Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar is one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays, telling the story of one of history’s most famous events. In this tense political thriller, the Roman senator Brutus must decide whether to assassinate the powerful military general Julius Caesar in order to save Roman Republic — and the audience must decide whether Brutus made the right choice. In this course, you’ll learn how Shakespeare dramatized the historical event of Caesar’s assassination in 44 BCE,  and particularly how he linked refined political rhetoric, aspiration toward Roman ideals, and acts of savage violence. You’ll also hear the play’s key speeches performed and analyzed by world-class Shakespearean actors and literary scholars.

In Part 1, you’ll be guided through a detailed account of the story with commentary by Michael Dobson, Director of the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon and Professor of Shakespeare Studies, University of Birmingham. Professor Dobson discusses the Roman history behind Julius Caesar and the cultural role of classical Rome during the Renaissance, when Shakespeare was writing. This summary is told using the language of the play itself, placing key quotations in context to help you understand where these lines come from and what they mean. 

Part 2 focuses on the play’s key interpretive questions: how we are invited to judge the central characters. Is Caesar, in Shakespeare’s story, really a tyrant who needed to be killed? Is Brutus a noble political hero or a misguided egoist? With Professor Dobson, you’ll discover how Shakespeare restructured this familiar story to make easy judgments impossible. Professor Dobson also discusses the Roman values that the characters strive to embody and how these values generate friendships, rivalries, and violence. 

In Part 3, Professor Dobson offers close-readings of some of the play’s most important speeches, including Brutus’s deliberation over Caesar’s assassination and the rival speeches given by Brutus and Antony to “Friends, Romans, countrymen” at Caesar’s funeral — speeches that display the potential power of rhetoric.

You can hear the third episode of this course for free below. For the full course, subscribe today on Himalaya Learning. Use the promo code SHAKESPEARE for 14 days free.

Episode 3 - Speeches and Performers

• Brutus, 2.1, “It must be by his death …” (Anton Lesser)

• Caesar, 3.1, “I could be well moved …” (“I am as constant as the Northern Star”) (Andrew Woodall)

• Brutus, 3.2, “Romans, countrymen, and lovers, hear me for my cause …” (Anton Lesser)

• Antony, 3.2, “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears …” (Mark Quartley)

Course instructor

Michael Dobson is Director of the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon and Professor of Shakespeare Studies, University of Birmingham. His previous employers include the Universities of London, Oxford, and Harvard, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. Professor Dobson is a General Editor of the Arden Performance Editions of Shakespeare series, an honorary governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company, a Member of Council of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Chair of Trustees of Flute Theatre, and co-director of the Shakespeare Centre, China. His research focuses not only on Shakespeare’s own works but also on how they have been creatively adapted by actors, scholars, directors, philosophers, composers, critics, and artists across time and space. His lecturing and research on Shakespeare have so far taken him to over 30 different countries; in 2020 he was awarded the International Shakespeare Prize of Romania, and he holds Romanian and Swedish honorary degrees, an honorary membership of the Ukrainian Shakespeare Centre, and an honorary professorship at Henan Normal University in China. He works as a frequent consultant to theatre directors and actors producing Shakespeare’s plays. Professor Dobson is the author and editor of numerous books and articles, including Shakespeare and Amateur Performance: A Cultural History (Cambridge University Press, 2011), Performing Shakespeare's Tragedies Today: the Actor's Perspective (editor, Cambridge University Press, 2006), England's Elizabeth: an afterlife in fame and fantasy (with Nicola J. Watson, Oxford University Press, 2002), The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare (co-editor with Stanley Wells, Oxford University Press, 2001), and The Making of the National Poet (Oxford University Press, 1992). Professor Dobson’s work Shakespeare: A Playgoer's and Reader's Guide (co-edited with Stanley Wells, Oxford University Press, 2020) is now available to pre-order.