Thursday, February 24, 2011

Julius Caesar: Solo/Duet Performance Assessment

Julius Caesar - Act one, Scene 1, line 33~ 76.

1. State the context of the passage (This is only 1-2 sentences).


(Rome, a street) Commoners try to celebrate Caesar’s victory, but Marullus and Flavius stop them and scold them for not doing their work on workday.


2.Explain the meaning and the significance of the passage (This is a well- developed paragraph).


Meaning: Simply, this paragraph and scene is saying that, Flavius and Marullus hate Caesar and having some struggles with plebians. However, if we understand this paragraph deeply, this paragraph means that, if Caesar become a king, which can emphasize as ‘Dictator’ whole Rome will going to in panic. As a result, Marullus and Flavius try to stop Caesar’s dictatorship.


Significance: The paragraph, which Kevin and I choose was very significant, because it shows the great foreshadowing that, they will going to stop Caesar to become a king. Therefore they said ‘These growing feathers plucked from Caesar’s wing / Will make him fly an ordinary pitch’ and this sentence means that, they going to kill or lowering down Caesar to not become a king of Rome. Surprisingly, now Caesar is dead by conspirators, so Shakespeare shows this scene for predict or show what will going to happen. As a result, we can say that, this chapter foreshadows whole stories that will going to happen in next chapters.



Paragraphs:



MARULLUS

Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home?
What tributaries follow him to Rome,
To grace in captive bonds his chariot-wheels?
You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!
O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome,
Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft
Have you climb'd up to walls and battlements,
To towers and windows, yea, to chimney-tops,
Your infants in your arms, and there have sat
The livelong day, with patient expectation,
To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome:
And when you saw his chariot but appear,
Have you not made an universal shout,
That Tiber trembled underneath her banks,
To hear the replication of your sounds
Made in her concave shores?
And do you now put on your best attire?
And do you now cull out a holiday?
And do you now strew flowers in his way
That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood? Be gone!
Run to your houses, fall upon your knees,
Pray to the gods to intermit the plague
That needs must light on this ingratitude.

FLAVIUS

Go, go, good countrymen, and, for this fault,
Assemble all the poor men of your sort;
Draw them to Tiber banks, and weep your tears
Into the channel, till the lowest stream
Do kiss the most exalted shores of all.

(Exeunt all the Commoners)


See where their basest metal be not moved;
They vanish tongue-tied in their guiltiness.
Go you down that way towards the Capitol;
This way will I
disrobe the images,
If you do find them deck'd with ceremonies.

MARULLUS

May we do so?
You know it is the feast of Lupercal.


FLAVIUS

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 pluck'd 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.

Exeunt


Partner: Kevin Kang

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