The Tragedy of Julius Caesar  

William Shakespeare

 

Quickwrite # 1

Is assassination ever justified?

 

•Julius Caesar is a tragedy.

•A tragedy is a play, novel, or other narrative that depicts serious and important events and ends unhappily for the main character.

 

•The main character is often high ranking and dignified, not an ordinary man or woman. •The main character has a tragic flaw – a defect in character or judgment – that directly causes the character’s downfall. •The work ends unhappily, with the death of the main character.

 

Five-Part Structure of a Tragedy:

 

 

Act I - Exposition - Introduces the main characters and their conflicts, establishes background information.

Act II - Rising Action - Suspense builds as plot events create a rising action, a series of complications caused by the main characters when they try to resolve their conflicts.

Act III - Crisis or Turning Point - •The crisis, or turning point, occurs in Act III. This is the dramatic and tense moment when the main character makes a choice that determines the rest of the play’s action. 

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Act IV - Falling Action  - The consequences, or results, of actions taken during the turning point. This act propels the main character into deeper disaster; the tragic ending seems inevitable.

Act V - Climax and Resolution - Near the end of the play, the climax, or moment of greatest tension, occurs. In a tragedy the climax is usually the death of the tragic hero. A brief resolution closely follows the climax, tying up any loose ends in the plot, and the play ends.

(In a comedy the turning point lifts the play upward to a happy ending; in a tragedy, events spiral downward to an inevitable unhappy ending.)