Think about the 2012 RSC version we watched in class as you read the play, and think about whether or not it helps you or hinders you as you try to get inside Shakespeare's language.
Answer TWO of the following:
Q1: As always, I like to know whether the film helped you see or understand some aspect of the play you wouldn't have otherwise? How did the performance underline some key interpretation, delivery, or emotion? OR, you could answer the question by considering how the film confused you about one scene in a way that the play itself clarified.
Q2: Caesar hardly appears in Act 1 at all, even though the play is named after him. Why do you think Shakespeare keeps him off stage, only allowing us to 'see' him through others' eyes? Do we feel these are reliable accounts of his motives and character?
Q3: In Act 1, Scene 2, Cassius makes an impassioned speech about Ceasar's mortality, which he contrasts with the godhood which has now been bestowed upon him. What does he want to impress upon Brutus here, especially when he says, "He had a fever when he was in Spain,/And when the fit was on him, I did mark/How he did shake"?
Q4: Much of Act 1 is very stratified between the nobles, who speak verse, and the commoners, who speak prose. And yet Casca speaks entirely in prose to his equals, Cassius and Brutus. Why is this? Could this explain the unorthodox scene in the bathroom that we saw on Monday?
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