Teach Julius Caesar

In Elizabethan England, people felt they were at the mercy of fate. They believed that who you were, who you would become, and what would happen to you could all be predicted by studying the planets and stars.

As a result, many people were unsure of what they could change about their lives. Did God and the stars predict everything? Did you really have free will? Could you ever really change your own destiny?

Julius Caesar does not shy away from issues of fate and free will.

Extract from Unlocked Study Guide: Julius Caesar.

Honor was incredibly important in Elizabethan England. An honorable man was considered to be brave, powerful, successful, and loyal. He would come from a family with a 'good' name, and he would have a strong military record.

Honor is an important theme in Julius Caesar - after all, it's for honor's sake that Brutus decides to join in Caesar's assassination.

Extract from Unlocked Study Guide: Julius Caesar.

Shakespeare loves to use the supernatural in his plays as a way of showing that his characters are in trouble, that they have done something evil, or that they are going to die.

In Julius Caesar, the supernatural has a very early role. In Act 1 Scene 2, a Soothsayer appears and warns Caesar to "Beware the Ides of March".

Extract from Unlocked Study Guide: Julius Caesar.

"I am as constant as the northern star, of whose true-fix'd and resting quality there is no fellow in the firmament." (Caesar, Act 3 Scene 1)

Caesar is a military hero, a member of Rome's First Triumvirate, and an Emperor of Rome.

Caesar's greatest flaw is considered to be his ambition and pride. He is also far too easily manipulated by flattery, and in the moments before his death, he shows that he is capable of cruel authority.

Extract from Unlocked Study Guide: Julius Caesar.

"I'd rather be a dog, and bay a the moon, than such a Roman." (Brutus, Act 4 Scene 3)

Brutus is a praetor, a judicial magistrate in Rome. Initially, he is a close friend of Julius Caesar, but as he begins to fear Caesar's potential to become a tyrant, he decides to betray Caesar.

Brutus is idealistic and believes in the greater good of Rome, but he does not realize he is being manipulated by Cassius through flattery, forgery, and other subtle methods.

Extract from Unlocked Study Guide: Julius Caesar.

"For I know / When thou didst hate [Caesar] worst, thou lovest him better / Than ever thou lovedst Cassius." (Cassius, Act 4 Scene 3)

The play's antagonist (and a foil to Brutus), Cassius is a senator of Rome. He is good at reading people and determining their true intentions, and these skills pose a direct threat to Caesar, who would rather have politicians who were too distracted to see his true ambition.

Cassius tricks Brutus into joining the conspiracy, forging several 'anonymous' letters that appeal to Brutus's nobility, honor, and devotion to the Roman Republic.

Extract from Unlocked Study Guide: Julius Caesar.