William Shakespeare’s Tragedy of Julius Caesar is a very popular play that is studied in schools all over the world. Due to the play having historical background, there is often confusion of the how true to actual Roman life were to the events that offered in the play. The social events in the tragedy of Julius Caesar were very important to the flow of the plot. These events also revealed small details about characters like how Calpurnia, who is Julius Caesar’s wife, is actually infertile. Since these events are very important, I decided it would important to know how the Romans actually behaved and what traditions they had. If there is outside information about actual Romans, then there will be a better understanding of why William Shakespeare
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For this investigation, I decided to research the festival of the Lupercalia and the funeral practices of the Romans because the scenes that occurred during these events had great meaning to the main theme and the progression of the plot. In the tragedy of Julius Caesar in act one, scene one and two, the people are celebrating the Feast of the Lupercalia which is on February fifteenth. Julius Caesar speaks to his friend Antony. He tells Antony that he must touch Caesar’s wife, Calpurnia, because she is “cursed” with infertility and action is supposed to cleanse her of the curse. The people of the town celebrated Caesar’s return after winning on the same day as the festival so they didn’t work. The actual festival is an ancient Roman festival that was held on February fifteenth. The legend of the festival of Lupercalia is that these two boys name Romulus and Remus were raised and nursed by a wolf names Lupa. This is important because they are said to be the founders of Rome. The god “Lupercus” is known as the god of shepherds. This festival was when Romans made goat or other animal sacrifices to the god and priests wore goatskins to clear the town of evil …show more content…
People create grand rituals to makes sure the soul makes a safe passage to the “final destination” which is different depending on the religion and culture. The funeral scenes in the tragedy of Julius Caesar were probably the most influential for the storyline and the main points of the play. With the first funeral scene, we have the speeches of Brutus and Antony. Antony requested that the men allow Antony a speech at Julius Caesar’s funeral just to say goodbyes and pay respect. Brutus was the first person to give the speech. The speech was about why the conspirators decided to kill Caesar. This got the crown to be happy about the death of Caesar. Then, Antony gave the speech which was scripted by the men but he drifted off. He spoke about the injustice of the death of Caesar and had the crowd full of passion to redeem Caesar’s honor. Then, towards the end of the play, there was the funeral of Brutus who decided to kill himself due to the greatness of his mistakes. At Brutus’ funeral, Marc Antony speaks about how Brutus was actually a very noble man. He fought for what he was tricked into thinking was right. The funerals in real roman culture were a bit different to the ones in the tragedy of Julius Caesar. The Romans took very good care of their dead. When a person died, family would go and mourn in the spot where the person passed. The Roman people cared very
For this investigation, I decided to research the festival of the Lupercalia and the funeral practices of the Romans because the scenes that occurred during these events had great meaning to the main theme and the progression of the plot. In the tragedy of Julius Caesar in act one, scene one and two, the people are celebrating the Feast of the Lupercalia which is on February fifteenth. Julius Caesar speaks to his friend Antony. He tells Antony that he must touch Caesar’s wife, Calpurnia, because she is “cursed” with infertility and action is supposed to cleanse her of the curse. The people of the town celebrated Caesar’s return after winning on the same day as the festival so they didn’t work. The actual festival is an ancient Roman festival that was held on February fifteenth. The legend of the festival of Lupercalia is that these two boys name Romulus and Remus were raised and nursed by a wolf names Lupa. This is important because they are said to be the founders of Rome. The god “Lupercus” is known as the god of shepherds. This festival was when Romans made goat or other animal sacrifices to the god and priests wore goatskins to clear the town of evil …show more content…
People create grand rituals to makes sure the soul makes a safe passage to the “final destination” which is different depending on the religion and culture. The funeral scenes in the tragedy of Julius Caesar were probably the most influential for the storyline and the main points of the play. With the first funeral scene, we have the speeches of Brutus and Antony. Antony requested that the men allow Antony a speech at Julius Caesar’s funeral just to say goodbyes and pay respect. Brutus was the first person to give the speech. The speech was about why the conspirators decided to kill Caesar. This got the crown to be happy about the death of Caesar. Then, Antony gave the speech which was scripted by the men but he drifted off. He spoke about the injustice of the death of Caesar and had the crowd full of passion to redeem Caesar’s honor. Then, towards the end of the play, there was the funeral of Brutus who decided to kill himself due to the greatness of his mistakes. At Brutus’ funeral, Marc Antony speaks about how Brutus was actually a very noble man. He fought for what he was tricked into thinking was right. The funerals in real roman culture were a bit different to the ones in the tragedy of Julius Caesar. The Romans took very good care of their dead. When a person died, family would go and mourn in the spot where the person passed. The Roman people cared very