6.8 Julius Caesar, Act 3 Scene 2: I come to bury Caesar LITERACY
MANAGING MYSELF
Learning Intentions In this section you will … ✓ Explore the themes of power, justice and injustice in Julius Caesar. ✓ Experience how lighting can be used to create a dramatic mood.
BEING CREATIVE MANAGING INFORMATION AND THINKING Before Reading
In this extract you will read a speech by Antony (also known as Mark Antony), an ally of the great Roman leader Julius Caesar. Actors who have played Antony often use their tone of voice when speaking certain lines to suggest the words actually mean their opposite. We do this all the time when we use sarcasm. Working in pairs, read the following lines to each other in a tone of voice that suggests the opposite of what the words actually mean: n I really like you. n Oh yeah, Liverpool are really the best team in the league this year. n My parents would love if we minded your dog when you go on holidays.
WORKING WITH OTHERS NUMERACY STAYING WELL 36 Reading
Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar is about power: who should have power, how they should use it, and how much power is too much power. As the play begins it becomes clear that many who surround Caesar (a Roman leader) feel he has recently been gaining too much power. Former allies, led by Brutus and Cassius, plan to stop his rise to power, eventually murdering him in public. In the scene you are going to read and watch, Antony, a close friend of Caesar’s who was not involved in his assassination, addresses a crowd of Roman citizens after the funeral.
