
course, if the same question is asked,
even if the same question is not asked,
there is so much of meat in my answers,
you will feel that I am going into the
examination hall well prepared. There is
another advantage with reading my
answers is that they are written with
good vocabulary. So if you use that kind
of good language, it makes a difference
between getting a two out of four and a
four out of four. It makes a difference.
The examiner will feel happy if the
student has used good words, good
language, not flashy language but good
quality words.
So coffee with Shakespeare. Okay. Not
that Shakespeare is no Karan Johar.
Okay. Because there's a lot of blood,
gore, all those kind of things out here
in Shakespearean stories. Act five,
Caesar, thou art revenge even with the
sword that killed thee. Why is this kind
of a line said, right? Then the entire
battlefield of Philippi, this was the
noblest Roman of them all. Why is it
said about the two people who died in uh
act five, especially Brutus, Caesar, now
be still, I kill not thee with half so
good a bill. So what is the mood? You
could be given a passage from act five
and you could be asked about why did
Brutus say this in act five. Contrast
this with the Brutus of act three. So
you should be prepared for these kind of
questions right? So if you go well
prepared that's why I said right at the
beginning act three act four act five energy
energy energy
the theme of honor the theme of fate the
theme of justice and the theme of
tragedy. What is the tragedy? The
tragedy that Caesar was killed. The the
tragedy was that Brutus
wanted himself to be killed right by one
of his friends. He wanted to be killed
because he was overcome that by that
entire feeling of having done something
wrong, guilt even though he tried to
justify it by saying that I did that for
the benefit of Rome, right? Because he
was a true patriot. So you know all
those kind of elements when you give a
forceful pura you know full thali meals
answer though I'm not saying exceed the
word limit but full
the examiner will not have any reason to
cut even a single mark from your from
your whatever answer you have written.
So my last main all I would say is
knowing the story is not enough. You
have to understand the characters. You
have to understand each and every
passage. You have to understand the
themes of Julius Caesar. Understand the
motives. Why Brutus did what he did. Why
Cas did what he did. What why Caesar
behaved in a particular manner. The
character of Kalpernia, the the
relationship between Kalpun and Caesar.
More importantly, the charact
relationship between Brutus and Porsche.
Right? So ensure that you don't give the
examiner even the opportunity to cut
even one half of a mark of half a mark
or 1/4 of a mark. Right? So please
ensure that you go into it fully
prepared or preparation
when you are reading in a particular way
when you read the passages think of all
the possible questions. When you go to
the next paragraph, correlate it with
with the previous paragraph. Bridge.
So that is what you need to focus on. So
again to recap, act three is about
speeches. It's about persuasion. It's
about manipulation. Act four is about
conflict between Casius and Brutus and
the ghost seal. Act five is about death.
It is about guilt right. So please
prepare character-based questions, theme
based questions and answers on crowd
psychology, leadership again very
important and here you will necessarily
talk about Mark Anthony right so also
the minor characters like Lucilius focus
focus
you don't kind of get surprised by any
question that could come you know you're
taken by surprise or what happens in act
five scene the manner in which Casas
decides to get killed. Okay, I hope this
video helps. Thank you very much. Um,
there's going to be more coming up here
on literature. Uh, let that be a
surprise that will come up later in the
month of December and January. Okay,
Tata. Bye-bye. Thank you very much. Namaskar.
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