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Last updated: Fri, Jul 31, 2015

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Act and scene list

Characters in the Play
Entire Play Caesar’s assassination is just the halfway point of Julius Caesar. The first part of the play leads to his death; the second portrays the consequences. As the action begins, Rome prepares for Caesar’s triumphal entrance. Brutus, Caesar’s friend and ally, fears that Caesar will become king, destroying the republic. Cassius and others convince Brutus to join a conspiracy to kill Caesar.On the day of the assassination, Caesar plans to stay home at the urging of his wife, Calphurnia. A conspirator, Decius Brutus, persuades him to go to the Senate with the other conspirators and his friend, Mark Antony. At the Senate, the conspirators stab Caesar to death. Antony uses a funeral oration to turn the citizens of Rome against them. Brutus and Cassius escape as Antony joins forces with Octavius Caesar.Encamped with their armies, Brutus and Cassius quarrel, then agree to march on Antony and Octavius. In the battle which follows, Cassius, misled by erroneous reports of loss, persuades a slave to kill him; Brutus’s army is defeated. Brutus commits suicide, praised by Antony as “the noblest Roman of them all.”
Act 1, scene 1 In Rome the people are taking a holiday to celebrate the triumphant return of Julius Caesar. The tribunes Marullus and Flavius try to shame the people into returning to their places of work by reminding them how much they loved Caesar’s rival Pompey, whom Caesar has destroyed and whose sons he has just defeated.
Act 1, scene 2 A soothsayer advises Caesar that the fifteenth of March will be a dangerous day for him. When Caesar and others exit, Cassius and Brutus remain behind. Cassius urges Brutus to oppose Caesar for fear that Caesar may become king. After Brutus and Cassius talk with Casca about Mark Antony’s public offer of the crown to Caesar, Brutus agrees to continue his conversation with Cassius the next day. Cassius, alone at the end of the scene, expresses his surprise that Brutus, who is one of Caesar’s favorites, is willing to conspire against Caesar and decides to take immediate advantage of this willingness.
Act 1, scene 3 Casca, meeting Cicero, describes the marvels visible in the streets that night and suggests that the marvels foretell important events to come. Cicero having left, Cassius arrives to persuade Casca to join the conspiracy to liberate Rome from the threat of Caesar’s kingship. When Cinna joins them, Cassius sends him to leave letters where Brutus may find them and be persuaded that his opposition to Caesar is desired by many.
Act 2, scene 1 Brutus anxiously ponders joining the conspiracy against Caesar. When he is brought one of the unsigned letters that Cassius has had left for him to find, Brutus decides to act. Visited by the conspirators, he agrees to join them but rejects their plan to kill Mark Antony as well as Caesar. When the other conspirators have left, Portia, Brutus’s wife, begs of him an explanation for his sudden change of mood. Brutus, joined by Caius Ligarius, departs for Caesar’s.
Act 2, scene 2 It is now the fifteenth of March. Calphurnia, Caesar’s wife, persuades him to stay home because she fears for his safety. Decius Brutus, arriving to accompany Caesar to the Capitol, convinces him that the senators plan to crown Caesar that day but that they may never renew their offer should they suspect he is afraid. Caesar changes his mind and decides to go. He is joined by Brutus and the rest of the conspirators, as well as by Mark Antony.
Act 2, scene 3 Artemidorus waits in the street for Caesar in order to give him a letter warning him of the conspiracy.
Act 2, scene 4 Portia, who has been told of the conspirators’ plan to kill Caesar, waits anxiously for news of their success. She meets the Soothsayer, who still fears for Caesar and wants to warn him.
Act 3, scene 1 In the street Caesar brushes aside Artemidorus’s attempt to warn him of the conspiracy. Once inside the Capitol, the conspirators gather around Caesar under the guise of pleading for the return of an exile. Beginning with Casca they stab Caesar to death and bathe their arms and hands in his blood. Ignoring Cassius’s advice, Brutus gives Antony permission to speak at Caesar’s funeral. Pretending to support Brutus, Antony plans to use this opportunity to turn the Roman people against the conspirators.
Act 3, scene 2 Brutus explains to the people that the cause of Caesar’s assassination was the preservation of the Roman Republic from Caesar’s ambition to be king. Mark Antony, bringing in Caesar’s body, refutes Brutus’s charge of ambition against Caesar, displays Caesar’s wounds, and reveals that Caesar had made the common people his heirs. Inflamed by Antony’s words, the people set off to attack the conspirators. A servant then informs Antony that Octavius Caesar, Antony’s ally, has come to Rome and that Brutus and Cassius have been forced to flee.
Act 3, scene 3 Cinna the poet is attacked and killed by the Roman mob because his name is the same as that of one of the conspirators.
Act 4, scene 1 Antony, Lepidus, and Octavius meet to condemn to death those who may oppose them. Sending Lepidus for Caesar’s will, Antony expresses contempt for Lepidus and plans with Octavius to raise an army to fight the troops of Brutus and Cassius.
Act 4, scene 2 Brutus and Cassius each feel wronged by the other. They prepare to withdraw from the view of their armies to resolve their dispute privately in Brutus’s tent.
Act 4, scene 3 Brutus and Cassius exchange accusations in Brutus’s tent. They grow angry with each other but are quickly reconciled, and Brutus tells Cassius of Portia’s death. With Titinius and Messala they plot their military strategy. Brutus overrides Cassius’s objections and insists that they march to Philippi to challenge Mark Antony and Octavius. As Brutus reads in his tent after the meeting, he is visited by the Ghost of Caesar, who threatens to visit Brutus again at Philippi.
Act 5, scene 1 The opposing armies confront each other at Philippi. Before the battle, Brutus and Cassius exchange insults with Antony and Octavius. Cassius is troubled by an omen of defeat, and he and Brutus say farewell in case they die as a result of the upcoming battle.
Act 5, scene 2 Brutus sends Messala to throw all Brutus’s legions into the battle.
Act 5, scene 3 Cassius, mistakenly believing that the battle has been lost and that Titinius has been taken captive, orders Pindarus to kill him. When Titinius returns, he puts his wreath of victory on Cassius’s head and kills himself. Brutus orders his legions into battle again in order to conquer the still undefeated Antony.
Act 5, scene 4 Brutus’s forces are defeated in the second battle. Lucilius calls attention to himself and away from Brutus by announcing himself to be Brutus. Lucilius is captured, but Antony spares him.
Act 5, scene 5 Brutus begs four of his followers to assist him in his suicide. All but the fourth decline. Brutus kills himself. Antony praises Brutus as the only honorable conspirator, and Octavius orders Brutus’s funeral rites.

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Act 1, scene 1

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