Mostly what I expected...

There were not many things that surprised me while reading Julius Caesar.  We already had previous experience with the stories from Plutarch and HBO’s Rome, but I was a little surprised that the play wasn’t really about Caesar at all.  I did not expect him to be killed in the third act while there was still two more left in the play.  What would the rest of the book be about?

While I was reading the last two acts, it made sense to me why they were important (even though they were not very exciting or interesting.)  Brutus and Antony constructed their own armies and went to battle against each other.  Antony was fighting to avenge Caesar’s death and Brutus was just trying to put an end to the tyranny and power struggle once and for all.  But this war just seemed completely childish to me.  It didn’t seem like there was real reason to have a war. 

 

 Cassius even commanded someone to kill him for no real reason.  He was mistaken that his friend was captured by the enemy and couldn’t bear to live anymore; however, that was not true.  Once Brutus found out the Cassius was dead, he wanted to kill himself too.  This is a whole lot of drama for no reason.  I think Shakespeare could have done better here. 

Also, like CJ and Kayla both said, the details and plot of this entire play is very typical of Shakespeare.  There were murders, battles, suicides, and even ghosts.  We have seen it all several times before, but it is interesting to see how Shakespeare slightly changes it up with each play he writes.