Lesson video

Hello and welcome to the Oak National Academy for English.

My name is Mr. James, and today we're continuing with our series of lessons on William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.

But before we get on with today's lesson, let's have a look at what we're going to learn.

Well, first of all, we're going to read the text.

Secondly, we're going to think about persuasion again.

Thirdly, we're going to look at Brutus's reasons, the reasons he gives for assassinating Caesar.

Number four, we're going to answer some questions, on the text and number five, you're going to do your end of the lesson quiz.

So in this lesson, you will need just in case you haven't got them a pen, some paper and your brain.

If you're missing any of those things, pause the video now, go and get them, so you can start today's lesson.

Off you go.

Okay.

Welcome back.

So now you have your equipment, the first thing I would like you to do is write down today's title.

It's on the screen now.

So use your pen and write it on your paper.

When you're done, come back and we will get on with the lesson.

Now we're going to do things slightly different from the usual in today's lesson.

And we're going to begin with the play itself.

Now you already studied this extract of the play last lesson so you do know what happens.

However, before we begin, we will have a quick recap of the events that happen in this scene.

So what I would like you to do is read through each of these sentences and pause the video and write down on your sheet, each sentence with the missing word filled in ,off you go.

Okay, welcome back.

Let's have a look at the correct answers.

Hopefully you've written Brutus speaks to the citizens of Rome.

He explains his actions to them, the reasons he killed, or assassinated Julius Caesar.

Three, he says Caesar needed to die because he was going to become a tyrant or it was in the best interest of Rome.

Four, he uses persuasive language in order to persuade the citizens of Rome, that what he did was correct.

And number five, ultimately the citizens give support to Brutus.

So hopefully you got all those things, right? If not, don't worry about it.

You can use what I've written here to update your answers.

So, let's move on and look at the extract in the original Shakespearean language.

And we begin with Brutus addressing the citizens of Rome.

Remember he and the other conspirators have just assassinated Caesar and he makes his way out of the Senate and into a pulpit.

And it's from the pulpit that he's going to address the citizens.

And he's going to try and persuade them that the actions, the conspirators took by assassinating Caesar was the right thing to do and in the best interest of Rome.

So he begins by saying Romans, countrymen and lovers.

He's trying to flatter the citizens here.

He's calling them Romans and countrymen to say, that we're all the same here, we're all as one, we're all countrymen and he's calling them lovers to be nice and to flatter them.

He continues, hear me for my cause and be silent that you may hear.

So he tries to be very nice there at the beginning, by calling them lovers and Romans and countrymen, but then he kind of tells them to shut up afterwards, so they can hear what he says.

So perhaps that undermines the beginning of his speech.

And then he says, believe me for mine honour and have respect to mine honour, that's you may believe.

So basically he's saying here, believe me because I'm honourable and because I'm honourable you should believe me.

Which isn't a great argument.

It'd be better if he said, these are the reasons why we killed Caesar, why we assassinated Caesar, not simply, well, you should believe what I say because I'm honourable, but he will go on to give some reasons.

Then he continues, censure me in your wisdom, and awake your senses, that you may the better judge.

So he says, listen carefully, judge me and yeah, listen carefully, be aware of what I'm saying, that you can judge me correctly.

If there be any in this assembly, any dear friend of Caesar's, to him I say that Brutus' love to Caesar was no less than his.

If then that friend demand why Caesar rose against against, why Brutus, sorry, why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer.

Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.

So here, he's trying to give a good reason for assassinating Caesar.

He's saying it wasn't that I loved Caesar any less than anyone else, it's simply that I love Rome more.

It's because I love Rome so much and I want to do what's in the best interest of Rome that I had to do what I did.

In spite of the fact that I loved Caesar just as much as anybody else.

Then he continues, had you rather, Cesar were living and die all slaves than that Caesar were dead to live all Freemen? So he's saying it's better that Caesar's dead and we're all free than Caesar's alive and we're all slaves.

Another reason, as Caesar loved me, I weep for him, as he was fortunate, I rejoice it.

As he was valiant, I honour him but as he was ambitious, I slew him.

So he's giving another reason here.

He tries to give it another good reason.

He says I had to slew him, I had to kill him because he was ambitious.

Yeah.

I had to slay him, I had to kill him because he was ambitious.

So Brutus is hoping that the citizens will think this is a good reason for the assassination because he was ambitious.

Brutus continues, there is tears for his love, joy for his fortune honour, for his Valour and death for his ambition.

Again, he returns to this idea of ambition.

He returns to this reason for the assassination.

He said he was ambitious, he wanted power for himself therefore I had to assassinate him, that's the reason.

Who here is so base that would be a bondman? If any, speak for him I have offended.

Who here is so rude that would not be a Roman? If any, speak for him I have offended.

Who here so vile that will not love his country? If any, speak for him I have offended.

I pause for reply.

And these are just the rhetorical questions that we spoke about last lesson.

So I won't go into them again here.

Then we get the reply from the Roman citizens and they're saying none Brutus, none they're saying no one feels like that.

No one's so vile or no one is not a Roman that they disagree with you.

So Brutus says, then none have I offended.

With this I depart, with this I leave, that as I slew my best lover for the good of Rome, I have the same dagger for myself when it shall please my country to need my death.

Now, when Brutus here is calling Caesar, his lover, he really means his friend.

Okay? So he's saying, as I slew my best friend, as I killed my best friend for the good of Rome, I would do the same to myself if it was needed.

If my country needed me to die, I would commit suicide in the same way that I killed Caesar because the country needed him to die.

So he's trying here to make himself sound honourable.

He's saying, yes, I did this to Caesar but I did it for the good of Rome and I would do it to myself as well if that was also for the good of Rome.

And ultimately the crowd says live Brutus, live, no we don't want you to kill yourself.

We want you to live.

So that is the extract.

And now we're going to have a look at this idea again of persuasion.

So remember we looked at this slide last lesson, and we said, the way you speak can help you to persuade people.

And we talked about rhetorical questions.

But we also said, if you persuade someone you cause them to do or think something by giving them good reasons to do or think it.

And we're going to focus on those good reasons today that Brutus tries to give the citizens in order to justify what he and the other conspirators did when they assassinated Caesar.

So let's have a look at some of Brutus' reasons.

Here's one of them at the top, it says, if my friend demand, why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer.

Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.

And the question we are going to answer related to this quotation is this, what reason does Brutus give for assassinating Caesar? Why is his reason persuasive? So in order to answer this question, we're going to look through this quotation together.

Now, here it is, first of all, now the first thing we need to do is we need to make sure we're only looking at the relevant information in this quotation.

And this is an important thing to do because often pupils, when they are looking at quotations, they often use quotations that are far too long.

So if we're looking at this, let's just go back and look at the question.

It said what reason does Brutus give for assassinating Caesar? Well, none of the first part of this quotation contains a reason.

If my friend demand why Brutus rose against Caesar? This is my answer.

So there's no reason in that.

He's saying if someone asks me, this is what I would tell them.

So we can just get rid of that first bit.

And now we get to the reason here.

Not that I love Caesar less, but I loved Rome more.

So now we've got rid of the information we don't need and we're just left with the information we do need.

So the first thing is this idea about I loved Rome.

So Brutus says his good reason for assassinating Caesar is that he loves Rome.

Again, he's suggesting that Caesar being dead is in the best interest of Rome.

That's the first thing he's saying.

But he's also saying something else.

Brutus is also says that he loves Caesar as much as anyone else did.

So he's trying to show that he didn't just cold-heartedly kill Caesar.

He's saying I had to kill my friend for the good of Rome, which almost makes it more powerful.

It makes his reason seem even stronger.

I killed my friend because it was in the best interest of Rome.

So what seems strange in one way, Brutus is trying to change, to make it a more powerful reason for doing what he did.

He's saying, I love Rome so much.

I would kill my friend, assassinate my friend, if it's in the best interest of Rome.

So what I would like you to do is take that information we have just spoke about and answer the following question.

What reason does Brutus give assassinating Caesar and why is his reason persuasive? Pause the video now, write your answer to this question and come back when you are finished.

Off you go.

Okay, welcome back.

So let's have a look at the kind of thing you might have written in your answer.

This says the reason that Brutus gives, for assassinating Caesar is that he loved Rome.

This is persuasive because it makes it seem as though assassinating Caesar was in the best interest of Rome and therefore the Roman citizens should support what he has done.

Brutus also says he didn't assassinate Caesar because he loved him less.

He makes it sound like he had to go against his friend for what was best for Rome.

This is very persuasive because he is making it seem as though he did not want to do it and it was a very difficult thing to do.

He is trying to make it seem as though he put aside his own feelings to do what was best for Rome.

Now, how similar was your answer to my answer? If there's any information in here that you haven't written in yours, and you would like to have in your answer, pause the video now and improve your answer using mine as a guide.

Off you go.

Okay, welcome back.

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

This one says, what reason does Brutus give for assassinating Caesar? Why is his reason persuasive? So a very similar question and the quotation this time says as he was ambitious, I slew him.

As in this quotation means because and slew means killed, the same as I slay someone.

You might be slightly more familiar with slay than slew.

Now this time I would like you to have a go at the question yourself, without me going through the quotation with you.

So get your pen, have a go at answering the question and when you're finished, come back to me and I'll go through the kind of thing you might have written.

Pause the video and have a go now.

Okay, welcome back.

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

The reason Brutus gives for assassinating Caesar is because he was ambitious.

Brutus is suggesting that Caesar wanted power for himself.

This is persuasive because Rome did not have Kings or Queens.

And if someone had too much power, they could act like a King or queen or even become a tyrant.

Anyone notice I've got a small typo in my answer there? It says that where it should say they.

But if you wrote this kind of thing, that is a good answer and you should be very pleased with what you've written.

Now, if you wanted to make your answer even better, you could add something like this.

Now this isn't really anything we've talked about today, but it's the kind of knowledge you learned during the course of this unit.

And when we're learning, we're always building up the knowledge over time so that we can use it later to write a great answer.

So let's have a look at this.

It says, overall Brutus is trying to make it seem as though Caesar was being dishonourable by trying to get power for himself.

But that Brutus himself was being honourable by killing his friend, even though he didn't want to kill him because it was in the best interests of Rome.

Here we're drawing on those things we've learned about honour and dishonour in the past, or people wanting power for themselves or doing what's in the best interest of Rome, being honourable rather than doing what's best for yourself, being ambitious.

And although a lot of those things aren't mentioned directly here, we're using that knowledge to correct, to write this kind of sentence.

If you've got anything like that, I would be really, really, really impressed with your answer.

Now, if there's anything here that you think could improve your answer, perhaps, pause the video now, look at your answer, look at my answer and improve yours.

Off you go.

Okay, welcome back.

Now, that's it for today's lesson.

The only thing left is for me to remind you to do your end of lesson quiz.

It will allow you to see all the things you've learned in today's lesson and to make sure you learn them even more fully.

As always, it's been a real pleasure to teach you during today's lesson and I look forward to seeing you next lesson for another lesson on act three of Julius Caesar.

This time, next time, sorry I should say, we're going to hear Mark Antony's speech to the people of Rome.

And this speech is going to throw a bit of a spanner in the works for Brutus.

This is my favourite scene of the whole play.

So I'm really looking forward to teaching it and seeing you next time for the Oak National Academy of English, learning about Julius Caesar.

Well done once again, and I'll see you soon.