Lesson video

Hello and welcome to the Oak National Academy for English.

My name is Mr. James and in today's lesson, we are starting the final unit on our play Julius Caesar.

We're going to be looking at Acts IV and V in this unit.

So before we begin, let's have a look at what we will be learning in today's lesson.

Well, first of all, we're going to look at the theme of power.

Secondly, we're going to learn about the word corruption.

Thirdly, we're going to read the text.

Forth, we will answer some questions on the text and last but not least, we will do a quiz.

But before we do any of that, we need to make sure you have the correct equipment.

So if you don't have a pen or paper or your brain, please go and get those things now, and then come back when you are done.

Off you go.

Okay, welcome back.

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

It's on the screen now so take your pen and on your paper, pause the video, write down today's title.

Off you go.

So we're going to begin today's lesson by looking at the theme of power.

Now, there are various reasons people want power.

And we have done this earlier in the play when we were looking at Act I.

But we're just going to recap it.

So some people desire power because they want to make the world a better place.

They want to fight tyranny and make the world fairer and more just.

Now just, is just another way really of saying fair.

Just is related to the word justice.

So some people want power to make the world a better place.

Other people, however, well, they desire power for selfish or evil reasons.

They might want power so they can make themselves rich or so they can hurt that enemies.

Now, if you've been paying attention carefully to the pictures on the screen, while I've been reading this out, we have a picture of Cassius here, for the evil or selfish reasons.

And we had a picture of Brutus, when we were looking at the people who want power for good.

And that as a nice way of thinking about the two characters.

Remember, Brutus is honourable and Cassius is ambitious.

So let's do a few quick questions just to make sure you have understood why this relates to the play or how this relates to the play.

The first question says, why are Brutus and Cassius powerful? Then we have two options.

First, because they are Roman senators or second because they killed Julius Caesar.

You have five seconds to pick an answer, make your choice now.

And the correct answer is, let's have a look.

It is because they are Roman Senators.

Yes, that is what gives them their power.

So why does Brutus want power? Again, we have two options.

The first one says, to free Rome of Tyranny.

To make sure the citizens of Rome are treated fairly.

The second option says, to get more powerful himself.

He is ambitious and doesn't care about the citizens of Rome.

Which of those two answers, do you think is correct? Make your choice now.

Okay, well, let's have a look at what you've got and the correct answer.

The correct answer is, because he wants to free Rome from tyranny.

He wants to make sure the citizens of Rome are treated fairly because he believes, or he believed that, Caesar, was too powerful and might've become a tyrant.

That's why he assassinated him.

Why does Cassius want power then? Does he also want to free Rome of tyranny and make sure the citizens are treated fairly? Or does he want to power for himself? Is he ambitious and does not care about the citizens of Rome? Which of those are true about Cassius? You've got a few seconds to make your choice.

Okay, let's have a look at the correct answer.

It is because he wants power for himself.

He's ambitious and he doesn't care about the citizens of Rome.

So what I would like you to do now, is pause the video and copy and complete these sentences, filling in the missing gaps.

Come back when you're done.

Off you go.

Okay, welcome back.

So let's have a look at the kind of thing you should have written all the exact thing you should have written indeed.

Well, hopefully you wrote some people want power to make the world a better place, but others want power so they can make themselves rich.

If you've got those answers, well done, you got it 100% correct.

So now we've done power, we've recapped the theme of power, and we're going to have a look at this word corruption.

So here's a couple of sentences about a play using the word corruption.

Brutus accused Cassius of corruption, or we could say, Cassius, is a corrupt man.

So two similar words are related to each other.

Now corruption is when people use their power dishonestly often to get money.

Yeah, they're using power, not for good reasons, but for bad reasons, in order to enrich themselves.

If you are corrupt, you do things that are wrong or illegal in order to get money or power.

Okay, so we can see that being corrupt or corruption itself is bad.

It's not something we like.

So let's have a look at some sentences that use the words, corruption and corrupt correctly.

Here's the first one.

It says, the police do their best to make sure that are no corrupt officers.

Because obviously the police have power.

And if the police use that power dishonestly, or to get themselves rich, that can have a really bad impact on society.

So the police try their best to make sure they don't have any corrupt officers.

There's another sentence.

It says, some people think that all politicians are corrupt.

Another correct use of the word.

And in this sentence, people are suggesting that every politician is just out for themselves.

They want to get power for themselves.

They want to use that power to make themselves rich.

Of course, that isn't actually true.

Although probably one or two are like that.

Here's another sentence.

If we want a good society, we must do our best to get rid of corruption.

Another correct sentence because in a good society, we don't have much corruption.

If every everyone was corrupt, it would be very difficult to have a good society.

So here's an incorrect use of the word corrupt.

It says, my dad is so corrupt.

He said he would let me watch TV if I fetched him a packet of crisps.

Well, this is not correct.

This is just your dad trying to get a packet of crisps out of you in return for turning on the TV.

Corruption has to be a lot worse than that.

Using your power, you have to really enrich yourself.

So in this case, the dad isn't really using his power to enrich himself.

He's just trying to get his son to get him a bag of crisps.

Right, so we've got four, we've got four options here.

And what I want to know is which two show examples of corruption.

So I'm going to read them through with you.

And as I'm reading, think about which two you think show examples of someone being corrupt.

So number one says, my teacher said she would give me a good mark if I paid her 10 pounds.

Number two, my mom said she would give me 10 pounds, if I cleaned the garage.

Number three, the boxer was paid 1 million pounds to fight.

Number four, the boxer was paid 1 million pounds to lose the fight.

Now two of these are examples of corruption.

Which two do you think they are? I'm going to give you a few seconds to make your choices, before I show you the correct answers.

Okay, five more seconds to make your choice.

Okay, then let's have a look at what the correct answers are.

And the correct answers are number one and number four.

Yes, it's corrupt of the teacher to say, she'll give you a good mark if you pay her 10 pounds, because you should get a good mark based on the quality of your work.

So she's using her authority as a teacher here to make herself a little bit of money by dishonestly giving out marks.

Number four, well, the boxer shouldn't be paid to lose a match because if the sport is going to be genuine and we're going to believe in it, all the competitors have to be trying their best to win.

So if someone gets paid a million times to lose, that's corrupt.

So we've learned about corruption now, and we've also learned about the theme of power and how it works in Julius Caesar.

And we're going to now move on and look at the play.

But before we do, we just need to recap what's happened since my Mark Antony gave his speech and the scene we're looking at today.

So first of all, the conspirators leave Rome.

After Antony gives his speech, the citizens get really angry and they chase the conspirators out of Rome.

Now Anthony then leads an army against the conspirators.

He gets together an army, which he leads against the conspirators.

So you can think, see that things are really getting quite bad for Brutus.

But number three, Brutus and Cassius gathered their own army to face Antony's army.

So they don't just sit back and say, "Yeah, do whatever you want to us." They fight back with their own army.

A civil war begins just outside Rome.

A civil war is when you've got two armies from within the same country, fighting each other.

It's called a civil war rather than a war.

So the conspirators, the fact that they killed, they assassinated Caesar, has now set off a civil war in Rome.

And number five, Brutus and Cassius start to argue.

So they begin actually to fall out with each other a little bit.

So that's, what's happened in between last scene and today's scene.

But let's have a look at what does happen in today's scene.

Well, first of all, Cassius complaints that Brutus treats him badly.

'Cause remember they've started to argue and that's what we're going to be looking at.

So it begins by Cassius complaining that Brutus treats him badly.

Second, Brutus accuses Cassius of greed and corruption.

Third, Cassius threatened Brutus.

Cassius isn't too pleased with this accusation, so he threatened Brutus.

Number four, Brutus says he's not scared of Cassius threats.

"I'm not scared of you, Cassius." And number five, eventually the pair make up, and they agree to be friends again.

Okay, so let's begin and look at the play itself.

So as you can see on screen, it begins with stage direction and it's hallux at the top and it says, Enter Brutus and Cassius.

Then Cassius says, "That you have wronged me doth appear in this.

You have condemned and noted, Lucius Pella, for taking bribes here of the Sardians, Wherein my letters, praying on his side, because I knew the man, were slighted off." So here Cassius is annoyed that Brutus has criticised one of his friends for being corrupt.

So Cassius' friend, Lucius Pella, is corrupt and Brutus has criticised this person, Lucius Pella, for being corrupt.

And Cassius is saying, "Well, he's my friend.

You shouldn't be criticising him for being corrupted because he's my friend.

Don't criticise my friend." Now we know Brutus is honourable so what does he think about this? Brutus says, "You wronged yourself to write in such a case." So Brutus doesn't apologise.

In fact, he's going to say there are rumours that Cassius himself is corrupt.

To Brutus say, "You wronged yourself to write this case." Meaning you shouldn't stick up for your friend if he's corrupt.

He says, "Let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself are much condemned to have an 'itching Palm'." That means a desperation for money, itching Palm.

"To sell and mart your office is for gold to undeservers." So here is where he's directly accusing Cassius himself of being corrupt.

He's saying, "You sell your offices for gold to undeservers." That means you sell positions of power because you're a Senator.

So you have positions of power and you know there's other jobs or positions of power in society.

You sell those positions to other people for money rather than giving those jobs, giving those positions to the person who's most qualified.

Instead, Cassius, is selling them for money.

Well, Cassius, obviously isn't going to like this.

And Cassius says, "I an itching Palm? You know that you are Brutus that speak this or by the gods, this speech were else you're last." So here he threatened Brutus.

He said, if you weren't Brutus, this would be the last thing you ever say.

Yeah, if you weren't Brutus, I would kill you for making such an accusation against me.

Now, Brutus responds to this by saying, "The name of Cassius honours this corruption and chastisement doth, therefore hide his head." Now chastisement means telling off or condemning someone.

Okay, saying someone's bad or something is bad.

And he said, "Cassius, because you are powerful and your name is now attached to this corruption, you've stuck up for your friend and said they shouldn't be criticised.

It makes it very hard to punish this person for the things they've done wrong.

We can't punish Lucius Pella because you're on his side and you're a powerful man.

You should not stick up for people who are corrupt in your position." And Cassius says, "Chastisement?" Brutus says, Did not great Ceaser bleed for justice's sake? What villain touched his body that did stab and not for justice?" So he's saying, we killed Caesar for justice, for the good of Rome, not for corruption, personal ambition.

Who amongst us killed Caesar for corruption.

Again, he's making a slight little accusation here at Cassius.

Brutus continues, "What shall one of us that struck the foremost man of all this world, but for supporting robbers, shall we now contaminate our fingers with base bribes?" He's saying, are we going to dishonour ourselves by accepting bribes? We did this for the good of Rome, not to make ourselves rich, not to enrich ourselves.

That would be a corrupt thing to do.

"Shall we now contaminate our fingers with base brides and sell the mighty space of our large honours for so much trash as maybe grasped thus? I'd rather be a dog and bay the moon than such a Roman." So here he saying, I would rather be a dog, be an animal, than be a corrupt man, than be a corrupt Roman and dishonour the state of Rome.

Cassius says, "Do not presume too much upon my love.

I may do that I shall be sorry for." So again, Cassius is threatening Brutus.

Brutus says, "You have done that you should be sorry for." So he's saying you should be sorry for what you've done.

"There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats for I am armed so strong in honesty that they pass by me as the idle wind, which I respect not." So Cassius threatened him again.

He says, don't say anything against me otherwise I may do something I regret.

And Brutus says your threats don't worry me, Cassius.

I'm not worried about them.

And in any case, I know that the right thing is on my side.

I know that I've done correct and justice is on my side.

So your threats don't bother me.

So let's have a look at some questions based on that scene.

Here's the first one.

It says, what accusation does Brutus make against Cassius? And we've got a quotation at the top here from Brutus.

He says, "you yourself are much condemned to have an itching Palm to sell and mart your offices for gold to undeservers." Now, what I would like you to do is answer this question, using the quotation, and using the vocabulary on the right of your screen.

Pause the video, complete the question, and then come back when you are done.

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

You might've written something like this.

Brutus accuses Cassius of being corrupt.

Brutus says Cassius has an 'itching Palm' meaning he's desperate to get money for himself.

If you wrote something like that, that'd be a really good answer.

Especially, if you included an embedded quotation.

Remember the embedded quotation is when it becomes part of the sentence like I have with 'itching Palm'.

If you've done that, that's really great as well.

Now, if you didn't quite get that, you can pull the video now and you can update your answer to look more like my one here.

Off you go.

Okay, welcome back.

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

This says, how does Shakespeare demonstrate to the audience, that Brutus is an honest man? And again, we've got quotation at the top.

It says, "Did not great Caesar bleed, but justice's sake? What villain touched his body that did stab and not for justice?" Again, we've got some vocabulary here on the right hand side.

We've got criticised, we've got 'bribes', We've got honour, corrupt, and we've got 'justice', and 'villain'.

And you'll notice 'bribes', 'justice' and 'villain' are all in quotation marks.

That's because they are word taken from the quotation.

So these are little parts of the quotation I'm suggesting, you might like to use in your answer.

So pause the video now, have a go at answering the question, using the quotation and the vocabulary on the right and come back when you are done.

Off you go.

Okay, welcome back.

So let's have a look at the kinds of thing you might have written.

Hopefully you wrote something like this.

Shakespeare demonstrates to the audience that Brutus is an honest man, because he criticises Cassius for taking 'bribes'.

Brutus could join Cassius and become corrupt, but he chooses instead to keep his honour.

He says that anyone who stabbed Caesar, but did not do it for 'justice' is a 'villain'.

And you can see that how I'm working in those vocabulary into the answer and how I'm working in those small quotations, from the quote into the answer.

And they just become part of my sentences.

They're called embedded quotations, remember.

Now, hopefully you've got something similar to that, but if you haven't, you can pause the video now and update your answer to look a little bit more like mine.

Off you go.

Okay, welcome back.

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

Now this one says, explain how Cassius has used his power dishonestly.

Remember dishonestly means not honestly.

Now this time we've got three quotations, we've got Brutus telling Cassius, "You have an itching Palm to sell and mart your offices for gold to undeservers." Cassius saying to Brutus, "You have condemned and noted Lucius Pella for taking bribes here of the Sardians." So Cassius here is saying to Brutus, your bad, because you've criticised Lucius Pella for taking bribe.

You've criticised him for being corrupt.

So how does that show Cassius uses power dishonestly? And Brutus says, the name of Cassius honours this corruption.

Well what's Brutus saying there? How is he criticising Cassius? And how does that show that Cassius is using his power dishonestly? Those are some things for you to think about when you answer the question.

Again, there's some vocab for you to use on the right that hopefully should help you think about how you're going to write your answer.

So have go and write in your answer now, pause the video and then come back when you are done.

Off you go.

Okay, welcome back.

So let's have a look at the kinds of things you might have written.

Well, if you've got anything like this, you've got a really good answer.

It says, Castillo says use his power dishonestly, because he's trying to protect his friend, Lucius Pella, from being condemned for corruption by Brutus.

Cassius does not claim that Lucius Pella was innocent, but he seems to believe that his own friends should not be criticised or found guilty of a crime.

Cassius is a Roman Senator, which means he is a powerful man.

And he is trying to use his power and influence to get his friends out of trouble even when they have done wrong.

Brutus illustrates this showing how Cassius is being dishonest and supporting corruption by saying the name of Cassius honours this corruption.

Brutus has also accuses Cassius of using his power dishonestly, when he tells Cassius, "You sell your offices for gold to undeservers." This means that Cassius is using his power as a Senator to get money for himself.

He does this by selling jobs that come with power and influence to whomever will pay him the most.

This is corrupt because a job should go to the person who is most qualified to do it.

Now, if you've got anything along those lines, you've written a great answer.

If there's a few things you're missing, perhaps, and you want to upgrade your answer, improve your answer now, you can pause the video and use what I've put on screen to help you improve your answer.

Off you go.

Okay, welcome back.

So that's all for today's lesson.

The only thing left for me to remind you to do, is to take the quiz that is at the bottom of your page.

As always, I'm really pleased and really privileged to have the opportunity to teach you about Julius Caesar today.

And I hope to see you next time when we're going to look at the final scene of the play and see how the play turns out.

So great work today, guys.

Don't forget to do the quiz and I'll see you next time for the final lesson, not the final lesson, sorry, the final scene of Julius Caesar.