Julius Caesar Lesson Plan

How does Act IV, Scene 1 complicate your understanding of the political stakes surrounding Caesar’s assassination?

In Scene 1, the audience sees Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus organizing a purge of the Roman senate. This suggests that perhaps the fear expressed by one plebeian that “a worse will come in [Caesar’s] place” (III.2.108) was keenly insightful, given the immense power vacuum created by Caesar’s death. The impending battle, for which both sides are preparing, also suggests that Brutus and the conspirators were naive to think that a single violent act against a head of state could effectively launch an otherwise peaceful reorganization of the Roman governing...