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Julius Caesar Summary 56997 Views

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Description:

We totally understand loving your country, but don't murder your best friend over it. That's a bit over the top. Stick to flying flags and singing national anthems, please.

Author:

Author / Shakespeare - William Shakespeare

Language:

English Language

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Common Core Standards:

Transcript

00:04
Julius Caesar, a la Shmoop Greetings, fellow countrymen. I am Brutus…
00:12
….Okay, okay, you all probably know me for my um, shaky moral compass…
00:17
…you know – murdering my good friend…
00:19
…who, uh, also happened to be a beloved Roman general and senator…
00:24
…but I swear this wasn’t just some popularity contest gone wrong.

00:28
I mean, I did think that Caesar was getting too popular.
00:31
I was afraid that he was going to become the king of Rome…
00:37
…but it’s not like I wanted to be king instead! I just wanted no kings! Not even
00:42
the nice kind!
00:43
Just a good old fashioned republic…
00:44
…where everybody gets a voice.
00:47
Well, except the dead guy.
00:49
Okay, I admit… I guess we could have tried more, um, republican techniques, but it’s
00:56
not like we could have voted for the people to stop liking him!
01:00
Plus, I had my friend Cassius breathing down my neck.
01:05
He was all “Caesar thinks he’s soooo cool” and “nobody even likes him” and “we
01:10
need to murder him before he becomes a vicious dictator…”
01:13
Talk about pressure.
01:16
It’s especially uncomfortable when, at your murder victim’s funeral, after you’ve
01:21
gone on and on about how you did it all for the love of your country…
01:24
….it turns out that the guy you killed bequeathed all his money to the citizens of that country.
01:30
Doesn’t really make you look like you love your country all that much.
01:34
But I did, I swear… I was just misguided in my love…
01:37
Overly eager, pressured, a little obsessive – like that guy who keeps messaging you
01:42
on OKCupid…
01:44
Before this murder thing, I used to be one of the good guys. Well-loved in the community,
01:50
rubbing elbows with rising stars like Caesar, a good husband and a hard worker…
01:58
…but my love of country made me lose it all.
02:01
I lost my wife… she killed herself because I was so obsessed with Rome I’d forgotten
02:07
about her.
02:07
I lost my friend Cassius to the war…
02:09
…and then I lost the war.
02:12
And then, after all that, I lost myself.
02:16
Mine is a tale of caution: love can make you do crazy things. Like, really crazy things.
02:22
Seriously, people, don’t murder your friends.
02:25
But while I majorly screwed up with Rome, I didn’t lose the love of my life completely.
02:31
See, after I realized that the war was lost, and I killed myself…
02:34
…Antony, Caesar’s ally, spoke over my dead body. He said that, in spite of the huge
02:39
mess I helped create…
02:41
….I was the only one who did it because I truly loved my country.
02:44
So… yeah. At least I’ve got that going for me.
Full Transcript