Teaching Shakespeare: "Julius Caesar," William Shakespeare

When I studied "Julius Caesar" as a high school student I was overpowered with the characters who was openly assassinated the top official in Rome as it was at the height of its power and influence.  It was a seminal moment, But as I studied the play again and again, and then taught it many times, I still had the question: Did he do something that justified his assassination in the Senate at Rome?

Then after experiencing the second election of Donald Trump, I began to understand.

Julius Caesar was beloved of the people: he regularly gave them the treasures of the wars he won.  He left them money in his will.  But he was about to change the Roman Republic, which the Senators revered so much.  Rome was ripe for a hang and his adopted son, Octavius, became the 1st Roman Emperor.  His appeal was his dynamic personality fostered in the military,  Both Napoleon Bonaparte and Benito Mussolini studied him closely and called themselves "Caesarists."  dHe was one of the first to embrace a term called "Populists."  (one that has a negative quality in modern politics.)

Lesson Plans, 107 pages; Dialectic journal, 24.500 words, visuals