Julius Caesar Section A ( Multiple Choice Questions)

1. Brutus convinces the citizens that Caesar wanted to make Romans

_________

A) Rich men B) Slaves C) Poor men D) Beggar

2. Brutus tells the Romans that Caesar was ______

A) Ambitious B) Kind C) Gentle D) Pathetic

3. Brutus by his eloquence made the Romans believe that he was ______

A) Good man B) Great man C) Selfish man D) Greedy man

4. Antony says to the Romans that he has come to bury Caesar, not to ____ him.

A) Praise B) Defend C) Offend D) Criticise

5. Caesar was offered the crown ______

A) Once B) Twice C) Thrice D) Four times

6. Antony does not want to arouse the ______ of Romans.

A) Happiness B) Solitude C) Emotions D) Kindness

7. Antony in Funeral Oration calls Brutus and Cassius as _______ men.

A) Respectful B) Honourable C) Dignified D) Distinguished

8. The dress worn by Caesar during his death was first used by him when he
defeated ____

A) Nervi B) Cassius C) Casca D) Brutus

9. Caesar wrote the will that his country should go to ______ after his death.

A) Senators B) Conspirators C) Romans D) His wife

10. The mob misunderstands ______ to a conspirator.

A) Brutus B) Cassius C) Antony D) Cinna

Answers: 1-B, 2-A, 3-A, 4-A, 5-C, 6-C, 7-B, 8-A, 9-C, 10-D

Precise Summary of Act III, Scene II

First, Brutus addresses the Romans. He explains to them that Caesar was
ambitious and was a threat to the liberty of Rome. So the conspirators killed
him. After he finishes and goes away, Antony begins his oration. He asserts that
Caesar, through capturing powerful enemies, brought much ransom to the
country. He was sympathetic towards the poor. Also, he did not take the crown
even though it was offered to him thrice. All this shows that Caesar was not at
all ambitious. The mob now leans towards Antony. The mob is inflamed when
Antony shows Caesar’s wounded body and explains the ‘unkindest’ cut dealt by
Brutus. Finally, Antony informs the mob that Caesar has bequeathed all his
property to the Romans in his will. The mob now becomes uncontrollably
furious. They rush to kill the conspirators. Antony is told that Brutus and
Cassius have escaped from the city. He is also told that Octavius Caesar and
Lepidus have just arrived. Antony intends to seek their help to destroy the
conspirators.

Precise Summary of Act III, Scene III

The mob encounter one Cinna. He is a poet and a follower of Julius Caesar.
But, the mob mistake him for another Cinna who was an ally of the
conspirators. The poor man says that he is a harmless poet, not a conspirator.
But, the mob blindly decide to kill him for his bad poetry. They disperse
swearing to destroy the houses of all the conspirators, including those of Brutus
and Cassius. The insensate fury of the mob is stressed in this scene.
 Detailed Summary of Julius Caesar Act III Scene II & III

 Brutus and Cassius enter the Forum with a crowd of plebeians. Cassius exits to
speak to another portion of the crowd. Brutus addresses the onstage crowd,
assuring them that they may trust in his honor. He did not kill Caesar out of a
lack of love for him, he says, but because his love for Rome outweighed his
love of a single man. He insists that Caesar was great but ambitious: it was for
this reason that he slew him. He feared that the Romans would live as slaves
under Caesar’s leadership.

 He asks if any disagree with him, and none do. He thus concludes that he has
offended no one and asserts that now Caesar’s death has been accounted for,
with both his virtues and faults in life given due attention. Antony then enters
with Caesar’s body. Brutus explains to the crowd that Antony had no part in the
conspiracy but that he will now be part of the new commonwealth. The
plebeians cheer Brutus’s apparent kindness, declaring that Brutus should be
Caesar. He quiets them and asks them to listen to Antony, who has obtained
permission to give a funeral oration. Brutus exits.!

 Antony ascends to the pulpit while the plebeians discuss what they have heard.
They now believe that Caesar was a tyrant and that Brutus did right to kill him.
But they wait to hear Antony. He asks the audience to listen, for he has come to
bury Caesar, not to praise him. He acknowledges Brutus’s charge that Caesar
was ambitious and maintains that Brutus is “an honourable man,” but he says
that Caesar was his friend (III.ii.84). He adds that Caesar brought to Rome
many captives, whose countrymen had to pay their ransoms, thus filling Rome’s
coffers. He asks rhetorically if such accumulation of money for the people
constituted ambition. Antony continues that Caesar sympathized with the poor:
“When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept” (III.ii.88). He reminds the
plebeians of the day when he offered the crown to Caesar three times, and
Caesar three times refused. Again, he ponders aloud whether this humility
constituted ambition. He claims that he is not trying to disprove Brutus’s words
but rather to tell them what he, Antony, knows; he insists that as they all loved
Caesar once, they should mourn for him now.
 Antony pauses to weep. The plebeians are touched; they remember when Caesar
refused the crown and wonder if more ambitious people have not stepped into
his place. Antony speaks again, saying that he would gladly stir them to mutiny
and rebellion, though he will not harm Brutus or Cassius, for they are—again—
honorable men. He then brings out Caesar’s will. The plebeians beg him to read
it. Antony says that he should not, for then they would be touched by Caesar’s
love for them. They implore him to read it. He replies that he has been speaking
too long—he wrongs the honorable men who have let him address the crowd.
The plebeians call the conspirators traitors and demand that Antony read the
will.

 Finally, Antony descends from the pulpit and prepares to read the letter to the
people as they stand in a circle around Caesar’s corpse. Looking at the body,
Antony points out the wounds that Brutus and Cassius inflicted, reminding the
crowd how Caesar loved Brutus, and yet Brutus stabbed him viciously. He tells
how Caesar died and blood ran down the steps of the Senate. Then he uncovers
the body for all to see. The plebeians weep and become enraged. Antony says
that they should not be stirred to mutiny against such “honourable men”
(III.ii.148). He protests that he does not intend to steal away their hearts, for he
is no orator like Brutus. He proclaims himself a plain man; he speaks only what
he knows, he says—he will let Caesar’s wounds speak the rest. If he were
Brutus, he claims, he could urge them to rebel, but he is merely Antony.

 The people declare that they will mutiny nonetheless. Antony calls to them to
let him finish: he has not yet read the will. He now reads that Caesar has
bequeathed a sum of money from his personal holdings to every man in Rome.
The citizens are struck by this act of generosity and swear to avenge this selfless
man’s death. Antony continues reading, revealing Caesar’s plans to make his
private parks and gardens available for the people’s pleasure. The plebeians can
take no more; they charge off to wreak havoc throughout the city. Antony,
alone, wonders what will come of the mischief he has set loose on Rome.
Octavius’s servant enters. He reports that Octavius has arrived at Caesar’s
house, and also that Brutus and Cassius have been driven from Rome.
 Cinna the poet, a different man from Cinna the conspirator, walks through the
city. A crowd of plebeians descends, asking his name. He answers that his name
is Cinna, and the plebeians confuse him with the conspirator Cinna.
DespiteCinna’s insistence that they have the wrong man, the plebeians drag him
off and beat him to death.

Critical Analysis of Act III, Scenes II & III

 Act III, scene ii evidences the power of rhetoric and oratory: first Brutus speaks
and then Antony, each with the aim of persuading the crowd to his side. We
observe each speaker’s effect on the crowd and see the power that words can
have—how they can stir emotion, alter opinion, and induce action. Brutus
speaks to the people in prose rather than in verse, presumably trying to make his
speech seem plain and to keep himself on the level of the plebeians. He quickly
convinces the people that Caesar had to die because he would have become a
tyrant and brought suffering to them all. He desires to convey that this message
comes from the mouth of a concerned Roman citizen, not from the mouth of a
greedy usurper.

 Antony’s speech is a rhetorical tour de force. He speaks in verse and repeats

again and again that Brutus and the conspirators are honorable men; the phrase
“Brutus says he was ambitious, / And Brutus is an honourable man” accrues
new levels of sarcasm at each repetition (III.ii.83–84). Antony answers Brutus’s
allegation that Caesar was “ambitious” by reminding the crowd of the wealth
that Caesar brought to Rome, Caesar’s sympathy for the poor, and his refusal to
take the throne when offered it—details seeming to disprove any charges of
ambition. Pausing to weep openly before the plebeians, he makes them feel pity
for him and for his case
 Antony’s refined oratorical skill enables him to manipulate the crowd into
begging him to read Caesar’s will. By means of praeteritio, a rhetorical device
implemented by a speaker to mention a certain thing while claiming not to
mention it, Antony alerts the plebeians to the fact that Caesar cared greatly for
them: “It is not meet [fitting] you know how Caesar loved you . . . ’Tis good
you know not that you are his heirs” (III.ii.138–142). Under the pretense of
sympathetically wanting to keep the plebeians from becoming outraged, Antony
hints to them that they should become outraged. He thus gains their favor.

 Further demonstrating his charisma, Antony descends from the pulpit—a more
effective way of becoming one with the people than Brutus’s strategy of
speaking in prose. In placing himself physically among the crowd, Antony joins
the commoners without sacrificing his rhetorical influence over them. First he
speaks of Caesar’s wounds and his horrible death; he shows the body, evoking
fully the pity and anger of the crowd. He claims, with false modesty, that he is
not a great orator, like Brutus, and that he doesn’t intend to incite revolt. Yet in
this very sentence he effects the exact opposite of what his words say: he proves
himself a deft orator indeed, and although he speaks against mutiny, he knows
that at this point the mere mention of the word will spur action.

 Having prepared the kindling with his speech, Antony lights the fire of the
people’s fury with his presentation of Caesar’s will. Caesar had intended to
share his wealth with the people of Rome and had planned to surrender his
parks for their benefit. Antony predicts and utilizes the people’s sense of
injustice at being stripped of so generous a ruler. The people completely forget
their former sympathy for Brutus and rise up against the conspirators, leaving
Antony to marvel at the force of what he has done.

 In the ensuing riot, the killing of Cinna the Poet exemplifies the irrationality of
the brutality that has been unleashed; since Caesar’s murder, Rome has become
so anarchic that even a poet finds himself in grave danger. This murder of the
wrong man parallels the conspirators’ more metaphoric murder of the wrong
man: although Brutus and Cassius believe that they have brought an end to
Caesar’s charisma and authority, they have merely brought an end to the mortal
body that he inhabited. While the body may lie dead, the true Caesar, the leader
of the people, lives on in their hearts—as he does in the anxious minds of the
conspirators: Brutus will soon encounter Caesar’s ghost near the battlefield. The
populace will now seek a man who can serve as their “Caesar”—the word has
now become a synonym for “ruler”—in his place; Caesar has instilled in the
Romans a desire to replace the old republic with a monarchy.