Caesar Act II, scenes ii-iv notes

 ¡Remember, at the end of Act II, scene i, Brutus, in his soliloquy, calls Caesar a “serpent egg” which must be destroyed! Brutus reads the letter, and Cassius drops by with the conspirators. They discuss the assassination of Caesar. Brutus wants to be thought of as saviors or Rome, not murders of Caesar. Cassius wants to make an oath, get Cicero to join, and kill Antony, but Brutus says NO! Brutus and Portia’s marriage is suffering because Brutus is remaining loyal to keeping the secret about the assassination and won’t talk to Portia about it. Ligarius knocks on Brutus’s door and asks if he is a part of the conspiracy. When Brutus confirms that he is they run off stage to talk about it.

¡Act II, scene ii beings in Caesar’s palace. Caesar is kept awake because Calphurnia keeps having nightmares and calls out in her sleep about Caesar’s murder THREE TIMES!



¡Cassius and Brutus enter with Ligarius, Metellus, Casca, Trebonius, and Cinna to escort him to the Senate. Finally, Antony enters.

¡Caesar prepares to depart.

Act II, scene iii

¡Artemidorus – (a man loyal to Caesar) knew about the plot to kill Caesar and planned to warn him. In scene iii, Artemidorus comes on stage reading the letter he wrote to Caesar, warning him to beware of Brutus, Casca and other conspirators. He stands along the path that Caesar will take to the Senate, prepared to hand the letter to Caesar. He hopes that Caesar will read the letter, and it will save his life.

Act II, scene iv

 ¡Portia sends Brutus’s servant to the Senate to observe events and report back to her how Caesar is doing.

¡A Soothsayer enters, and Portia asks him if Caesar has gone to the Capitol yet. The Soothsayer replies that he knows that Caesar has NOT yet gone; he intends to wait for Caesar along his route, since he wants to say a word to him.

¡He goes to the street to wait, hoping Caesar’s entourage will let him speak to the great man.

¡Texting had not yet been invented, so Portia sends her servant to tell Brutus she is merry. (She is actually very scared and worried.)

Constructed Response

What is a Constructed Response?

A constructed response is a type of open-ended essay question that demonstrates cognitive knowledge and reasoning. The answer must be provided using information that can be found in a particular text or other essay prompt (map, picture, graphic organizer, etc.), and is not meant to demonstrate opinion, but to show how you are able to extract information and use this as the basis for forming a complete answer. Constructed response essays are increasingly used on standardized tests ranging from the statewide assessments that usually begin in third grade all the way up to the college placement exams such as the SAT and ACT.

To understand and answer the constructed response essay question, the easiest way is to memorize the acronym "RACE" - this stands for reword, answer, cite and explain. If you are able to restate a question, provide an answer using evidence cited from the prompt given, and then explain how that evidence does, in fact, support the answer, you will probably score well on the constructed response essay section of any exam you take.

Rewording the Question (the "R" in "RACE")

Reword the question means that you are to restate the question and make it into a statement as a part of the answer you provide. If you were to be asked "What color is the sky?", you would not simply answer "blue" - instead, the correct answer would be "The color of the sky is blue," or words to that effect.

Answering the Question (the "A" in "RACE")

In order to answer the question, you need to understand what you are being asked, and then make sure you provide the answer to that specific question. The answer, as in the example above, may come in the first sentence as you reword the question into a statement, but in an essay question you will then need to show how you arrived at your answer.

Citing Evidence (the "C" in "RACE")

As the constructed response question is meant to show how well you comprehended and were able to draw inferences from the essay prompt, it is essential that you give examples from the prompt to show how they support your answer. If the prompt is a story you read about a boy named Joe who loves to ski, and the question is "Does Joe like the winter?", you could answer "Joe likes the winter because the story tells us that he loves skiiing and skiing is a winter sport." In your essay you could go on to provide specific details that tell you how much he enjoys skiing (and, by extension, winter), such as quoting a line that says "Joe enjoyed the feel of the icy-cold air on his cheeks."

Explaining the Answer (the "E" in "RACE")

In addition to the evidence you've cited from the prompt, you will need to supply your own reasoning for why you think your answer is correct. Returning to the example above, the story about Joe who loved to ski, your examples from the text would be the details about how he enjoyed skiing and the cold air, but your own reasoning would be demonstrated by explaining that you know that skiing and cold air are things he is only likely to encounter during the winter, therefore his enjoyment of these things must mean that he also enjoys the winter season.

A Rubric for Evaluating the Constructed Response

If your answer to the constructed response essay question displays an understanding of the question in all its complexity, uses information from the prompt (either information directly presented to you or that you've inferred) and provides a complete explanation of how the answer was arrived at that demonstrates your use of logic or reasoning, you may receive the highest score (usually a 3) on your answer. If your answer addresses some of the question or uses evidence that only partially supports your conclusion or does not directly connect to it, you may receive a somewhat lower grade of 2. If you attempt to answer the question but your essay demonstrates that you may have misunderstood it, or your answer lacks any relevant or meaningful supporting evidence to support your conclusion, you may receive an even lower grade of 1. If you do not answer at all, or if your answer is incorrect or irrelevant, you may receive the lowest grade of 0.

Read more: http://www.brighthub.com/education/homework-tips/articles/33366.aspx#ixzz1D1gDRiFb

Act II, scene i - notes

End of Act I Reminder:

Remember, at the end of Act I the weather was stormy, Cassius told Cinna to place the letters for Brutus to find, the conspirators were meeting at Pompey’s porch, and Cassius was about to go see Brutus.

Remember, in Act I, Brutus was contemplating whether to be loyal to Caesar or loyal to Rome.

ACT II - Rising Action (complications) 

¡In Act II, Brutus has decided that Caesar must die!!!!!

¡Brutus knows that Caesar will be crowned king tomorrow. He does NOT know if Caesar will be corrupted by his power or not.

¡Brutus is pacing back and forth, wondering what to do about Caesar.

¡Brutus has never seen Caesar swayed by power in the past. He thinks that when Caesar becomes king he will start scorning (hating on) people who are lower in status (beneath him).

¡ Brutus compares Caesar to the egg of a serpent “which, hatched, would as his kind grow mischievous”; thus, he determines to “kill him in the shell” (II.i.33–34).

¡The “serpent egg” is a metaphor for Caesar. A serpent is a snake. A snake is a symbol of evil.¡Brutus wants to destroy the egg (Caesar) before it hatches - (before he is made king).

¡Brutus’s servant enters with a letter he found near the window.

¡Brutus reads the letter, which accuses him of sleeping while Rome is threatened: “Brutus, thou sleep’st. Awake, and see thyself” (II.i.46).

¡ Brutus interprets the letter as a protest against Caesar: “Thus must I piece it out: / Shall Rome stand under one man’s awe?” (II.i.51–52).

¡Cassius introduces the conspirators to Brutus, then pulls Brutus to the side and asks him to swear an oath that they will go through with the assassination. Brutus does NOT take an oath because he says the CAUSE is strong enough to bind them together.

Quickwrite # 3

¡Remember, I am not collecting the Quickwrites until the end of the play.

¡Brutus’s wife, Portia, asks him to talk about the things that are bothering him, but he doesn’t want to talk about it. How many times do people ask you, “What’s wrong,” but you don’t talk to them about what is on your mind? If Brutus told Portia about the plan to kill Caesar, maybe Portia could have talked some sense into him. Has there ever been a time in your life when talking to someone about an issue you were having could have helped? Explain in 5-7 sentences.