Caesar Quiz #1 - English I

On March 14, 2025

Comedy

Originally, entertainment concluding joyfully.

Today, references facetious literature, especially theatrical ones.

(Almost always ends with wedding)

Tragedy

Originally, a drama that told a story of the fall of someone highly.

Now, could be the downfall of a good character; including stories with sad endings

(Main character dies)

Tragic hero

Often the main character in a tragedy (dies)

Tragic flaw

of a tragic hero; weakness in character leading to unfortunate choices (personality/psychological based)

Foil

A character who contrasts with a main character in order to highlight strengths and weaknesses

(Is usually the same gender, class, age, etc. as the comparison)

(Who character could have been)

Comic relief

A “break” from the action; characters to relieve seriousness exemplify this

Monologue

A long speech made by a sole character; with other characters on stage

Soliloquy

A speech delivered by a character alone on stage; in order to reveal thoughts/feelings; true feeling

(Only heard by audience)

Aside

Statement made by a character, not supposed to be heard by audience or the other characters

Blank verse

Unrhymed iambic pentameter (Shakespeare writes in this)

Exposition

The introduction; Act I (Introduction to characters, setting)

Rising action

The plot thickening; Act II

Stage directions

(in italics)

Notes provided by the author of the play to describe how to portray the play

Theme

central idea within a literary work

Tone

emotional attitude toward the reader or toward the subject

Iamb

u / (unstressed, stressed)

Trochee

/ u (stressed, unstressed)

Trimeter

3

Tetrameter

4

Pentameter

5

Antony

• #1 glazer of Caesar

• Always will do anything for Caesar

• Presents ‘tiara’ three times to Caesar

• Is asked to whip Calpurnia

Anchises

• Father of Aeneas

• Older man, carried out of the Trojan war by Aeneas

• LIKE CAESAR

Brutus

• Doesn’t think highly of himself

• Not a party person

• If Cassius can convince him to join conspiracy, the citizens may think of Caesar hypothetical killing as more stable and honorable (due to people liking Brutus [honorable])

• Fears of the people’s swaying opinions (on Caesar)

Caesar

• Not “afraid” of any man (Would be Cassius if he had [Cassius is too educated, unlike the fat men of Caesar]

Cinna

• Is tasked by Cassius to deliver some letters to Brutus

• Is less of high status than many others

• Roman senator

Casca

• Speaks almost always in prose, not in verse

• Senator

Cassius

• Educated, reads, unlike many others

• Jokes that they allowed Caesar to be a tyrant

• Fabricated letters to hint at Brutus joining conspiracy (from “citizens”)

• Says he will be a mirror/reflection for Brutus (self-esteem)

Cicero

• Much higher in apparent status, than Casca for example

• Won’t go around doing Cassius’s errands

• Speaks Greek (after Caesar passes out)

Colossus

• Mirrors Caesar’s statue due to Caesar’s statue being so big and all of the miniscule onlookers

• Like a Colossus

Flavius

• Likely imprisoned by Caesar (“vandalism”) (Put to silence)

• Removes things from Caesar’s statue

Marullus

• Likely imprisoned by Caesar (“vandalism”) (Put to silence)

• Removes things from Caesar’s statue

Lupercal

Festival in which whipping of single/ women who are wanted to have kids, are whipped with pig’s blood by men in the streets

Aeneas

• Our “great ancestor”

• Carries Anchises (his father) to safety in the war

• LIKE CASSIUS

Calpurnia

• Is apparently infertile (just did not have a male heir)

• Antony whips her at Lupercal

Soothsayer

• Tells Caesar to “Beware the Ides of March”

• Caesar calls him a “dreamer”

Ides of March

March 15th

Passage 1:

It is no matter. Let no images

Be hung with Caesar’s trophies. I’ll about

And drive away the vulgar from the streets;

So do you too, where you perceive them thick.

These growing feathers plucked from Caesar’s wing

Will make him fly an ordinary pitch

Who else would soar above the view of men

And keep us all in servile fearfulness

Speaker: Flavius

Literary device examples:

• Metaphor (Who else would soar above the view of men)

• What crime is being suggested?

Passage 2:

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 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.

Speaker: Cassius

Literary device examples:

• Simile (like a Colossus)

• Allusion (like a Colossus)

• True or false: Cassius believes fate is destined

  • False (men at some time are masters of their fates… the fault, is not in our stars)

Passage 3:

I do not know the man I should avoid

So soon as that spare Cassius. He reads much,

He is a great observer, and he looks

Quite through the deeds of men. He loves no plays,

As thou dost, Antony; he hears no music….

Such men as he be never at heart’s ease

Whiles they behold a greater than themselves,

And therefore they are very dangerous.

Speaker: Caesar

Literary device examples:

• Foreshadowing (So soon as that spare Cassius [talking about Cassius while he literally is the one attempting to kill him])

Note:

Caesar wants fat men

Can party, plumpness signifies being well off, they value entertainment over knowledge

Passage 4:

It was mere foolery; I did not mark it. I saw Mark Antony offer him a crown (yet ‘twas not a crown neither, ‘twas one of these coronets), and, as I told you he put it by once; but for all that to my thinking, he would fain have had it. Then he offered it to him again; then he put it by again; but to my thinking, he was very loath to lay his fingers off it. And then he offered it the third time. He put it the third time by, and still as he refused it the rabblement hooted and clapped their chopped hands and threw up their sweaty nightcaps and uttered such a deal of stinking breath because Caesar refused the crown that it had almost choked Caesar, for he swooned and fell down at it.

Speaker: Casca (prose!)

Literary device examples:

• Casca shows instability (long yapping message, lack of intelligence [possibly])

• How many times did Caesar refuse

  • 3 times

Passage 5:

I have seen tempests when the scolding winds

Have rived the knotty oaks, and I have seen

Th’ ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam

To be exalted with the threat’ning clouds;

But never till tonight, never till now,

Did I go through a tempest dropping fire.

Either there is a civil strife in heaven,

Or else the world, too saucy with the gods,

Incenses them to send destruction

Speaker: Casca (in verse, not playing dumb, conforming)

Literary device examples:

• Omen: storm - means something bad is to come

Omens passage:

A common slave (you know him well by sight) Transformed with fear, who swore they saw (10) Held up his left hand, which did flame and burn Men all in fire walk up and down the streets. Like twenty torches joined; and yet his hand, And yesterday the bird of night did sit Not sensible of fire, remained unscorched. Besides (I ha’ not since put up my sword) (5) Hooting and shrieking. Against the Capitol I met a lion Who glazed upon me and went surly by Without annoying me. And there were drawn Upon a heap a hundred ghastly women,

The 4 omens Casca sees

• A slave held up his left hand, which was on fire, though did not burn

• A lion who did not annoy him

• Around a hundred pale women who said they saw all men in fire walk up and down the streets

• A bird of night (owl) sat at noonday in the marketplace, hooting and shrieking

The 3 locations of the letters to be given to Brutus

• Brutus’s “work” chair

• In/at his window

• Old Brutus’s statue

2 anecdotes from Cassius

Cassius and Caesar race at the river - Caesar challenges him to a race, though, grows weak in the midst of it and cries for help. Cassius had to save him. Made to make it seem like Caesar is physically weak,

Caesar’s fever - Caesar was sick in Spain, and trembled and cried out like a sick girl. Mocks Caesar’s apparent strength, and portrays him as unfit to rule