Lesson video

Hello and welcome to the OAK National Academy for English.

My name is Mr.James and we're going to continue our series of lessons on William Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar".

So in today's lesson, we are going to meet Calpurnia, Caesar's wife.

We're going to learn about the word influence.

We're going to do a quick quiz.

We're going to read the text and then we're going to answer some questions on the text that we have read.

But before we get going, there are a few things that you will need, number one, you need a pen, number two, you need some paper and number three, as always, you will need your brain.

So if you're missing any of those things, pause the video now go and get them and unpause when you return.

Okay, welcome back.

Now you've got your pen, and your paper, I'd like you to write today's title on your paper.

So pause the video, write the title and come back to me when you are done.

Okay, welcome back.

Now let's have a look at Caesar's wife Calpurnia.

So here's some information about Calpurnia.

Firstly, she is Caesar's wife.

Secondly, she is superstitious.

And thirdly, this word superstitious means if you believe in things that are not real, such as magic, or ghosts, okay? So Caesar's wife, and she's superstitious, and we'll use that information later in the lesson.

Now we're going to have a look at a word influence.

Okay, we're going to have a look at this word onscreen influence.

So here's a couple of sentences that use the word influence.

It says Calpurnia influences Caesar.

And another sentence says Caesar is influenced by Calpurnia.

Now this word influence means the following, if you influence someone, you persuade them to agree with you, or you change the way that they behave.

So influencing is about changing someone's mind or changing their behaviour in a way usually that you want them to either think, or behave.

So let's have a look at some sentences that use the word influence correctly.

Now, the first sentence says, it was the manager's influence that convinced the player to move clubs.

So in this case, a football club, I tried to buy a player from a different team.

And the manager has spoken to the club and persuaded him or influenced him to make the decision to join.

Here's another sentence it says most people are influenced by their friends.

And this is true, especially when you're young.

If your friends want you to do something, or if your friends like something you're often influenced by them to either like that thing or do that thing.

Number three, if you want people to agree with you, you must be able to influence them.

So if you want to change people's minds on something, or if you want them to get them to agree with your point of view or your idea, you must be able to influence them.

Okay, so what I would like you to do now is pause the video and complete this task.

It says, write your own sentence about a friend or family member that uses the word influence.

Pause the video, have a go, and come back to me when you are done.

Okay, welcome back, how did you do? I'm sure you wrote some great sentences.

But let's have a look at the kind of thing you might have written.

Here, this says, I often have to influence my brother when we are deciding which films to watch because he has terrible taste! So in this case, I have to influence my brother to watch something better than what he would choose by himself because he really does have quite terrible taste in films. So we're now going to do a quick quiz on the things we have learned so far.

So what is Julius Caesar's wife called? Why you need to say her name in your head? I'm going to give you about five seconds.

So say the name of Julius Caesar's wife in your head now.

Can you remember? It is Calpurnia.

So it's an unusual name, not one we hear much these days, but Caesar's wife is called Calpurnia.

I'm sure you did really well.

So the next question says Calpurnia is ambitious, question mark.

True or false? Is Calpurnia ambitious? Five seconds to make your choice.

And the correct answer is it's false.

Calpurnia is not ambitious.

But what is Calpurnia? Is she superstitious, true or false again, five seconds to make your decision.

And the correct answer is, of course, it is true.

We learned it just a few minutes ago Calpurnia is superstitious.

What does superstitious mean though? We've got the sentence here, I want you to fill in the missing gaps in your head.

So I'm just going to give you a few seconds in your head, read the sentence and say the words that should go in the gaps to yourself in your head off you go.

Okay, let's have a look at how you did when you said those words to yourself in your head.

Hopefully you said if you are superstitious, you believe in things that are not real, such as magic or ghosts.

And I'm sure most of you did really well and got that one correct.

Next up, we're going to revisit the word influence and we're going to look at what it means.

So what does the word influence mean? Does it mean persuade someone to agree with you? Or does it mean persuade someone to change their behaviour? Five seconds, off you go? And it means both! A little bit of a trick question there.

Hopefully, you looked at it and you thought hang on a minute.

What's Mr. James doing here? They're both correct.

And they were, so a bit of a trick question for me there.

But influencing is about both changing people's minds and changing people's behaviour.

Or it could be about one or the other.

So we've run through the material we need to cover at the beginning of the lesson, and we're now going to have a look at the play.

So let's have a look at what happens in today's extract.

Well, first of all, Caesar wakes up in the night, but he's due to go to the Senate.

Now Calpurnia asks him not to go to the Senate because she's been having some bad dreams that she thinks are bad omens.

Number three, eventually Caesar agrees.

Calpurnia influences him or persuades him not to go to the Senate.

But then someone called Decius turns up and we've met Decius very briefly in one of the previous scenes, and tell Caesar he should in fact go.

And Caesar then changes his mind and says, all right, then I will go.

So he starts off by thinking he will, then he is influenced by Calpurnia and says he won't, and then he's influenced by Decius and says he will.

So Caesar is doing a lot of changing his mind in this scene.

Now of course, we know why Decius wants him to go to the Senate because Decius is one of the conspirators.

Yes, that's exactly right.

He's one of the conspirators and he wants Caesar to go to the Senate because that's where they're going to murder him today.

So Decius is really keen to influence Caesar to go to the Senate.

Anyway, let's crack on with the play itself.

So we begin as we usually do with some stage directions in italics at the top of the screen and it says thunder, lightning.

Caesar enters in his nightgown.

So there's thunder and lightning is kind of really setting the scene and given us quite a dark atmosphere.

Then Caesar comes in and says neither the sky nor the earth have been quiet tonight.

Calpurnia cried out three times in her sleep, "help someone they're murdering Caesar!" Who's there? So she's woken up because Calpurnia has been having bad dreams and as a terrible storm going up.

At which point Calpurnia enters and she says, what are you doing Caesar? Are you planning to go out? You're not leaving the house today, okay.

So she obviously doesn't want Caesar to go out and we're going to find out why in a minute, okay.

So Caesar says, I will go out, he says I'll do what I want, I'm Caesar.

To which Calpurnia replies Caesar I have never believed in omens, but now they frighten me.

Now, omens are a sign of what will happen in the future.

And she said that omens frighten her so obviously thinks there's some bad omens but why? Why does she think that some bad omens? Well, let's continue reading.

A servant told me the night-watchmen that someone who is like a guard.

The night-watchmen saw horrid sights too, but different ones from what we heard and saw.

So Calpurnia is talking about the ones that she heard in her dream.

So the night-watchmen saw a lioness that gave birth in the streets, and graves cracked open and thrust out their dead.

The noise of battle filled the air, and horses neighed and dying men groaned and ghosts shrieked and squealed in the streets, oh Caesar! These things are beyond anything we've seen before.

So calpurnius had bad dreams herself about something happening to Caesar.

And she's also spoke to one of the gods who worked for them who said I've been having terrible visions, I've seen terrible things.

And Calpurnia takes this as an omen or a sign that Caesar shouldn't go out today.

So what does this tell us about Calpurnia? We could say she is watched beginning with S.

She is a superstitious yeah, I'm sure that's what you were thinking she is superstitious because she's seen these three, she's had these dreams, she spoke to someone who has had these visions, and she's interpreted them as a sign saying Caesar should not go out.

Caesar says cowards die many times before their deaths.

The brave experienced death only once.

Of all the strange things I've ever heard, it seems most strange to me that men fear death, given that death, which can't be avoided will come whenever it wants.

So Caesar was saying here.

No, I'm not going to be a coward.

I am going to go out and he as a kind of metaphor here, then cowards die many times before their death.

Now, of course, they don't really die many times before their death.

But what he means is that if you're a coward, if you're weak, and if you're scared throughout your life and you don't face down danger or you are too scared of the world, you kind of die inside a little bit every time you give in to your fear.

So he's saying cowards die many times before their death, and I can't give into fear.

I can't let some dreams or some visions that people are saying they've seen or saying they've had to prevent me from going out because that would make me a coward.

So Calpurnia listens to this.

And she still wants Caesar to stay at home.

So she's trying to influence Caesar, not to go out.

So she says, alas, my lord, your confidence is getting the better of your wisdom.

And basically she straight up calling him arrogant.

Yeah, she said, your confidence is getting bad your wisdom.

Your arrogance is getting in the way of your judgement.

Then she says don't go out today say that it's my fear that keeps you inside and not your own.

So now she's trying to give him an excuse to stay.

And she said, look, people won't think you're a coward.

You can say, oh, it's my fear that I'm scared something bad's going to happen to you.

So that's the reason you've not going out.

It's not because you're scared it's just because you're worried about my feelings.

So she's giving him an excuse to be able to stay in.

And she continues, she says, we'll send Mark Antony to the Senate House, and he'll say that you're sick today.

Then she kneels.

We get a stage direction, the middle of her speech, she kneels and she kneels because she's imploring him, she's begging him.

She says, let me on my knees when you over to this plan.

So she's begging him to stay.

At this point she says all right, Mark Antony will say I'm not well, and then to please you, I'll stay home.

So now she's given him an excuse.

You're not well, it's because of my fear.

Caesar says, okay then.

So maybe Caesar is a little bit scared.

Despite saying that cowards die many times before their deaths, he's now giving in to the fear.

Now he's been given an excuse by his wife.

So at this point, Decius enters and remember, Decius is one of the conspirators and he definitely wants Caesar to go to the Senate because this is where they're planning to assassinate him.

So Decius has comes in and he says hail Caesar! That's he's just essentially kind of praising him Hail Caesar, good morning worthy Caesar so you can see he's really big and Caesar up here.

I've come to take you to the Senate House today.

Caesar says you've come up a good time so you can convey my greetings to the senators and tell them I won't come today.

So I see that as is good you turned up because actually I'm not going to go and you can give them my greetings and tell them that I'm not coming.

So Decius surprise mighty Caesar.

Tell me why now Decius is probably thinking oh, no, God I promised the other conspiracy, I'm going to get Caesar and get into the Senate House.

So Decius is now going to try influence Caesar to go to the Senate.

But Caesar says, the reason is because Calpurnia my wife is keeping me at home.

So again, he's able to use the excuse of his wife.

Last night she dreamed she saw a statue of me with 100 holes in it, like a fountain with pure blood flowing from it, and many happy Romans came smiling and washed their hands in it.

She takes these signs for warnings and predictions of terrible evils to come.

And on her knees, she begged me to stay home today.

So Caesar blames it on Calpurnia he said it's because of these terrible dreams that she's had that I'm not going.

So what's Decius going to do? Because he's part of the conspiracy and he wants Caesar there.

So Decius replies, this dream has been interpreted all wrong.

He said no Calpurnia has got it wrong.

It was a good unlucky vision.

So he said this dream of blood and people washing their hands in Caesar, but it was actually good.

He says your statue spouting blood through many holes in which many smiling Romans bathed means your provide great work with sustaining blood.

And that great men will strive to get some token of approval from your holy blood.

This is what Calpurnia's dream means.

If you hide, people will whisper Caesar is afraid.

Well, this is interesting, isn't it? So Decius instead of panicking, he's he's remained calm.

So I know, I'll tell Caesar a different story about what Calpurnia's dream could mean I'll give him an alternative interpretation that is positive, and see if I can influence Caesar to go to the Senate that way.

And he says, oh no, it's about your blood sustaining Rome.

And if so, I sustaining it means offering goodness if you like offering health to Rome.

And then he ends by saying, off people if you don't go people will start rumours about you saying oh, you're scared to go out because Calpurnia had a bad dream.

So he questions Caesar's bravery.

And this, these two things together, have quite an influence on Caesar.

Let's see what he says.

He says you've offered an excellent interpretation.

How foolish your fears seem now Calpurnia I'm ashamed to say that I yielded to them, give me my robe, because I'm going.

So Caesar first wanted to go, then was influenced by Calpurnia to stay then was influenced by Decius to go again.

So Caesar here is looking like he's very easy to influence.

And we talked about weak leaders earlier in the lessons and Caesar has been influenced by everyone, but really seems incapable of making his own decision.

Again, seems like quite a weak leader.

So we've looked at the extracts and now we can have a look at some questions and quotations.

So the first one involves this quotation here, and it's from Calpurnia.

She says, a servant told me the night-watchmen saw horrid sights.

The noise of battle filled the air dying men groaned and ghosts shrieked and squealed in the streets.

And the question says, why does Calpurnia not want Caesar to go to the Senate? Try to use the word superstitious and omen in your answer.

And a bonus, if you can use the word, omen.

So I want you to have a go at this answer.

Pause the video while you do.

And when you're done, come back to me and we'll go through the kind of thing you might have written.

Okay, you're welcome back and let's have a look at the kind of thing you might have written for your answer.

So a good answer might read something like this.

Calpurnia doesn't not want Caesar to go to the Senate because she is superstitious, and she thinks the strange dreams and visions are signs that something bad will happen.

And if you've got that you've done really well, and you've got that word superstitious in there.

Now a great answer might be something like this.

Calpurnia does not want Caesar to go to the Senate because she is superstitious, and thinks this strange dreams and visions of battle dying men and ghosts are bad omens, signalling that something terrible will occur.

And this is better because we've got a quotation in them we've built in to our sentence, and you can see that battle dying men and goats.

We've embedded that quotation into the sentence.

And then we've talked about the word omens as well.

And we said, that quotation, "the battle of the giant, "the dying men and ghosts" are bad omens, or at least Calpurnia thinks they are bad omens.

So is there anything in either of those answers that you want to add to yours to improve your answer? Pause video now, and come back when you're done, and we'll continue with the lesson.

Okay, welcome back.

So let's have a look at the next question.

So this question says, at the beginning of this scene, Caesar is certain, he will go to the Senate.

Then Calpurnia changes his mind.

Then Decius changes it back.

What kind of leader to see the scene like in this scene? And he says try to use the word influence in your answer.

Now, if you look on the right, there is a little column and it says other vocab.

And this is other vocab that you might want to use in your answer to help you so words like coward, weak or excuse you might find those words helpful when you're writing your answer.

Now, if you look at the top, we've got four quotations here.

We've got two from Caesar one from Pat Calpurnia, and one from Decius.

And again, these are quotations that might help you when you are writing your answer to the question.

Now what I'm going to do is I'm just going to bring these quotations upon another slide, and we're going to go over a few things you might say about them real quick.

Okay, so firstly, number one, Caesar says cowards die many times before their deaths.

Now, maybe you would say you will use this quotation to say that Caesar begins the scene by insisting that he will go to the Senate, and he even says cowards die many times before their death to imply that not going to the Senate would be cowardly.

But then Calpurnia manages to influence him and she says, say that it's my fear that keeps you inside and not your own.

So Caesar changes his mind when he's given an excuse.

And that actually makes him seem like a coward, doesn't it? So he's always he talks about how not going when would make can seem like a coward.

Then when he's given an excuse not to go, he thinks, all right then, I won't go.

So this makes him seem like a double coward because he says a coward, even not going as even more cowardly to only not go when you've been given an excuse, right? So he really looks like a coward at this point.

Then Decius comes along, and he says, if you hide, people will whisper Caesar is afraid.

So he changes again, he's influenced again, this time by Decius.

And the thing that changes his mind is he's concerned what other people think about it.

And again, this seems cowardly.

If you're really, really concerned about what other people think about you, to the extent that you're completely change your behaviour.

That's the kind of cowardly thing to do is suggest that perhaps you're not that you're not confident in yourself.

So it's changed and he's changed again.

And then fourthly, finally he says, I'm ashamed that I yielded to your fears and is talking to Calpurnia when he says that it's Caesar who says I'm ashamed, I yield it to your fears.

And he seems to realise how cowardly he has behaved, because he says he's ashamed that he yielded to the fears.

But he did yield, didn't he? And then he changed his mind again, but only because he was afraid that other people would whisper about him.

So there's a few things that you might want to say in your answer to this question.

Now, I'm just going to put the question and the quotations back on the screen, so you know what you're doing.

It says at the beginning of this scene, Caesar is certain he will go to the Senate, then Calpurnia changes his mind, then Decius changes it back.

What kind of leader to Caesar seemed like in this scene, try to use the word influence in your answer, and then some other vocab of coward, weak and excuse.

That might take you a few minutes to write this answer.

But pause the video, write your answer and come back when you are done, off you go.

Okay, so let's have a look at the kind of thing you might have written for your answer.

It says on the screen, in this scene, Caesar seems like a weak leader because he is easily influenced by both Calpurnia and Decius.

He begins by insisting that he will go to the Senate and say that only a coward would not go because of some bad dreams. However, Calpurnia tells him to say that it's my fear that keeps you inside and not your own.

When Caesar has an excuse not to go, he quickly changes his mind, which suggests he is actually a coward.

When Decius arrives, he changes Caesars mind again, by telling Caesar if you hide, people will whisper Caesar is afraid.

Again, this suggests Caesar is a coward, because he is worried about what people think.

Even Caesar himself seems to realise this.

When he says to Calpurnia, I'm ashamed that I yielded to your fears.

Well, how was your answer? Did it look anything like the one I've just read to you now? If it did, great! If not, perhaps there's some things in here that you would like to use to improve your answer.

If that's the case, pause the video now, improve your answer, and come back when you are done.

Okay, guys, that's the end of today's lesson, you've done really well and you've done some great work.

There's just one thing to these remind you off.

And that one thing as I'm sure you know, is to complete the end of lesson quiz.

So click the button down below complete the quiz so you can see everything you've learned in today's lesson.

Guys, you've worked really hard as always, I'm really privileged to be able to teach you Julius Caesar hero.

And I look forward to seeing you for next lesson.

Well done, see you soon.