In the unit we will look at elements of drama, define key terms, and study the works of William Shakespeare. We will read the Shakespearean play Julius Caesar in its entirety. Along the way, we will answer key questions the text poses and analyze the motives of the characters. Below is a list of terms in red you will need to know this unit. On a pages document, define the terms on the list and be ready for a quiz over them 3 class periods from now. THE DEFINITIONS CAN BE FOUND IN YOUR TEXT BOOK ON PAGES 830-833
- DRAMA
- TRAGEDY
- COMEDY
- ROMANCE
- TRAGIC HERO
- TRAGIC FLAW
- PROPS
- DIALOGUE
- ASIDE
- STAGE DIRECTIONS
- MONOLOGUE
- SOLILOQUY
- SET
- PLAYWRIGHT
- DRAMATIC IRONY
Click here to watch The Bear (also known as The Brute)
TRIFLES- By Susan Glaspell
Trifles is based on a real-life murder that Susan Glaspell covered while working as a reporter for the Des Moines Daily News. Born in Davenport, Iowa, Glaspell worked as a reporter for several years before moving to Greenwich Village, then the heart of an artists' community in New York City.
Summary- The county attorney, George Henderson; the sheriff, Henry Peters, and his wife; and a neighboring farmer, Lewis Hale, and his wife enter the Wright family's kitchen on a cold winter morning. The men are the there to find evidence and determine a motive for the murder of Mr. Wright, whose strangled body Mr. Hale discovered the day before.
Odell, Beers. Elements of Literature: Fourth Course. Holt 2007
We are about to listen to an audio dramatization of the one-act play. Listen to it as you follow along in your textbooks. As you read/listen, make a list of things you could use as evidence in the trial for the murder of Mr. Wright.
Your next task: Pretend you are the prosecuting attorney in Mrs. Wright's trial. Using the list you made as we read the play of evidence you could use against her, you are going to write a closing argument for her trial. In a closing argument a lawyer must lay out the facts of the case and persuade the jury to find the defendant guilty. Appeal to the jury's emotions and make them find Mrs. Wright guilty. OR, if you'd rather, you could present a case of not-guilty for reason of mental defect (as there is a great deal of evidence to show she was not in her right mind) To get a better picture of what a closing argument looks like, click on this link to view a closing argument from an episode of Law & Order. You will have to login to my big campus to view it. Your user name and password is how you log in to your computer.
Click here for the Law & Order closing argument
Summary- The county attorney, George Henderson; the sheriff, Henry Peters, and his wife; and a neighboring farmer, Lewis Hale, and his wife enter the Wright family's kitchen on a cold winter morning. The men are the there to find evidence and determine a motive for the murder of Mr. Wright, whose strangled body Mr. Hale discovered the day before.
Odell, Beers. Elements of Literature: Fourth Course. Holt 2007
We are about to listen to an audio dramatization of the one-act play. Listen to it as you follow along in your textbooks. As you read/listen, make a list of things you could use as evidence in the trial for the murder of Mr. Wright.
Your next task: Pretend you are the prosecuting attorney in Mrs. Wright's trial. Using the list you made as we read the play of evidence you could use against her, you are going to write a closing argument for her trial. In a closing argument a lawyer must lay out the facts of the case and persuade the jury to find the defendant guilty. Appeal to the jury's emotions and make them find Mrs. Wright guilty. OR, if you'd rather, you could present a case of not-guilty for reason of mental defect (as there is a great deal of evidence to show she was not in her right mind) To get a better picture of what a closing argument looks like, click on this link to view a closing argument from an episode of Law & Order. You will have to login to my big campus to view it. Your user name and password is how you log in to your computer.
Click here for the Law & Order closing argument
THE TRAGEDY OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S
JULIUS CAESAR
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Before we dive in to one of Shakespeare's most popular plays, we must first look at the the man himself. Below is a presentation over Shakespeare's life and his play Julius Caesar. watch it and take notes, and then complete the quiz below it using the notes.
THE LANGUAGE OF SHAKESPEARE
Below is a document called Shakespearean Language. Download the document and complete it using your text book.
shakespeareanlanguage.doc | |
File Size: | 37 kb |
File Type: | doc |
"BUT WHY DO WE HAVE TO DO THIS?!! IT'S SO BORING!!!"
Let's just pretend for a moment that I wasn't required to have you read a Shakespearean play in its entirety. What are the benefits? How can we learn from someone who lived and set his plays 400 hundred years ago? These are all valid lessons that I just happen to have a reply to:) Download the document below and read the article. As you read, make a list of the benefits the article identifies.
why_read_shakespeare.pages | |
File Size: | 222 kb |
File Type: | pages |
REVIEW QUESTIONS BY ACT: Download the document below
shakespeare_review_questions.pages | |
File Size: | 465 kb |
File Type: | pages |
ACT I, SCENE III TRANSLATIONS: Download the document below
jc_act_i_scene_iii_translations.pages | |
File Size: | 136 kb |
File Type: | pages |
SUMMARY CHART FOR EACH ACT/SCENE: Download the document below.
jc_scene_summary.pages | |
File Size: | 160 kb |
File Type: | pages |
ACT II, SCENES II, III, & IV TRANSLATIONS: Download the document below
act_2_translations.pages | |
File Size: | 128 kb |
File Type: | pages |
ANTYONY'S SPEECH TRANSLATIONS: Download the document below
jc_antonys_speech_translations.pages | |
File Size: | 157 kb |
File Type: | pages |
ACT IV TRANSLATIONS: Download the document below
act_iv-_all_translations.pages | |
File Size: | 149 kb |
File Type: | pages |
Summary Chart by Act (KEY)
jc_scene_summary-_key.pages | |
File Size: | 189 kb |
File Type: | pages |
Watch the video clips below for tomorrow. Start the first video at 5:18 and watch the rest. Start the second video at the beginning and watch until 4:00.
Plot Summary of Julius Caesar at a Glance
Julius Caesar is a highly successful leader of Rome whose popularity seems to model that of a king's. Although Caesar is loved and supported by his citizens, some begin to grow wary of his increase in power. Soon, these wary citizens conspire to assassinate Caesar before he becomes king thus turning their republic government into a monarchy. Cassius, the leader of the conspirators, convinces Marcus Brutus, Caesar's most trusted friend, to join the conspiracy. During a celebration, Caesar is warned by the Soothsayer that he must "beware the Ides of March". The next morning, despite his wife Calpurnia's pleas, Caesar travels to the Senate House where the conspirators assassinate him. Caesar's friend Mark Antony provides the famous funeral oration and incites the crowd to riot leading to a civil war. Antony and Octavius, Caesar's heirs, join the fight against the conspirators. Antony and Octavius defeat the conspirators avenging Caesar's death and restoring order to Rome.
Julius Caesar is a highly successful leader of Rome whose popularity seems to model that of a king's. Although Caesar is loved and supported by his citizens, some begin to grow wary of his increase in power. Soon, these wary citizens conspire to assassinate Caesar before he becomes king thus turning their republic government into a monarchy. Cassius, the leader of the conspirators, convinces Marcus Brutus, Caesar's most trusted friend, to join the conspiracy. During a celebration, Caesar is warned by the Soothsayer that he must "beware the Ides of March". The next morning, despite his wife Calpurnia's pleas, Caesar travels to the Senate House where the conspirators assassinate him. Caesar's friend Mark Antony provides the famous funeral oration and incites the crowd to riot leading to a civil war. Antony and Octavius, Caesar's heirs, join the fight against the conspirators. Antony and Octavius defeat the conspirators avenging Caesar's death and restoring order to Rome.
JULIUS CAESAR- Cosby Show rap
I say friends, let me hold your ear,
And Romans, let me hold your ear,
I say countrymen, let me hold your ear,
I’m Marcus Antony but they call me Mark,
I didn’t come to bite, you see I came to bark,
But the holes that the brothers put in Julius C,
As far as I’m concerned it was cool with me,
You see Brutus and the boys must have known what they were doin’,
Caesar was about to run Rome to ruin,
Cause Brutus is cool.
All Caesar did was to Romanize the world,
And put some bronze in the palm of every boy and girl,
But the man’s so chill that when they handed him the crown,
He said “No, baby,” and turned the crown down.
Brutus thinks this thing is meant to be,
Which is how he justified the ides of March, see?
But Brutus is cool.
I say chill homeboys my heart’s with Dr. J,
So let’s get busy till it comes this way.
Take it to the bridge.
Now the last little Caesar scene before homeboy blew,
Was to drop some old gold on each one of you,
JC was your father,
JC was your brother,
And what I want to know is when comes such another.
Great Caesar’s ghost, Great Caesar’s ghost.
I say friends, let me hold your ear,
And Romans, let me hold your ear,
I say countrymen, let me hold your ear,
I’m Marcus Antony but they call me Mark,
I didn’t come to bite, you see I came to bark,
But the holes that the brothers put in Julius C,
As far as I’m concerned it was cool with me,
You see Brutus and the boys must have known what they were doin’,
Caesar was about to run Rome to ruin,
Cause Brutus is cool.
All Caesar did was to Romanize the world,
And put some bronze in the palm of every boy and girl,
But the man’s so chill that when they handed him the crown,
He said “No, baby,” and turned the crown down.
Brutus thinks this thing is meant to be,
Which is how he justified the ides of March, see?
But Brutus is cool.
I say chill homeboys my heart’s with Dr. J,
So let’s get busy till it comes this way.
Take it to the bridge.
Now the last little Caesar scene before homeboy blew,
Was to drop some old gold on each one of you,
JC was your father,
JC was your brother,
And what I want to know is when comes such another.
Great Caesar’s ghost, Great Caesar’s ghost.
CONGRATULATIONS!!! YOU'VE JUST FINISHED JULIUS CAESAR! (See, it wasn't so bad)
TIME TO MOVE ON! Not so fast. Before we move on, you're going to have to show me what you took away from the play and demonstrate your understanding of the events and characters from the Julius Caesar.
No need to cry, you get to choose how you demonstrate your understanding. In other words, you've got a few options to choose from for this project. They are listed below and are followed by a rubric to help you through the process. Choose one of the following:
1. Create a yearbook for Rome. You should include pictures of the staff and student body (senators would probably make good teachers, huh?). You should also include pictures of extra-curricular activities in Rome (maybe like a triumvirate team, or a conspiracy team). Your pictures should have captions to explain who everyone is. This should be at least 4 pages in length, but you'll probably find you want more.
2. Create a newspaper or magazine centered around the events and characters of the play. Do some reporting of the events through articles (with pictures and captions) reported by someone who was actually there. For example, an article about Caesar's assassination might be written by Casca since he was there. It might be fun to include a horoscope section written by one of our characters who made predictions in the play. You could have a fashion column by one our characters or an advice column. Include a section of letters to the editor and make the author of those letters characters from the play. Give the newspaper or magazine a title that would apply to Rome and make the date accurate. Your newspaper should have at least 4 pages, but again, I think you'll probably need more than that.
3. Make a brochure which advertises a summer camp in Rome in which the camp counselors and guest speakers are characters from the play. Make some sort of schedule for each day of camp that would demonstrate your understanding of the play. Include pictures of our characters and incorporate them into the camp. Make the locations of activities in places that are specific to the play. Each section of the brochure should be filled.
4. Choose a character from the play. Make a scrapbook of their lives. Include pictures and captions. It should have other characters in it from the play and demonstrate an understanding of the events, places, and characters in the story. This should be at least 6 pages long, but you may need more than than to do everything you need to.
No need to cry, you get to choose how you demonstrate your understanding. In other words, you've got a few options to choose from for this project. They are listed below and are followed by a rubric to help you through the process. Choose one of the following:
1. Create a yearbook for Rome. You should include pictures of the staff and student body (senators would probably make good teachers, huh?). You should also include pictures of extra-curricular activities in Rome (maybe like a triumvirate team, or a conspiracy team). Your pictures should have captions to explain who everyone is. This should be at least 4 pages in length, but you'll probably find you want more.
2. Create a newspaper or magazine centered around the events and characters of the play. Do some reporting of the events through articles (with pictures and captions) reported by someone who was actually there. For example, an article about Caesar's assassination might be written by Casca since he was there. It might be fun to include a horoscope section written by one of our characters who made predictions in the play. You could have a fashion column by one our characters or an advice column. Include a section of letters to the editor and make the author of those letters characters from the play. Give the newspaper or magazine a title that would apply to Rome and make the date accurate. Your newspaper should have at least 4 pages, but again, I think you'll probably need more than that.
3. Make a brochure which advertises a summer camp in Rome in which the camp counselors and guest speakers are characters from the play. Make some sort of schedule for each day of camp that would demonstrate your understanding of the play. Include pictures of our characters and incorporate them into the camp. Make the locations of activities in places that are specific to the play. Each section of the brochure should be filled.
4. Choose a character from the play. Make a scrapbook of their lives. Include pictures and captions. It should have other characters in it from the play and demonstrate an understanding of the events, places, and characters in the story. This should be at least 6 pages long, but you may need more than than to do everything you need to.