1. Bellringer Respond to the following:
Why do the men want to kill Caesar? Remember there can be more than one reason because there are many men and each man could have a different reason.

2. Objective!
I can infer personality traits about a character based on the text.
I can use text evidence to support my answers.
I can apply concepts of a tragic hero to a text.

3. Characteristics of a Tragic Hero
According to Aristotle:
Usually of noble birth
Hamartia – a.k.a. the tragic flaw that eventually leads to his downfall; often this leads to a mistake in judgment.
Peripeteia – a reversal of fortune brought about by the hero’s tragic flaw; this is often also influenced by “fate” or the gods.
His actions result in an increase of self- awareness and self-knowledge…though he may not choose to act on this!
The audience must feel pity and fear for this character.

4. The “tragic flaw”
The “flaw” in the character is a defect which keeps him/her from being aware of the situation around him/her. The character does not understand (for much of the story) his/her part of creating the situation.
Ex: Pride
Skywalker thinks he is so good, he can take on an experienced Jedi all by himself.

5. Common Examples of Tragic Flaws
Greed
Obsession with one thing
Mistrust
Uncertainty
Lack of patience
Easily influenced
Hesitation
Selfishness
Ambition

6. Tragedy
1. Tragedy is meant to remind us that life is worth living despite all the pain and suffering.
2. Tragedies are about people in conflict with the universe.
Tragedies are always about spiritual conflicts, never about every day events.

7. Tragedy 3. Tragic actions arise from a character's inner conflict.
A tragic protagonist must have magnitude; his struggles are great because he is important to society.
4. The tragic protagonist must fall from high to low; they will have a noble soul.
The audience must care about the tragic protagonist.

8. Tragedy
5. The tragic protagonist is a decent person, but not perfect (not completely virtuous or villainous).
Once the transgression is realized, the character enters the stage of anagnorisis  (recognition) and will undergo a peripeteia (reversal of fortune or fall from high to low).
In other words, the character grows and gains self-knowledge.

9. Tragedy
6. The protagonist's actions should arouse feelings of both pity, fear, and compassion in the audience.
However much the audience may feel for the character, it does not leave with depression.

10. Tragedy
7. By the end of the play, the audience should be purged of pity and fear, so they go through a catharsis (purgation of pity and fear).
8.The tragic protagonist must ask the first and last of all questions: What does it mean to be?
He must face the world alone, unaided, and kick against his fate.
He can never escape his fate, but he will insist upon accepting fate on his own terms.

11. Who is a tragic hero?

12. Actors! Caesar Brutus Soothsayer Cinna Artimedorus Metellus Decius
Casca
Publius
Trebonius
Cassius
Antony’s servant
Popillius
Antony

13. Question 1:
Why doesn’t Caesar read Artemidorus’ letter first? What does this moment tell us about him?

14. Question 2:
In lines 16-17, how do we begin to see a change in Cassius? What type of character changes over the course of the text?

15. Question 3:
How is Caesar characterized in lines 36-48? Does this fit what the conspirators have been saying about him in the past? Why or why not?

16. Question 4:
Caesar uses a simile to describe himself on page Explain what it is and what it tells us about him.

17. Question 5:
How do you think people would respond if they saw this scene? What do you think the conspirators’ next step is?

18. I’ll show you how to annotate so you know what to do Friday.
Cassius: Why, the man who shortens his life by twenty years cuts off twenty years of worrying about death.
Brutus: So, then, death is a gift, and we are Caesar’s friends, for we’ve done him a service by shortening his time spent fearing death. Kneel, Romans, kneel, and let’s wash our hands, up to the elbows, in Caesar’s blood and smear it on our swords. Then we’ll go out, even to the marketplace, and, waving our bloody swords over our heads, let’s cry, “Peace, freedom, and liberty!”

19. Question 6:
Cassius: Why, the man who shortens his life by twenty years cuts off twenty years of worrying about death.
Brutus: So, then, death is a gift, and we are Caesar’s friends, for we’ve done him a service by shortening his time spent fearing death. Kneel, Romans, kneel, and let’s wash our hands, up to the elbows, in Caesar’s blood and smear it on our swords. Then we’ll go out, even to the marketplace, and, waving our bloody swords over our heads, let’s cry, “Peace, freedom, and liberty!”
What are the men saying here? What does this tell us about them? What are they going to do and why?

20. Question 7:
Why do you think Antony’s servant sends this message?

21. Exit Question…
Who has changed the most now? (other than Caesar who has obviously changed from alive to dead RIP)