Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" is not merely a historical play but a timeless exploration of human nature, revealing how ambition, envy, and the desire for power constantly manipulate noble ideals and individuals, a dynamic that remains profoundly relevant in contemporary society.
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how easily manipulated are
you how gullible are you to propaganda
now if you're like most people myself
included you'll say well I'm not easily
manipulated at all I'm certainly not
gullible and I don't listen propaganda
but do you know we all like to think
that we think we're
sophisticated but all of us are
manipulated on a constant basis and very
few really realize it in fact through
all history people have been maneuvered
into feeling a certain way acting a
certain way taking a certain
sight now how would you like to get an
insight into the dark levers of
power how Envy lust for power Revenge
ambition Triumph through all history
over Noble ideas and even noble people
who wish to rule the benefit for the
benefit of others this video you're
going to get a remarkable Insight from a
place you likely do not expect it to
come from and when I say where it's from
don't skip this video do yourself a
favor because you may just learn
something really eye openening this
video is about the play Julia Caesar by
Shakespeare don't skip on if you think
that has no relevance at all Shakespeare
had a gift bordering on the miraculous
of being able to strip away all the
facades of characters and to understand
and put across the innermost motives of
people so that we could see them if we
really listen now I want to tell you how
this video is going to go um and a
couple of things about it first of all
it's specifically designed for people at
high school or college you know you may
have exams coming up on Shakespeare's
Julia Caesar and so I want to address a
few things there and how it's important
to understand the play as a whole but
secondly even if you're not at high
school or college to understand just how
brilliant the plays are of Shakespeare
and not because I personally like them
just how much Insight can be gained
through literature and that actually a
lot of us not Reading literature is the
reason and were so easily
manipulated so having said that let's
dig into the play Julius Caesar the play
Julia Caesar was written by Shakespeare
400 years ago and sometimes we think
well that means it's old news and it's
got no relevance to us today well it
still remained
popular and very very relevant in fact
forget about just studying juliia Caesar
to get a grade in an exam look at juliia
C Caesar understand it and your eyes
will be opened to the world you live in
now and I genuinely mean that you will
see how the levers of power work how
dark ugly and
backbiting a lot of people in the top
echelons of power actually are and how
the noble-minded those who truly want to
help are often swerved into the wrong
lane in order to cause damage and how
many things that are said that sound
lovely are only being used to manipulate
you and me and everybody else because
Julius Caesar the play is not just a
story that's set in Rome around Julius
Caesar and his Chumps it's far far more
than that Shakespeare gets at what is
inside a human and that has never
changed this play is about power
personality and persuasion
we're going to take a look at Julius
Caesar and the four main characters
around him in this play and see how they
interrelate but this is the key
especially if you're studying this for
for high school or college my college
instructor once said to me your grade
doesn't depend on memorizing the right
answers or memorizing the correct
quotes your grade depends on you
understanding what your
reading drawing a conclusion from it for
yourself and being able to support that
conclusion and the more insightful you
are the more impressed the person
marking your exam will
be so we just want to understand what
this play is truly about and the best
way you can get this and even if you're
not at high school or college is to ask
the question how is today like back then
and what was Shakespeare really exposing
which still fits today because that's
what Shakespeare was good at he got it
the kernel of Truth the nub the crooks
the central issue the driving motivation
behind human beings that has not changed
from ancient Egypt to ancient Rome to
the Medieval Age to the present day
right to
2024 what I want to do before we start
is we just have to separate out history
and the place
this is a vital thing to understand so
let's just quickly talk about some
actual history we're going back to the
BC days Julius Caesar as you know was a
real figure he was the first emperor of
the Roman Empire he grew up as part of
one of the noble families he became a
general succeeded so well that he
eventually got the power to become
dictator which would n later be called
Caesar in His
image was he a pure good man and Noble
and Brilliant Roman upright person no of
course he wasn't the truth is that Cesar
was very ambitious Caesar wasn't
particularly Pleasant at times he
perpetrated some awful acts and he was
very arrogant anyone that wants to
actually be the dictator over the entire
world must have a certain amount of
arrogance about
them let's look at casassus casus who
plays a big role in the play a real
Roman Senator but more than that um he
was a general himself for Rome he
performed in very high um positions of
influence within the Roman government
itself he was an enemy of Caesar and
actually fought against him uh along
with the general Pompei but was beaten
by Caesar uh pretty much had a feud and
had it in for him and he was one of the
conspirators that um Chief conspirators
that put Caesar to death and IDs of
March Brutus a real Senator actually
quite well reported on in history as a
as a rule of them but was he perfectly
pure and innocent no of course not no
one is that pure and innocent and with
the amount of conniving backstabbing
killing and infighting that took place
in ancient Rome you can't say any one of
them was going to be all good and then
you have Mark Anthony Mark Anthony a
great figure in Roman history actually
had a relationship with with the famous
Egyptian Queen Cleopatra and came within
a whisker himself of being the next
Emperor after Julius Caesar he too was a
great General an extraordinary
politician who could play people off
against each other and a conniving soand
so so in the whole scheme of things
they're all
multifaceted personalities they're not
purely good or
bad however let's come to the
play Julia Caesar as a
play uses those characters to represent
certain types of people Shakespeare has
to simplify the play because he wants to
get across a message about power he
wants to demonstrate what actually goes
on in you know the the back halls of of
governments and power and how people VI
for positions and he strips bear using
different characters
he strips bare qualities and how they
are used in politics and how people
strive to get power for themselves in
this play especially he wants to focus
on how the noble thing the thing that
should be esteemed the great
ideal is held up and either it's
undermined by those who those who truly
believe it are undermined for those who
want Power
or it's used as a way to convince the
masses to give someone else power and so
in this play we're going to take a look
at the central figure of Julia Caesar
who is not the main figure of the play
friendly enough we're going to take a
look at casassus Brutus Mark Anthony and the
the
plebs as we look at these if you want to
understand this play all the time think
how does this happen today because that
was what Shakespeare is after and when
we understand that we understand an
awful lot about life and you're also in
a great position to make your own
judgments on the play and be able to
back up your thoughts in an exam so the
first person to take a look at in the
play is Julius Caesar himself who as
I've said is not the main character
we'll come to the main character soon
Julius Caesar as we've said in history
was by no means a saint you know he was
ambitious and arrogant and everything
but he is he isn't in the play some of
his quotes you could say demonstrate a
certain arrogance but it's more a self
confidence that he has in the play we
still feel in some respects that Caesar
is hard done by and that we wish he had
actually be been given the crown because
he is very Noble in the play he has a
great stature
and Shakespeare practically turns julus
Caesar into Rome the perfect ideal he
will stand for Rome he makes Rome great
he represents the people he is the
people's favorite there's a quote that
Caesar makes he only has 150 lines in
the whole play and he dies halfway
through which is crazy for a character
who the play is named after um we're
looking at act 3 scene one and this is
something that Caesar says this is
before he's killed when the conspirators
come to stab him and they want him to
change his ways they want him to bring
back someone he exiled called uh
Simba Caesar says I could be well moved
if I were as you if I could pray to move
prayers would move me but I am constant
as the northern star of whose true fixed
and resting quality there is no fellow
in the firmament the skies are painted
with unnumbered Sparks they are all fire
and everyone doth shine but there's but
one in all do hold his place so in the
world is furnished well with men and men
are flesh and blood and apprehensive yet
in the number I do know but one that
unassailable holds on his rank unshaped
of motion and that I am he let me show
it even in this that I was constant
Simba should be banished and constant do
remain to keep him
so this statement sums up Julius
Caesar he is the ideal he stands and has
done everything for Rome and he is
constant he's not a politician he's not
purely trying to twist things for his
own Advantage he knows what is right for
Rome and he will not Bend as the others
around him do they they politic you you
know they chop and change their message
in order to get ahead in power and
because he's this
immovable character even faced with
death he won't change he says other
things about himself such as many uh men
die many deaths but he only dies one
because death has to come to us all so
why why be worried about it you know
here is the epitome of Roman bravery of
everything the Romans the Roman public
esteemed in a
person and
we Shakespeare wants us to see him that
way he is the
ideal the perfect ideal to live up to
the embodiment of the right ideal of
Rome and it's vital to remember that
now to help us not see him as some aloof arrogant
arrogant
god um and totally you know totally
arrogant which would put us off through
the play he's given
weaknesses for instance cassus early on
talks about how he saved Caesar from
drowning while swimming the Tyber River
we also learn that Caesar has epilepsy
because he drops to the floor and Foams
at the mouth when the people keep trying
to make him King we also hear that he's
deaf in one ear um excuse the pun
because he he says to Mark anomy come to
my left because I'm deaf in my right
ear um so Shakespeare places some
weaknesses on Julius Caesar in order to
make him human but he's got a valiant
Spirit a spirit that embodies all that
is good about Rome was that the real caesar
caesar
no um was he viewed as ambitious by the
others yes did people of Shakespeare's
day know that Caesar had ambition yes
they did you had plutar who had been
translated into English it's the history
of the Romans um and you know they knew
that so there's an ambition but we get a
sense of him being justified by
Shakespeare because he is the most
upright amongst them all why would
Shakespeare make this um character like
this probably for two reasons one it
carries a good Central Pole or or or
Motif around which the others will
operate but also because he had to be
careful in his own day of saying
anything against the ruling Powers the Queen
Queen
particularly and so by leaving Caesar as
rightfully someone who should have been
given the crown um and as someone who
was the ideal he's supporting the idea
that the person who is king or queen
they are automatically Noble and
virtuous and shouldn't be messed with
and no one should seek to undermine them
so he recognizes that he has to be
cautious because back then playwrights
could be put in prison or even executed
for what they if if it was deemed plays
were subversive to the Monarch so uh
that's one of the reasons and by the way
although he dies in chapter in in act
three there's something very important
about Julius Caesar the ideal and that
he does come off the Victor in the end
and we'll see that later in this video
so that's Julius Caesar think of him as
the embodiment of Rome of what people
think Rome is meant to be it is great it is
is
Grand you know it's brilliant Julius
Caesar is that he is the North Star
fixed in position while all others move
and sway with
motion although Julia Caesar is the
ideal of Rome itself that representation
of what Rome could be and how great it
is he is not really the story the story
is about the power struggle around him
to remove him for people's various ends
there are four characters in the play
that orbit this idea of Rome and they
are cassus Brutus Mark Anthony and the
plebs the plebs being the common people
who seem to play a bit part role but
very very important we're going to start
by looking at casassus and what
so let's talk about C casassus casassus
was the leader of the conspirators who
would murder Julius Caesar and he was
Julius Caesar's implacable foe you know
an absolute arch nemesis and in history
that's quite true but in the play the
motivations for casassus hating Caesar
are envy and a Greed for power he will
talk about how Julia Caesar is a threat
to Rome how he's going to be a tyrant if
he's King that we need to keep the
Senate now that sounds Noble but in the
play casassus is only using it as a lip
service he's he's saying it because it
sounds good and it justifies why he can
get rid of Julius Caesar as an enemy so
that he can be more powerful you see
Casas is pretty much the most dominant
force in the Senate if it wasn't for
Julia Caesar so his motive for killing
Caesar isn't for the benefit of Rome
it's because he wants to be the most
powerful man in
Rome if you're writing an essay
something you may want to remember and
even do some further reading on is in
this play Shakespeare seems to be first
developing the idea of Envy as a main
quality in a character that will come
out in the later tragedy athow with Yago
Yago is you know the epitome of envy and manipulation
manipulation
and we sort of get the seeds of that
character in casassus in the histories
but just take a look at some of the the
Snippets from the play about casassus
this is cassus talking now in act 1
scene 2 to Brutus um trying to get
Brutus to see that Julius Caesar is a
threat he's too powerful he's going to
be a tyrant why man he do bestride the
narrow world like a Colossus and we
Petty men walk under his huge leg EGS
and Peep about to find ourselves
dishonorable Graves 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 now cassus is very very
persuasive remember this play is about
persuasion as well casassus is not the
great speaker but he is an extremely
effective politician when he's got the
ear of someone he knows how how to sew
seeds of Doubt which is what Yago does
later in the play
a but this little section tells us how casus
casus
feels he is
envious of Julius Caesar because of his
position and reputation Julius Caesar he
says is like a Colossus Colossus was one
of the wonders of the ancient world it
was a giant statue on the Harbor of
Roads an island um and the ships were
supposedly sail between his legs this
statue was so big he's saying Julius
Caesar is a Colossus and we walk under
his legs and Peep about he hates the
fact that he is Noble thinks a lot of
himself but is dwarfed by Caesar's
personality casassus hates that and this
is Envy not
jealousy jealousy is when you want
something that somebody else has Envy is
worse envy that casassus has is when you
want what someone else has and you don't
want them to have it okay so it's not a
case of oh we can both have something
it's not only do I want you not only do
I want what you've got I also want you
to lose what you've got he is a very
nasty character in this play and all of
that Envy is driven towards the
assassination of Julius Caesar
now looking at something more about
Cassius as a character is that he is a great
great
manipulator and he's a shadowy figure who's
who's
conniving Julius Caesar knows this about
casassus in fact Julius Caesar speaks
about cassus to Mark Anthony and this is
what he says we're still we're in act 1
scene two
still yond casassus has a lean and
hungry look he thinks too much such men
are dangerous
but I fear Him not yet if my name were
liable to fear I do not know the man I
should avoid so soon as that spare casus
he reads much he is a great Observer and
he looks quite through the Deeds of
men such men as he be never at heart's
ease whilst they behold a greater than
themselves and therefore are they very
dangerous so that was Julius Caesar
talking to Mark Anthony
he says of casus that he will not be at
ease while there is a person who is
greater than them they are envious and
they will do anything to bring another
person down so that they can be the most
prominent it shows that casassus is full
of ambition which is the quality that
they charge Caesar with and say they
kill Caesar because of ambition what is Shakespeare
