After reading the story of Julius Caesar, I was shocked at his personality and his confidence in his reputation! This story truly amazed me and it was unlike anything else I've ever read. It's crazy how someone who is captured and who's life is in the hands of pirates is able to have such confidence and arrogance to make demands to his captors! Its insane how he wasn't even concerned with his own safety when he was making his remarks. Caesar surprised me because he put his pride in front of his safety as he taunted his captors with his ego and reputation.
Personally, I like Caesar and his personality. I am a firm believer in accepting your mistakes and being quick to apologize. In the PDF I learned that Caesar was someone who made mistakes and he was quick to admit that. But at the same time, he made a lot of brilliant decisions and he used those to feed his ego.
I also liked the way Plutarch presented Caesar. He didn't represent him as a god or like how Shakespeare represented Richard iii with some extra personality qualities that he may not have had. I like how he was humble about his writings.
I personally felt as if the Caesar that was described in Plutarch was different and came off as more arrogant than as he was described in Goldsworthy. I feel like Goldsworthy portrayed more of the importance and the power of Caesar than Plutarch did. I feel as if Plutarch wasn't wrong in doing so, but he wanted to give us a perspective of exactly who Caesar was.
To be honest, I found this reading to be very challenging and difficult to comprehend (especially because I have been pressed for time lately). As mentioned in class, I thought this text got easier to read as I progressed in the text: similar to the cold swimming pool reference. I believe humans have become more direct and straightforward readers. In the time of Shakespeare or Plutarch, people read because it was one of the only ways of self-entertainment; as compared to today, people are more often reading to learn something and they want to get just the facts without any "fluff".
I like the way you described the difference between Plutarch's version and Goldsworthy's version of Caesar. I feel as if Plutarch is way too obsessed with Caesar to the point that even if Caesar did something awful, Plutarch justified it. But I agree with the point you made about Plutarch making Caesar seem like this amazing person, but did not make him out to be a god.
ReplyDeleteI can agree with you when you say that Plutarch is a tough read. I felt like there were so many battles to keep track of and so many names of different people. Personally I was a fan of ceasar because he seemed like a personality that Rome had lacked in a leader. That's why I think he was so popular among the crowds.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Caesar was crazy but a brave guy to stand up to the pirates. He put his attitude first and took the chance in surviving but doing so. Although the reading was challenging it was interesting to continue to read to find out what happens at the end. After everything that happened it amazed me that Caesar the guy that stood up to pirates dies, it took more than just a couple pirates to get the job done.
ReplyDeleteYeah the reading was very difficult. Just like every other old book, there is so much to keep track of that sometimes you lose yourself in the amount of things you try to remember. But at the same time it was pretty interesting, Caesar is a very arrogant guy and I thought it was pretty funny the way he reacted to the situation. He was completely confident and unconcerned like he knew he was going to win in the end.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting how you compared Plutarch's portrayal of Caesar and Goldsworthy's. I think it really ties into Plutarch's notion that he wanted to right about "lives" not necessarily their achievements and like Goldsworthy was doing the opposite.
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