HELP! Advanced Julius Caesar + The Prince

[sarahhamilton]

Hi! I'm studying Julius Caesar by Shakespeare and The Prince  by Machiavelli for my Advanced Mod A essay. Our practice essay question is "Does the treatment of personal morality in 'Julius Caesar' and 'The Prince' reveal similarities or reinforce the texts distinctive qualities?", and I have no idea how to approach it! With morality, I'm not sure how to analyse the morality of each text whilst incorporating social, cultural, or historical context. Any analysis or tips would be AMAZING! Thanks

[jamonwindeyer]

Hi! I'm studying Julius Caesar by Shakespeare and The Prince  by Machiavelli for my Advanced Mod A essay. Our practice essay question is "Does the treatment of personal morality in 'Julius Caesar' and 'The Prince' reveal similarities or reinforce the texts distinctive qualities?", and I have no idea how to approach it! With morality, I'm not sure how to analyse the morality of each text whilst incorporating social, cultural, or historical context. Any analysis or tips would be AMAZING! Thanks

Hi Sarah! Welcome to the forums!

I didn't study 'The Prince,' but I did study Julius Caesar, and my tip to get lots of powerful quotes really quickly: Look at Antony's Funeral Oration. I think I pulled half of my quotes from there alone - It's a masterful composition and very rich. Don't just go from there, but it's a great place to look! A great insight into the morality of the character of Antony as well, and how morality can be manipulated

In general, you need to ask yourself two questions:

1- How is an idea of morality portrayed by the composer (techniques)?
2- WHY have they portrayed it this way? That's where you bring in the context - Every composition reflects aspects of context. Look at Shakespeare's context and look for ways in which that is clear in the composition. For example, the whole of Julius Caesar is a warning of the dangers of not having clear successors of power - A direct warning to the Elizabethan audience, inextricably linked to the historical context of the play's plot.

Great essays will do things like, "The use of TECHNIQUE in QUOTE represents _________ from the composers context." Link the decisions made by the composer to represent morality, to their context! This is tough, the best way to do it is to have a go and get feedback! Feel free to pop up a paragraph for us to look at, if you like

[ssarahj]

Hi! I'm studying Julius Caesar by Shakespeare and The Prince  by Machiavelli for my Advanced Mod A essay. Our practice essay question is "Does the treatment of personal morality in 'Julius Caesar' and 'The Prince' reveal similarities or reinforce the texts distinctive qualities?", and I have no idea how to approach it! With morality, I'm not sure how to analyse the morality of each text whilst incorporating social, cultural, or historical context. Any analysis or tips would be AMAZING! Thanks

Hey Sarah (name twins  )! I did the same texts as you for Mod A so I can add a couple of things to what Jamon has already said....

- Machiavelli basically ignores any kind of traditional Christian morality with it's emphasis on doing whatever it takes to stay in power even if it means hurting/lying to/cheating/killing other people.
- In Machiavelli's day, Italy was strictly Catholic and the Church had immense power of pretty much everything.
- The Church even banned The Prince because of its heretical nature (this ironically also contributed to its popularity since it was banned so everyone wanted to read it).

- In my opinion, personal morality in these texts is very very closely linked to power. This becomes obvious when you think about the change in motives of Brutus (killed his best mate in some twisted plot to maintain the republic, and therefore keep his power) and even Cassius' all round appetite to cause trouble (for more power).

When writing about both these texts to help me get my head around it I often thought about Machiavelli's work as being the political theory and then Shakespeare's work is proving or disproving that theory by playing it out in some sort of real scenario. So Machiavelli says a leader has to be able to "disguise [their] slyness" and then Shakespeare portrays Antony doing exactly that throughout his whole soliloquy.

This answer feels a bit scattered so let me know if you have any questions about my rough brainstorm 

[bsdfjnlkasn]

Hey Sarah (name twins  )! I did the same texts as you for Mod A so I can add a couple of things to what Jamon has already said....

- Machiavelli basically ignores any kind of traditional Christian morality with it's emphasis on doing whatever it takes to stay in power even if it means hurting/lying to/cheating/killing other people.
- In Machiavelli's day, Italy was strictly Catholic and the Church had immense power of pretty much everything.
- The Church even banned The Prince because of its heretical nature (this ironically also contributed to its popularity since it was banned so everyone wanted to read it).

- In my opinion, personal morality in these texts is very very closely linked to power. This becomes obvious when you think about the change in motives of Brutus (killed his best mate in some twisted plot to maintain the republic, and therefore keep his power) and even Cassius' all round appetite to cause trouble (for more power).

When writing about both these texts to help me get my head around it I often thought about Machiavelli's work as being the political theory and then Shakespeare's work is proving or disproving that theory by playing it out in some sort of real scenario. So Machiavelli says a leader has to be able to "disguise [their] slyness" and then Shakespeare portrays Antony doing exactly that throughout his whole soliloquy.

This answer feels a bit scattered so let me know if you have any questions about my rough brainstorm 

Hey Sarah,

Since this option for Module A is rarely done, would you consider uploading some of the notes you compiled for your study of the two texts?
I'm sure everyone studying these texts would greatly appreciate it, plus the above pointers are really useful in kick-starting my exploration of Machiavelli's ideas 

[ssarahj]

Hey Sarah,

Since this option for Module A is rarely done, would you consider uploading some of the notes you compiled for your study of the two texts?
I'm sure everyone studying these texts would greatly appreciate it, plus the above pointers are really useful in kick-starting my exploration of Machiavelli's ideas 

Sure, I've just uploaded a document that includes all the different notes I accumulated so they should be available within the next 24 hours. Hopefully it helps! I mostly just took notes from my teacher/other resources instead of physically writing my own since I found reading and doing brainstorms were most beneficial for me to get my head around this module. Let me know if you have any other questions as you keep chipping away 😃

[WafaK]

Hi! I'm studying Julius Caesar by Shakespeare and The Prince  by Machiavelli for my Advanced Mod A essay. Our practice essay question is "Does the treatment of personal morality in 'Julius Caesar' and 'The Prince' reveal similarities or reinforce the texts distinctive qualities?", and I have no idea how to approach it! With morality, I'm not sure how to analyse the morality of each text whilst incorporating social, cultural, or historical context. Any analysis or tips would be AMAZING! Thanks

Sarah above made some great points about Machiavelli's context. Alongside her points, consider the following:
-As a Florentine diplomat, Niccolo Machiavelli observed many successful rulers, such as the brutal Cesare Borgia, who influenced his perception of an ideal politician
-Machiavelli was a Humanist (progressive thinker during Elizabethan times) who valued the idea of exercising free will, rather than submitting to the Christian mindset of fatalism (believing in destiny and God's choice)
-He innovated in the genre of speculum principum (a type of Renaissance self-help guide designed to help princes govern states). Traditionally the speculum principum was based on Christian morality and idealism (e.g. 'never murder people, love all of your citizens') that actually did not give a politician true success. Machiavelli was the first person who did not hesitate to bluntly state the cruel tactics employed by successful leaders as a means of retaining power

For Julius caesar, consider the following contextual influences on morality:
-It was near the end of Elizabeth I's reign and she had not yet named a successor to the throne. English society therefore feared that her death would be followed by a civil war, reflected in the murderous action of 'Julius Caesar'.
-Although Roman society was polytheistic, Christian fatalism is evident e.g. 'Beware the Ides of March'. Shakespeare therefore put his own Christian views into the text
-Furthermore, the 'bad guys' are ultimately punished (Brutus haunted by Caesar's ghost who will tell him he will die) following the typical Christian plot that good eventually triumphs evil

Hope that helps!