Julius Caesar

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Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare

My daughter's writing curriculum required us to read Julius Caesar--out loud, a scene at a time. First we read a synopsis of the story and watched the play with the book in hand, and we've been reading the play out loud for a few weeks now. Today Brutus finally ran himself through and we finished. Although Julius Caesar is perhaps not the most fun Shakespeare play (my daughter is not a fan of all the death), it is a fairly straightforward one and I think we understood it pretty well. I had fun translating the difficult bits into something she could understand.

She has set a goal for herself this year to read five Shakespeare plays, and we have some good movies to watch. The writing course now requires us to start studying The Merchant of Venice too (I suppose because of the quality of mercy speech--the authors like to provide moral examples along with great literature. Or else because some speech goes along with a skill they're trying to teach. Could be either one), so we are getting plenty of Shakespeare around here. Only the library's copy of the movie has apparently been stolen, so we don't have one to watch, unless I borrow it from the next town over--but that one isn't a BBC production or anything, it stars Al Pacino and is rated R. So I'm thinking not.

Comments

  1. *ೃ༄ JillianJanuary 30, 2012 at 11:32 PM

    I'll be reading this one later this year too. I read it in high school but barely remember it. I can't wait to read The Merchant of Venice. You know it was heavily inspired by Marlowe's The Jew of Malta?

    I love that you combine your reading with the movies. That's a great idea to really absorb the works. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. JeanJanuary 31, 2012 at 7:39 AM

    I did know that, but had completely forgotten, so thanks for the reminder--I really ought to read more Marlowe.

    It does really help to watch the movies if you can get good ones. Sadly I guess I can't when it comes to the Merchant of Venice.

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