For Your Consideration


Week One: March 1-7: Page II
Act I Scene ii:
"We sometimes change our minds about people because of what other friends say." –Robert and Cohorts in Australia


Brutus: click to enlarge

"Well Brutus, thou art noble." (ActI, ii, 320)

  • 1. Does Cassius seem surprised by this admission? Is he right? IS Brutus noble? What do we mean by "noble?"

    "Into what dangers would you lead me, Cassius
    That you would have me seek into myself
    For that which is not within me?"
    (Act I, ii, 70)


    Brutus has said he loves Caesar, (I, ii 89: "I love him well.") he seems torn "poor Brutus, with himself at war," (I, ii, 52), Most people who read this play think of Brutus as an idealistic person torn between his love of a friend and his country. How do YOU see him?




  • Cassius says, "Therefore it is meet
    That noble minds keep ever since with their likes;
    For who so firm that cannot be seduced?
    (I, ii 323ff)


  • 2. IDEALISM:

  • Is Cassius right? Does EVERY man have his price?
  • 3. Is idealism such a weak attribute that it has to keep its own company or die?
  • What is Brutus's price?
  • Can any man be persuaded to turn against his friend for a more noble cause, especially if he can be persuaded his friend is a traitor? OR perhaps a criminal? Does this fall into the parent turning in a child to the police for wrong doing?


    • "I will this night
    In several hands in at his windows throw
    As if they came from several citizens
    Writings, all tending to the great opinion
    That Rome holds of his name, wherein obscurely,
    Caesar's ambition shall be glanced at." (I ii 327)


  • 4. Why does Cassius think that letters which are fake will have an impact on an honorable man?

  • 5. Shakespeare wrote comedies, histories, tragedies, and romances. Why would he find Roman history an expecially fruitful source form some of the tragedies and histories? (In other words, why Rome instead of Greece?

  • 6. Was Shakespeare's use of the omens allegorical? Is it possible that the use of omens was a way to acknowledge that pitfalls prevailed without getting bogged down in details? (John)


    Pompey's Porch (Click to enlarge)
    With permission of Suzanne Cross

    Questions ~ Act I Scene i

    Questions ~ Act I Scene ii

    Questions ~ Act II Scene i

    Questions ~ Act II Scenes ii, iii, iv

    Questions ~ Act III Scene i, ii, iii

    Questions ~ Act IV Scenes i, ii, iii

    Questions ~ Act V Scenes i, ii, iii, iv, v