Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Blog #7: Good Leaders, Good People, Power, and Empathy - Julius Caesar

Due Date: Sunday, March 3
Minimum Words: 500
Outside links required: one
Correctly cited text references required: 2

For the complete text of Julius Caesar, with both the original text and the modern translation, check out No Fear Shakespeare: Julius Caesar.

Consider the story of Julius Caesar and reference it as you respond to the text. Your response should focus on the ideas of Power and Leadership.


Make sure your writing has a clear claim near the beginning and that you introduce your topic fully. You need to give context to your audience at the start of your writing so they know what you are writing about what you may be trying to prove.


Here are a few questions if you need an idea to get you started. You can go in depth about any of these or combine them into your own questions. Don't treat this as a quiz and answer every question.

  • What modern connections can you make between Julius Caesar and the idea of leadership today?
  • Antony, another member of that ruling class, is also one of the more sympathetic characters of the play. But is he a good ruler?
  • Does this play portray an ideal leader? Does it give any clues about what an ideal leader could be?
  • What is the difference between a good person and a good leader? Are those two things mutually exclusive in certain ways? Are there ways that good people cannot be good leaders and good leaders cannot fully be good people? What implications does this have on your views of leadership?
  • What kind of leader is Julius Caesar? The conspirators say he's a tyrant headed for absolute power. Is there evidence in the play to support this? Is Caesar really a threat to the Roman Republic? Why or why not?
  • Were the conspirators justified in removing a leader who has the potential to be a tyrant?
  • What relationship is there between leaders and those who are led (or, perhaps, followers)? What does this play suggest about the people's ability to choose leaders and the choices they make for themselves? What do the Plebeians suggest in this play?
  • What connections can you make between "A Good Man is Hard to Find" and Julius Caesar?
  • What connections can you make between "Report on the Barnhouse Effect" and Julius Caesar? 
  • Are there advantages to ambition? Do we need to be more accepting of character flaws of our leaders?
  • If, as neuroscience is proving, leaders suffer from reduced empathy responses, what can leaders do to stay compassionate? Whose job should compassion be? What is the role of a follower or a person who is content to be led? 



Here's how you cite examples and lines from the play:

You will receive extra credit points for attempting to quote a passage from the play in the correct format.

25. Verse play or poem For verse plays, give act, scene, and line numbers that can be located in any edition of the work. Use arabic numerals and separate the numbers with periods.
In Shakespeare’s King Lear, Gloucester, blinded for suspected treason, learns a profound lesson from his tragic experience: “A man may see how this world goes / with no eyes” (4.6.148-49).