Genres

In 2024, Netflix has more than 27,000 genres of film and TV available to watch.

But Shakespeare's audiences in 1600 only had three genres to choose from.

Why?

The Three Genres of Play

COMEDY	HISTORY	TRAGEDY

TRAGEDY

• Mood: ?????
• Audience should: ????
• The protagonist: ?????

Etymology Exploration

τραγῳδός

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TRAGEDY

Meet Aristotle, the father of Drama

• Lived in Ancient Greece, in the 4th Century BC (nearly 2000 years before Shakespeare)
• Wrote widely on philosophy, science and literature
• Invented theories for what good stories and drama should look like
• Shakespeare would have studied his philosophy and plays at school

Aristotle's Rules (from The Poetics)

A tragedy, then, should be:

• an imitation of events that are serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude;
• in the form of action, not of narrative;
• able to create feelings of pity and fear in the audience.
• an exploration of a character's shocking reversal of fortune

Making predictions

PLENARY: If our play this term is called The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, what do we expect to see in it?

Like and subscribe for more TRAGEDY

Write a script for a guide on how to make a great tragedy.

Record your guide in the style of a YouTuber.

• What should your audience feel?
• What should you write it about?
• What sort of characters?
• What events should take place?

Write down two advantages and two disadvantages for each system. Think from the perspective of the ruler, the people and the country as a whole!

The Roman Republic was very successful; conquering its neighbours and expanding its control across the Mediterranean.

Its army of Legionaries was the strongest in the world.

The city grew rich and prosperous on the treasures its generals brought home.

Hail Caesar!

400 years after the last King of Rome had been kicked out, the Senate started worrying about a new man...

Julius Caesar

Caesar was a great general who'd led Rome's armies to conquer much of what we'd now call France.

The Roman people loved his victories, his speeches, and his generous gifts most of all.

Why would this worry the Senate?

The Triumphal Arch

Whenever a general like Caesar won a great victory, they would parade through the city. The parade would include:

• Soldiers from the victorious army
• Prisoners captured from the defeated army
• Gold, treasures, etc looted from the defeated
• ...and the general at the front, riding a horse.

Write a four sentence descriptive paragraph from the perspective of a Roman, watching Caesar's victorious march into the city.

The play begins

• Shakespeare's play starts in Rome
• Julius Caesar has just returned from another victorious war
• The Roman people are in the streets, celebrating and calling him a hero
• Two senators - Brutus and Cassius - can hear the shouting, and they are worried...

Write two sentences of stage directions, telling a director what the stage should look like in this first scene.

BRUTUS: Another general shout?
I do believe that these applauses are
For some new honours that are heap’d on Caesar.
CASSIUS:
Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs, and peep about
To find ourselves dishonourable graves.
Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

What phrase is used to describe Caesar? What does it suggest about how he's seen in Rome?

CASSIUS:
And why should Caesar be a tyrant then?
Poor man! I know he would not be a wolf,
But that he sees the Romans are but sheep...
What trash is Rome,
What rubbish, and what offal, when it serves
For the base matter to illuminate
So vile a thing as Caesar!

Which three words here are the most important? Copy them down, with a little note about why each word matters and what it means.

How would the People feel if they heard what Brutus and Cassius were saying?

Zooming in on language

Write a reply to this comment for Brutus

Plenary: The People or The Republic?

Should the senators try to stop the rise of Caesar, if the people love him? Surely the people are more important than the idea of the Republic?

Write a short speech from Cassius, addressing the crowds of Romans.

Hints of what's to come

Without using your devices, what do you think each of these terms means?

Can you think of an example from a film/TV/book?

Caesar's Premonitions

LO: To consider how Shakespeare uses language to present the character of Caesar

Why might Caesar be worried about the Senators?

If you were Caesar, would you return to Rome after your latest conquest?

Can you remember what pathetic fallacy means?

Caesar in Rome

• Caesar has been praised by the people, but the senators are suspicious
• Cassius, Brutus and other senators have started a conspiracy to murder Caesar
• Caesar is now at home with his wife, Calpurnia, but cannot sleep...

Are the senators justified in plotting to kill Caesar?

SCENE II. A room in Caesar’s palace.

Thunder and lightning. Enter Caesar, in his nightgown
CAESAR: Nor heaven nor earth have been at peace tonight:
Thrice hath Calpurnia in her sleep cried out
“Help, ho! They murder Caesar!”

Why does Shakespeare start the scene with "Thunder and Lightning"? What does it make the audience think or feel?

How would an audience in 1600 have felt different, compared to an audience today?

Calpurnia: What mean you, Caesar? Think you to walk forth?
You shall not stir out of your house today.
CAESAR: Caesar shall forth. The things that threaten’d me
Ne’er look’d but on my back; when they shall see
The face of Caesar, they are vanished.
Calpurnia: Caesar, I never stood on ceremonies,
Yet now they fright me... I do fear them!
CAESAR: What can be avoided
Whose end is purpos’d by the mighty gods?
Yet Caesar shall go forth

Describe Calpurnia's emotions here, and use two quotations to show how you know this.
Do the same for Caeasar