Since I have started teaching The Tragedy of Julius Caesar I have focused my own education on two supplemental materials:1. Memoirs of Cleopatra - by Margaret George. When I was in high school I took a history course titled Ancient Greece & Rome. We were given an outside reading assignment and a list of books that pertained to the course. I liked the idea of reading about a powerful female and went to the bookstore for Memoirs. When I found the book there was one minor problem - it was 957 pages long. Now I was reader then as I am now, but everyone has their limits and that seemed to be mine. I spoke with my teacher and he allowed me to read the first 300 pages and that would suffice. Other girls got wind of this and liked the idea. Can you guess what happened? We got addicted. A young female ruler of a powerful, exotic country has a love affair (and possible illegitimate child) with the world's most powerful - and married -man (Caesar) who ends up being murdered by his best friends and then the same woman ends up having a love affair with his other best friend (Antony). 10 girls - including me - carted this monolith of a book around school for about two months, reading before the bells rang, being asked to put it away during class. I have picked it up again and am having the same reaction. I have read several of George's books since but still love Memoirs the most. It helps give a new perspective to the story of Caesar and is far more historically accurate than my dear Will.
2. HBO Rome series - During December break, while at the video store, I decided to try ROME on dvd as I thought it may help add another layer of insight to Caesar's world and boy, did it. I cannot technically recommend this series due to content (it would definitely be rated R) but I found it truly enlightening - not just of the plot to kill Caesar but of the time period. Often times movies and TV tend to glorify and romanticize the "olden days." We know better, though. Shakespeare's theatre alone had up to 2,000 bodies cramped into tight quarters with no public bathrooms. People did not bathe and household waste was thrown out windows onto the streets. Rome was not very different and luckily, the series stays true to the nature of the time. One scene that is important and visually appropriate is the depiction of Caesar's murder. I plan to show this in class when time allows. I think it is important to look at a moment in history from multiple people's perspectives. You sometimes see things you had not before. Plus, HBO has a bigger budget than the Brando movie did.
QUESTION: What historical story do you find most shocking or compelling?
1 comment:
out of all of Shakespeare's works, I definitely think Julius Cesar is the most intriguing and shocking. It's very suspenseful and it also reveals the depth of Shakespeare's knowledge of the human mind. Brutus is one of the more complex characters in Shakespeare's works, and his inner-turmoil, his madness and death make the story so much more interesting.
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