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Julius Caesar Shakespeare Comparison Outline

George Urakhchin
English per. 2
5/7/2006

Full Sentence Outline: Julius Caesar

I. Introduction
A. The background of the assassination of Julius Caesar is given here.
1. According to Shakespeare, Julius Caesar was assassinated by the crime of Tyrannicide.
a. Tyrannicide is the act of becoming a tyrant.
b. At that time, Rome was a democracy ran by the Senate.
c. The assassinators, according to Shakespeare, did their crime to preserve the nation's democratic rule.
B. The quick outline of Shakespeare's play itself is given here.
1. Everybody "[bows] to Caesar", and they love Caesar, and even offer him the crown (Parenti 5).
2. Brutus is threatened by Caesar's rising power and the potential of a monarchy.
3. Brutus and others plan the assassination of Caesar.
4. After Caesar's death, the people "[hail] Brutus for saving them from tyranny" (Parenti 5).
5. And, "only in the next breath [the people are] swayed by Antony" (Parenti 5).
6. Shakespeare depicts the people of Rome "as a mindless aggregation easily led by hither and thither" (Parenti 5). This is just a minor example of Shakespeare's inaccurate exaggeration of Rome.
C. The thesis goes here.
D. Why did Shakespeare inaccurately depict certain aspects of Rome?
1. "Fictional representations of history do not usually strive for accuracy, their primary goal being to entertain rather than educate" (Parenti 4).
2. Shakespeare wrote this play during the 40-year reign of Queen Elizabeth I.
a. The story is about a yet-to-be dictator/monarch, Julius Caesar. He wants to write a story that would connect to his present time - the monarchy of the Queen.
1) The queen's age of sixty-six meant her reign has been nearing to the end, "yet she lacked any heirs, (as did Julius Caesar)," and "many feared that her death would plunge England" (Sparknotes, Julius Caesar: Context).
2) Thus, Shakespeare "[used] the story of Caesar's to comment on the political situation of his day" (Sparknotes, Julius Caesar:...