Julius Caesar Research Paper

Good morning, people! I came up here today to talk about something that might make you bored a little bit. I believe everyone in this room has read one of Shakespeare’s plays more than once in their life. I would like you to recall the first time you read his writing. What was your first impression? Good? Sad? Or were you overwhelmed with great agony from deep inside your heart? Did you hate yourself, not understanding a single word on a page? I don’t wanna sound like an I-know-everything person, but believe me. When I read the first page of Macbeth, I just knew it from instinct -- this is not my type of book. The words were too lofty, his syntax was overly complicated, and his characters would just suddenly speak out their thoughts. I mean,
Well, sure. Most of his writings are from a long time ago. None of them talk about iPhones or facebook. Macbeth is a king who lived in Middle Ages. Julius Caesar? Ancient Rome. Romeo and Juliet, a story of the time when people would just start fighting on the street, killing each other. However, interestingly, we encounter these characters every day in our life. In Julius Caesar, Caesar is afraid people might think he is not masculine and weak. Just like him, we care a lot about how other people see us and sometimes make decision opposing to what we really want because of others. Shakespeare makes a thorough observation of human nature that applies the same from ancient Romans to modern day people. His observations are so sharp that it penetrates hippocratic masks and reveal emotions we hide. They make us look back what we really feel, what we really think, and what we really want. By following the characters, we can encounter vulnerable, somewhat uncomfortable, but undeniable portraits of
Long story short, they protect us from being deceived by those people up there: politicians and mass media. Take a careful look around you. Let’s be honest. A lot of times, our thoughts are not what we really think. Five-second-Youtube ads sneak into our brains and skillfully manipulate our thoughts. Words falling out of politicians’ mouth quietly float into our hearts, speeding up the heartbeat. And Shakespeare knew that exactly 400 years ago. Let’s take a look at a scene in Julius Caesar. After Caesar was murdered by the conspirators, Antony, a close friend of Caesar, delivers a speech in Caesar’s funeral. He pretends to be an honest man, sincerely mourning the death of his close friend Caesar, who was slashed by those “honorable men.” Rather than reading out Caesar’s will directly, he patiently waits until the crowd shouts out with their own mouths, “Please, please, please read us the will!” He turns the crowd into angry herds of animals in less than 10 minutes. What Antony does is no different from what we see on TV today. Impractical promises made every election. Words that control our emotion and lead us into making illogical decisions. Can't believe me? Look who’s the president of America now! That’s why by reading and analyzing Shakespeare plays, we gain the skill of seeing things critically, not taking it as it is on the surface. Recognizing who’s telling the truth and who’s