The unassuming man pictured above is legendary literary critic and Yale University professor, Harold Bloom. In the 20th century, this man has played a significant role in determining what is "literature" and what is not. In simplest terms, literature refers to works of writing that are well-constructed, timeless, and universal.
Back to Harold. This man has written volumes on William Shakespeare. One of his most interesting contributions to the on-going analysis and criticism of Shakespeare is the following book:
The book is based around a rather radical idea. The following is a brief excerpt from the Amazon.com summary:
The following is one of Mr. Costal's favorite questions.
Does art imitate life or does life imitate art?
Bloom subscribes to the latter perspective.
Young adult author Alex Bledsoe (pictured above), who frequently blogs about Shakespeare, is a fan of the aforementioned Bloom book. Bledsoe also has a very interesting interpretation of Julius Caesar: http://alexbledsoe.com/category/julius-caesar/
Bledsoe has a profoundly insightful yet simple interpretation of the play and its author:
So what, ultimately, does the 400-year-old Julius Caesar tell us?
About ourselves: that in the war between passion and intellect, passion always wins.
About Shakespeare: that Harold Bloom just might be right.
What do you make of Bledsoe's intepretation of the play and Shakespeare's inexorable role in influencing humanity?
In other words, why do we continue to read Shakespeare and in particular the play, Julius Caesar?
- Post a 500 word response to this blog post.
- This will count as an essay grade.
- Be creative, thoughtful, and introspective!
- Your response must be submitted as a comment on this blog post; responses in other formats will not be accepted; NO EXCUSES.
- Responses are due by midnight, March 27th.
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ReplyDeleteJulius Caesar, one of the great plays of William Shakespeare, has been read in high schools from the beginning of high school itself. Many literary critics have different reasons for why this certain play is read so predominantly in high schools throughout the country, but most of them are boring reasons. For example, as my teacher named Edward Clark once told me, “The reason many people say why we read this play is because it shows universal themes; friendship, tragedy, personalities, etc.”, but really there are better reasons for why this play is read. In my opinion, I really don’t think the play has anything to do with Roman history in the first place and also this play is the first piece of literature that uses the idea that in the war between passion and intellect, passion always wins. What that means is no matter how intellectual you try to be in certain situations passion will always overcome intellect. In the play Brutus talks to the crowd of people using logic and intellect which really didn’t sway how they felt about the death of Caesar, for example in Act III, Scene ii Brutus says during his speech, “...If then that friend demand why Brutus rose against Caesar , this is my answer: Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more…”. What Brutus is saying here is that he killed Caesar for the good of Rome, and he loved Caesar but he just had to get rid of him to make life better for the Romans. Also, the great Mark Antony makes a speech too but the difference between his speech and Brutus’ speech is that Antony uses passion more than intellect when speaking to the crowd of Roman people. Antony uses passion the most in my opinion during Act III, Scene ii when he says, “...O, now you weep, and I perceive you feel the dint of pity. These are gracious drops. Kind souls, what, weep you when you but behold our Caesar’s vesture wounded? Look you here! Here is himself, marred, as you see, with traitors”. What Antony says is that everyone should woe Caesar’s death because the traitors killed him by stabbing him repeatedly, the traitors being Brutus and Cassius. The other thing Antony does to grab the crowds attention is after he delivered those lines Antony unmasks the marred body of Caesar which is pretty passionate to put his point across if you ask me. After Antony showed the citizens the body of Caesar you can really feel the tension that the citizens now have towards Cassius and Brutus because the citizens say things like “O traitors, villains!”, “O most bloody sight!”, “He will be revenged”, then all the citizens together say, “ Revenge! About! Seek! Burn! Fire! Kill! Slay! Let not a traitor live!”. Finally, just to sum some things up, the two great men in the play, Brutus and Antony, use the three rhetorical modes; ethos, pathos, and logos, in their speeches to woo the crowd. Brutus uses ethos and logos during his speech, logos is when you use logic and ethos is when you cite your credibility. Antony clearly uses pathos during his speech, pathos is when you use emotional plea.
ReplyDeleteI am not worth quoting, ha.
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ReplyDeleteArt is one of the greatest discoveries of all time. Billions of people...different countries, different colors, different cultures can all be held together by a single song lyric. The destitute, old man living on the streets experiences the same awe and appreciation that an affluent man living in a house of gold would experience when looking upon a beautiful, timeless painting. Art is life; it's a universal language. It connects me, you, and every other person on this planet to situations, events, and people from hundreds of years ago. Art forces one to feel. On the most fundamental level, humans are emotional beings. When a person is angry, it is all-consuming. It eats away at one's insides like a vicious parasitic disease. Sadness is a shroud of gloom. It spreads slowly over one's body until it is impossible to comprehend why they were given the opportunity of life. These emotions, while seemingly harmful, are essentially what makes one human. When an intelligent playwright named William Shakespeare came along, it was impossible for the people to pretend that they were not completely enthralled with his shockingly accurate portrayals of human nature and its flaws. As stated once before, art is a universal language which connects people across many centuries. The same excitement that those people felt a few hundred years ago, is the same excitement that people feel today when reading William Shakespeare. One of his most famous plays, Julius Caesar, perfectly demonstrates just how powerful the emotions can truly be. Mark Antony is a calculated, manipulative man. In Julius Caesar, Antony relies on his ability to manipulate the Roman people's emotions while Brutus, a conspirator who killed the leader of Rome, relies mostly on intellect. Antony's method is unsurprisingly more effective. The Roman people are known for being easily influenced by emotion. A character in the play even stated, "you blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things !" (I.i) This character was referring to how easily the Roman people could develop negative feelings toward someone they once appreciated. Meanwhile, Antony easily disguises an incitation for civil war as an innocent, vulnerable speech. Alex Bledsoe, a well-respected author, summed it up best by saying, "in a war between passion and intellect, passion always wins." This statement is completely true. Many people have given up everything for a few seconds of passion, millions have ended their lives due to years of sadness, and an infinite number of people will continue to make major decisions purely based on feelings. Shakespeare's characters often experience such obstacles which makes them relatable, memorable, and most importantly, timeless.
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ReplyDeleteYes, this! THIS!!!
DeleteShakespeare ultimately has written Julius Caesar not to give us an example of a Roman people and their way of going about life, but to show us that Alex Bledsoe’s passion versus intellect theory plays a big role in human life. For over 400 years, Shakespeare's Julius Caesar has continuously been read but not necessarily understood to find the deeper meaning of what he is trying display. Therefore, this is where the lesson of passion versus intellect is portrayed. No matter what, passion always wins. This human struggle is a mental war that never comes to an end. Antony gives a speech to the crowd that pulls on their heart strings, and infuriates them while using only Pathos. On the other hand, Brutus gives a speech and fails to get through tot he crowd using both ethos, and logos. He logically gave his explanation to the crowd for why they killed Caesar. Shakespeare treats the characters in the play like they're humans. The characters are both villains and heroes. For example, Brutus tries his hardest to live without emotion and did not succeed. Brutus says not to let your emotions get the best of you, but it is not good to be unemotional nor is it a good thing to be too emotional. Antony also shows this by not showing emotion while lying to the people, he has a very manipulative personality. He tells the crowd that there's a will, but compulsively lies and has a hoax will made up. He has an ironic way of manipulating emotion from the crowd while showing no emotion. Act four, scene two states what Antony has to say about the will.
ReplyDelete"Here is the will, and under Caesar's seal.
To every Roman citizen he gives,
To every several man, seventy-five drachmas.”
Overall, what is able to be concluded from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar is that the underlying meaning of the play is life, and human nature. This theme is why the play has yet to be stripped from any english high school curriculum. Balance is the key to a happy life. The Roman people did not exemplify balance even in the simplest way. Brutus had a major struggle with not showing emotion, while the crowd struggled with showing too much emotion. This is where the passion versus intellect conflict comes in. Passion always will win because it’s coming from your heart, similarly can be related to the short saying, “the heart wants what the heart wants.” Intellect is just your logic, where your head plays a big role and the ability to think reasonably. It’s a constant battle in your head that will always be at war with each other. In the play, taking place at the funeral duration
Antony influences the crowd with emotional pleads and Brutus impacts the crowd with logically reasonings. Alex Bledsoe leaves us with the statement, “in a war between passion and intellect, passion always wins” that gets us thinking. He’s completely right. When a person is day to day at war with themselves it’s your emotions, and feelings that make you feel the way you do. Your own logic can only take you so far to the point where passion steps in and gives you the desires of your heart. The characters in Julius Caesar are meant to be human, although they do not have a central balance Shakespeare has found a way to shape humanity.
Julius Caesar is a story about betrayal. A man’s “best friend” turns out to be his murderer. It also informs us about the power struggle in Rome at the time. This play was set in 44 B.C in circa Rome. Throughout the story, all characters go through the struggle of choosing between intellect and passion. This plays concepts are still used today.
ReplyDeleteWhat Julius Caesar tells us is that regardless of whether you are good or bad you are still human. Shakespeare treated each of his characters in his play as a human being. No one is the villain and no one is the hero. Everyone is human and they all are treated the same way. The constant war between passion and intellect is common among many people in our generation. One’s passion always trumps their intellect. For example, if you are really angry or upset. You will not be able to use intelligence and sometimes your passion or feelings overcome your common sense. That’s the message I receive in Julius Caesar. With all the characters in some way faced with this situation it even leads to some of them becoming insane.
Bloom may in fact be correct. A lot of Shakespeare’s plays have themes that people still live by today. Julius Caesar for instance, teaches us that any single person can become good or bad. Friends can turn enemies and everyone is threatened by jealousy. In Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare portrays to us that tragedy can bring enemies close together and that hatred isn’t something light. Shakespeare has shaped life as we know it.
Bledsoe is exactly correct when he mentions the speeches given after Caesar’s death. When Brutus speaks to the crowd he moves them with intelligence. He states the reason for killing Caesar and the crowd likes him and they basically say “make Brutus king”. But, when Antony gets in front of the crowd he moves them with emotion. This is a prime example of passion winning over intellect. In desperate times people can easily be swayed and in the time like this emotions are easier to sway then intellect. Antony moved the crowed by angering them and turning them against the idea of Caesar being ambitious. This is the people’s passion coming out of them. That rage you get when a great speaker stirs you up. That’s what the people are feeling right now.
We continue to read Shakespeare because in a way it teaches us how to be proper. In every play there is a different lesson to be learned. Many people are influenced by what they watch or what they read. Shakespeare is a prime example of people either good or bad, still being viewed as people. Its human nature to tell who is good and who is bad but a lot of this is gathered through all of the people or influences in your life. There are some people out there that cannot differentiate between good or bad and that is not their fault. Shakespeare in general is a book of life lessons. Things that people should do and things that people shouldn’t do.
Remember, it is a play, so it goes without saying: it's over-dramatic! Passion does not always win over intellect (thankfully). Life consists of a balance. Brutus and Antony represent facets of human personality. We can learn to be human by analyzing them; not literally being them.
DeleteNo doubt the most famous play write of all time is William Shakespeare, from " Hamlet " to " Romeo and Juliet" everyone in the world has or will read one of Shakespeare's plays. But why after 500 years are we still reading Shakespearian literature? First, Shakespeare invented the modern English language creating 1,500 different words or phrases, and yes one of them is elbow. But these pristine words weren't the cause for people, from all over London, to come to his plays. Shakespeare was the first writer to give human characters actual human thoughts and feelings. In the Odyssey Odysseus is smart and can figure his way out between a rock and a hard place, but when his men die he doesn't care. Odysseus isn't scared to fight off a hundred suitors all by himself, in fact he looks forward to it, obviously not a human trait. The closest thing to emotion in that epic is a dog wagging its tail. But in "Julius Caesar" Antony cries during his oratory at Caesar's funeral. Also, Cassius cries when he learns of the death of Brutus' wife. This whole play is based on passion vs. intellect, and according to Alex Bledsoe passion wins every time. Shakespeare uses passion to such a degree that he makes the audience feel empathy and sympathy for his fictional characters. Shakespeare wasn't just a play write he was a genius, his affect on human personality was so cataclysmic it will last for another 500 hundred years. One can even say he invented the modern human. Mr. Costal often ask, " Does art imitate life or does life imitate art?" Yes, one can say it works both ways but life imitates art most of the time. I remember as a little kid seeing superhero movies like "The Incredibles' and wanting to have those same powers. Even now I read books and say to myself, " man it would be cool to live there and do that stuff." So if life imitates art and all forms of modern art can be traced back to Shakespeare, he invented the modern human and their emotions. So why do we read Shakespeare after he's been dead for hundreds of years, Shakespeare invented us and we just want to know more about the man who did it.
ReplyDeleteMajor wars of our era or even before our own era had been fought because of passion, and in these wars they ignored the intellectual thing to do. Like for example in the middle ages religion was become an essential part of everyday life, people basically died just to up hold their religion, kings sought to expend their territories, just because of their strong passion of their religion. We can also relate it to modern day wars that are fought because of passion. For instance, the reason that we even entered in one of the most devastating wars that mankind has ever witness, World War II, was because of passion. At the time we completely ignored the most intellectual decision by join the war at a much earlier time when Hitler was still impotent, and went on with our daily lives. Soon after Japan lunch an immense amount of planes to assault Hawaii’s main military port, Pearl Harbor, and this attack ravaged the U.S naval power and killed countless man on duty. This attack mad many U.S citizens livid to the point where we forced to join World War II in a little to week after the assault on Pearl Harbor. The people of the United States constantly is swayed by passion instead of intelligence, we will be reluctant to join a war unless something tragic happens. We are actually like the Roman citizens in Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar, where when both Brutus and Antony gave speeches at Caesars funeral. Brutus was the intellectual speaker who told the citizens of Rome that Caesar was gaining too much power and wealth to the point that he will become a dictator who will be corrupted by the immense power, but Antony on the other hand exploited the citizens emotions by coaxing the Roman citizens that the conspirators that killed Caesar, killed an innocent man who carried deeply of the commoners of Rome. I learned that passion will lead to hate and hate will lead into war, and this is what Shakespeare realized when he was writing “Julius Caesar”.
ReplyDeletePersonality is something everyone has and something that varies in every person, which is what, makes us human and not primeval beings like apes, it’s also how we see who the opportune friend is or who we should stay away from. The person who saw this “personality” as an essential piece of a story was Shakespeare, Shakespeare was basically the first writer who put personality and strong emotions into any writing and because of this new concept people soon realize how brilliant and fantastic Shakespeare’s skills were. The reason why Shakespeare was one of the first to incorporate personality into their writer is that previously, there were great authors like Homer who made these poems called Epics, but like any Michael Bay “Transformer” movie, it is like watching a boxing match with an inordinate amount of explosions and ballets. The fact that Shakespeare was the originator of the creation of Character who has emotions made many people fascinated with him even till this day, and like any racing event, people will pay attention on first place than any other spot that anyone won in.
Not sure about your theory regarding WWII and its passionate origins. Many Americans were passionate about isolationism, a passion that may have prolonged the suffering of the victims of Fascism in Europe.
DeleteArt; a three letter word that universally connects you and I. Art comes in form of a song or a picture or words on a paper, but no matter its form, art causes one to feel. Feeling is the most rudimentary principle in human beings. Feeling and emotions control you. Happiness can often be over-looked by anger, depression, or even hatred. These types of fatal flaws that lie in every human, and can swallow one whole very slowly. Bit by bit conflicting thoughts eat away at ones heart and soul until the day when there are no more thoughts to think. These thoughts, emotions, feelings typically are the building blocks for every human, no matter the severity. Everyone has his or her days of doubt. When the tremendous playwright William Shakespeare started writing plays about these emotions, people were down right shocked. They could not believe that now, someone was delving deep into these fundamentals of human nature, and writing it down for the world to read. His work connected the countries of the world, thus repeating the universal connection of art. One of his most renowned works, Julius Caesar, demonstrates just how human one can be. In Julius Caesar, Mark Antony is a manipulator who becomes very powerful and popular after the conspirators assassinate the leader of Rome. Where Antony relies on manipulation, Brutus (a conspirator) uses intuition. Brutus addressed the crowd during his oration using basic logos, saying he killed Caesar for the greater good which has become his obsession, the crowd was not pleased seeing as they were known to be won over with emotion. Mark Antony addressed the crowd using pathos, he cried, claimed he had “…neither wit, nor words, nor worth… to stir men’s blood” (III ii) when in the scheme of things, that was exactly what he did. Antony sobs so much so that he cannot speak and then unveils the crippled, lifeless body of Caesar. Here, one can see the crowds reactions played out in their mind as they read the dialogue being shouted, “O most bloody sight!” and “He will be revenged!” This reveals how the Romans feelings are easily persuaded from someone they once admired, to someone they have come to hate. This very hysterical speech ignites such a passion in the crowd that it almost disguises the upcoming civil war. Isaac Bashevis Singer once said, “The very essence of literature is the war between emotion and intellect, between life and death. When literature becomes too intellectual - when it begins to ignore the passions, the emotions - it becomes sterile, silly, and actually without substance.” People will always feel emotion, but may never always understand intellect. There are thousands of things humans will do for even ten seconds of enjoyment. Decisions are made with the gut and the heart, and most of the time is not thought out and rational. And though this kind of thing is unpredictable and can lead to trouble, it’s human nature; it’s what we are. Shakespeare was a master at revealing pure human nature through his characters, making them seem life-like and relatable, with which their legacy will continue to live on.
ReplyDeleteGreat quote!
DeleteCollective Unconsciousness: Everything that is innate within every born human.
ReplyDeleteSome of the best critics, will have students believe that Shakespeare the modern idea of the human. They will pull quotes and site lines from all his works to try to support the radical notion that Shakespeare, a man who quite simply wrote plays and poems, had discovered the fact that every human is emotionally complex. Julius Caesar is no doubt, a timeless, entertaining, classic piece of literature, and it's universal truth is still existent. The struggle between passion and intellect is one that everyone experiences, but it is impossible to say that one man created the modern ideas of the human mind. What Shakespeare did was simply be the first to shed light on the intricacies of the brain. His ability to unravel the very things that makes us human is remarkable, however, one cannot go so far as to say that he created what we know as human nature. This is because everyone of us is part of the collective unconsciousness.
Carl Jung, a physiologist in the of the 1900s, explored this idea and in turn dele oped analytical psychology. His basic principal was that everyone is born with innate archetypes that govern our feelings. As a young child, we can all recall being red a story in which there's a bad guy and a good guy, and being able to clearly identify the bad guy. A child does not need to read Shakespeare in order to understand this concept. He just knows. Inside of each and everyone of us there are a few things that we are all born with.
So this begs the question: Does art imitate life or does life imitate art?
But also, which came first, the chicken or the egg, the life or the art? Critics, like very prestigious ones from Yale, will beat a topic like Shakespeare until there is nothing left and students believe that he created humanity, and they will say they have substantial evidence to back it up. But we are all born with a conscious that is always present and we are all innately complex. The main theme in Julius Caesar is universal, man will always be conflicted with his head and his heart, but one man does not need to "invent" this concept for it to be real.
"The greatest and most important problems of life are all fundamentally insoluble. They can never be solved but only outgrown."
-Carl Jung
Are you implying that maybe Cassius would have outgrown his maddening jealousy, Carl Jung?
DeleteIs it fair to say that perhaps Shakespeare created characters that fully represented these archetypes for the first time? I'd say that Shakespeare has essentially created Jungian-level archetypes of his own.
Julius Caesar, one of Shakespeare’s finest plays, is a timeless piece of literature that has left a lasting impression on every generation that has read this work. The play is set in ancient Rome circa 44 B.C., it tells the story of Julius Caesar a great Roman leader and the struggle of power within the Roman Empire. Although the story was written over three hundred years ago, the principle concept of the play remains a relevant topic of discussion in the modern world. All problematic events that occur throughout the play are a result of the constant battle between passion and intellect. Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar gives a first hand look at the most common human struggle, siding with reason or following your heart.
ReplyDeleteIn this play Shakespeare sheds light on how people react when faced with obstacles. The complex characters that he creates struggle to choose whether to use logic or emotion, which is not an easy thing to do when making tough decisions. As in the play there are times in life where the decision is not always clear and you will find yourself torn between emotion and logic. Reading Julius Caesar is vital because it gives perspective on how to deal with real life issues. The theme of inner conflict will always be present as long as the human race exits. Young adult author Alex Bledsoe said,” that in the war between passion and intellect, passion always wins.” Bledsoe stated that passion will always over power intellect, and this is proven in Julius Caesar. There is logical reason behind all of the schemes in the play but emotion comes along and unravels the plan every time. In order for a community of people to function there must be a common balance between emotion and logic, but more often than not, one is always out weighing the other. And when this balance cannot be achieved there is chaos and confusion, which leads to the downfall of society. Shakespeare displayed this in Julius Caesar, because of the imbalance of emotion and logic an entire empire fell apart and there was mass death. The play teaches that it is necessary to have a balanced life, an idea that has carried through many generations over the past three hundred years.
Shakespeare changed the world with his literature. He opened peoples mind to the world and all its potential, and because of him people began to think and imagine. This author was an inspiration, and all of his works are continuously being taught and studied because he was the driving force that prompted a major change in society. His take on humans and their complex manifolds, is what has stuck in peoples minds. Shakespeare took simple concepts and made them raw and real, which allowed him to connect with people on a deeper emotional and intellectual level. Without his plays the world would not be, as we know it today, he did not invent the idea of conflict between the heart and the mind but he brought it to the light and made people want to talk about it. Shakespeare was a trend setter, who set the standard for society that people still try and live up to till this day. Shakespeare took concepts that were already present in the world and just made them bigger and better by putting his own spin on them. Studying Shakespeare’s is necessary because he held the torch that led society out of the dark all those years ago.
For four hundred years, Shakespeare has been atop the literature game. In the play Julius Caesar passion always overpowered intellect. People may argue that it was written based on roman history but in reality, the play has little to do with it. Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar shaped human culture by reflecting the conflict of following your heart or siding with your head in a certain situation. Shakespeare was really the first person to show others how people act in times of conflict and not even only that, how people are in real life. Julius Caesar is a timeless piece of literature because it will never be out of date. It’s almost as if it was written in the infinite future, meaning it will always be able to be related to present day society by strongly expressing how people today conquer and face conflict today. We always get caught deciding whether to follow logic or emotion, which isn’t always easy t=when making extremely important decisions. Reading and understanding Julius Caesar can really show how to deal with real life events.
ReplyDeleteAlex Bledsoe, an author, said “In the war between passion and intellect, passion always wins. This can clearly be seen in the play, Julius Caesar. Displayed in the play are two very important characters, Mark Antony and Brutus. They have two completely different approaches they take when dealing with problems. Antony relies on emotion and Brutus more on intellect. Antony’s method is substantially more effective on changing people’s views and is credited with respect for it. The roman people were very easy to convince and went from believing in someone they loved to hating that person just moments later. This resulting in passion being dominant over logic or intellect. Up until Shakespeare, authors and writers only displayed mythical beings and fierce gods in their works but, Willie took a different approach as opposed what these basics did and truly shaped the world of thinking, literature and humanity.
In Cerca Rome, 44 B.C. there was a large power struggle in the Roman society. Many different men wanted to see certain people have all the power and others to have none. Julius Caesar was one of the few that was most likely to receive this power and some people saw to it that, that did not happen. A group of men decided Caesar was not the man they wanted to see with the power; so they killed him, thus causing a great war. Many lives are lost but in the end the power really stays with the same man, Antony. Betrayal seems to be a large part of this play and really shapes how humanity sees certain things today.
ReplyDeleteEveryday people decide to backstab each other or try to get the foot up on someone, even if it is at another’s expense. This play really could have shaped humanity in a number of ways. Almost everyone in the literary arts has read Julius Caesar and/or works of Shakespeare. Because, let’s be honest if you have gone through high school and college and have never read Shakespeare; that would be pretty impressive. Therefore, Shakespeare has probably influenced some of everyone’s works in some way or another; whether it be from his writing style, the ideas from his plays (betrayal, romance, or many other things), or just a spinoff of his stories in general. Since Shakespeare was one of the first big writers, most of his work is the “original” that people like to go off of, even if technically it is grape vined through hundreds of different authors. For example, West Side Story, this is obviously a spinoff of Romeo and Juliet due to the almost exact same story playing out, only with a few modern adaptions. This further shows that even if people wanted to get away from Shakespeare and his many different ideas, they would not be able to because he has influenced so many things that he is basically “everywhere.”
People still read Shakespeare today for so many reasons. Put aside that he was one of the first and most other things are influenced by his works; just take a look at his works alone. They honestly were an innovation of his time, no one really had plays as well plotted and scripted as well as he did. The plays had this new thing of “emotion” in them, which no plays of the time really had. This new concept of emotions caused his plays to be above and beyond all expectations of literature at that time. The people in his time saw this greatness and most likely knew that these works would go down in history as some of the greatest works from the early world. Shakespeare also wrote so much that he “helped” create the modern English language by creating thousands of words that would forever be spoken by people worldwide. Shakespeare was such an interesting man, whether he was just a writer or an innovator; that is what is left for you to decide.
Very matter of fact, yet insightful: A.J., you're right. In simplest terms, the ol' Bard is ubiquitous!
Delete“All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.” If you relate this quote by Aristotle to Bledsoe’s interpretation of the play, then Bledsoe was spot on. His idea that “in the war between passion and intellect, passion always wins” is something I had always believed to be true. In a perfect world, everything is based on reason and understanding and people make choices to benefit others instead of themselves. However that usually never happens and people base things on passion and what they want, not necessarily what should to be done. We all fight with this internal conflict everyday between doing what is logical and what we want to do. There’s really no escaping it; it’s human nature. It’s like what James Madison said in The Federalist number 51, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.” People are not angels, they are not perfect. They have emotions and they base their choices on those emotions. Shakespeare was one of the first to put this idea on paper and actually make his characters seem human, like common people and not gods or goddesses. Shakespeare realizes characters in plays are people, maybe not real, living people; but they are suppose to portray actual people. To do so, they need emotion, and passion, not god-like strength or wit. They cannot be perfect because people are not perfect. He does this in his classic, Julius Caesar, a favorite read in probably every high school English class around the world; other than Romeo and Juliet of course. Why do we continue to teach and read Julius Caesar? What’s the big deal about Romans betraying and killing their friends/ leaders, its ancient history right? But that’s not why we read it. It’s important, maybe even almost essential, to read it, considering it influenced humanity greatly and changed the way we look at art and characters. Legendary critic Harold Bloom in his book Shakespeare, The Invention of the Human, essentially says that Shakespeare “not only invented the English language, but also created human nature as we know it today.” We continue to read Julius Caesar because it is one of the first plays or any form of art really to reveal human nature in its characters. Every action of each character is based on what they want. For example, Cassius wants to kill Caesar because he does not want him to become a king. He feels Caesar is not fit to rule, he may even think that he himself is more fit to rule (like when he says he saved Caesar from drowning), even though he puts Brutus “in charge” of the conspirators (Brutus is merely Cassius’ puppet really). In this play, everyone’s a villain, everyone’s a good guy, they’re both, and they are human. While keeping in mind that Shakespeare’s art shaped humanity and human nature, we must ask ourselves the question: “Does art imitate life or does life imitate art?” When you really look at the history of humankind, the answer is simple: both. Art imitates life in the sense that what we create is based on how we feel, or what we see, or what we know. Artists may paint a beautiful sunset they see at the beach; or perhaps a songwriter may compose a dark, melancholy piece because a loved one died. On the other hand, someone may see a movie or read a book and want to be like their favorite character; or do what they’re favorite singer does in their new music video. Art imitates life and life imitates art; and passion always trumps intellect, even when it really shouldn’t. To conclude, next time you pick up a book and love a character and what they say and do, make sure you thank Shakespeare for coming up with the idea to make characters act like real people.
ReplyDelete“All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.” If you relate this quote by Aristotle to Bledsoe’s interpretation of the play, then Bledsoe was spot on. His idea that “in the war between passion and intellect, passion always wins” is something I had always believed to be true. In a perfect world, everything is based on reason and understanding and people make choices to benefit others instead of themselves. However that usually never happens and people base things on passion and what they want, not necessarily what should to be done. We all fight with this internal conflict everyday between doing what is logical and what we want to do. There’s really no escaping it; it’s human nature. It’s like what James Madison said in The Federalist number 51, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.” People are not angels, they are not perfect. They have emotions and they base their choices on those emotions. Shakespeare was one of the first to put this idea on paper and actually make his characters seem human, like common people and not gods or goddesses. Shakespeare realizes characters in plays are people, maybe not real, living people; but they are suppose to portray actual people. To do so, they need emotion, and passion, not god-like strength or wit. They cannot be perfect because people are not perfect. He does this in his classic, Julius Caesar, a favorite read in probably every high school English class around the world; other than Romeo and Juliet of course. Why do we continue to teach and read Julius Caesar? What’s the big deal about Romans betraying and killing their friends/ leaders, its ancient history right? But that’s not why we read it. It’s important, maybe even almost essential, to read it, considering it influenced humanity greatly and changed the way we look at art and characters. Legendary critic Harold Bloom in his book Shakespeare, The Invention of the Human, essentially says that Shakespeare “not only invented the English language, but also created human nature as we know it today.” We continue to read Julius Caesar because it is one of the first plays or any form of art really to reveal human nature in its characters. Every action of each character is based on what they want. For example, Cassius wants to kill Caesar because he does not want him to become a king. He feels Caesar is not fit to rule, he may even think that he himself is more fit to rule (like when he says he saved Caesar from drowning), even though he puts Brutus “in charge” of the conspirators (Brutus is merely Cassius’ puppet really). In this play, everyone’s a villain, everyone’s a good guy, they’re both, and they are human. While keeping in mind that Shakespeare’s art shaped humanity and human nature, we must ask ourselves the question: “Does art imitate life or does life imitate art?” When you really look at the history of humankind, the answer is simple: both. Art imitates life in the sense that what we create is based on how we feel, or what we see, or what we know. Artists may paint a beautiful sunset they see at the beach; or perhaps a songwriter may compose a dark, melancholy piece because a loved one died. On the other hand, someone may see a movie or read a book and want to be like their favorite character; or do what they’re favorite singer does in their new music video. Art imitates life and life imitates art; and passion always trumps intellect, even when it really shouldn’t. To conclude, next time you pick up a book and love a character and what they say and do, make sure you thank Shakespeare for coming up with the idea to make characters act like real people.
ReplyDelete“The Ides of March are come.”
ReplyDeleteThe very insightful Soothslayer once warned Caesar to “Beware the ides of March.” Although This serves a substantial warning to Ceasar about his impending death, Shakespeare, of course added his hidden messages. When saying “Beware the ides of March” he is not only referring to Caesars’ upcoming death, but also to the downfall of the Roman empire.
When examining this quote you realize that the word “ide” actually comes from the Latin verb “iduare” which translates into “to divide.” You can look at this in the most obvious way, that the ides of march divides the month therefore marking the 15th, but I can see deeper than that. Shakespeare knew by Julius Ceasar dying would mean that the empire would quickly diminish. As Alexandre Dumas would say “united we stand divided we fall.” Attacking Ceasar, forcing allies to go against each other, single handedly ruined this empire.
One of the greatest characters from Julius Ceasar, Mark Antony, really showed his true colors once Ceasar was murdered. He was able to use a great deal of Pathos in his legendary speech to the townspeople, and let me tell you, they ate it up! Unlike Brutus, who forced Ethos and Logos upon them, drowning them in reason and understanding. And once you are “in the war between passion and intellect, passion always wins.” Being clever and deceitful Antony was able to win nearly every citizen on his side.
Of course that previous quote was from the brilliant author Alex Bledsoe. A man who has a idea that all of Shakespeare’s work is what shaped our human-like characteristics. And that he was able to shape each and everyone of us with the tip of his quill, and I couldn't agree with him more. Shakespeare seamlessly humanized every one of his characters. Even ones such as Brutus and Cassius! Men who were known as the most malicious beings to have ever lived. Making readers such as myself and the millions of other high schoolers develop feelings for these awful men, is truly amazing. Brutus’ death to me was one of the most touching moments of the play... That he would choose honour over his death...it was truly breath taking.
“Aye, Ceasar; But not gone.”
“All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.” If you relate this quote by Aristotle to Bledsoe’s interpretation of the play, then Bledsoe was spot on. His idea that “in the war between passion and intellect, passion always wins” is something I had always believed to be true. In a perfect world, everything is based on reason and understanding and people make choices to benefit others instead of themselves. However that usually never happens and people base things on passion and what they want, not necessarily what should to be done. We all fight with this internal conflict everyday between doing what is logical and what we want to do. There’s really no escaping it; it’s human nature. It’s like what James Madison said in The Federalist number 51, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.” People are not angels, they are not perfect. They have emotions and they base their choices on those emotions. Shakespeare was one of the first to put this idea on paper and actually make his characters seem human, like common people and not gods or goddesses. Shakespeare realizes characters in plays are people, maybe not real, living people; but they are suppose to portray actual people. To do so, they need emotion, and passion, not god-like strength or wit. They cannot be perfect because people are not perfect. He does this in his classic, Julius Caesar, a favorite read in probably every high school English class around the world; other than Romeo and Juliet of course. Why do we continue to teach and read Julius Caesar? What’s the big deal about Romans betraying and killing their friends/ leaders, its ancient history right? But that’s not why we read it. It’s important, maybe even almost essential, to read it, considering it influenced humanity greatly and changed the way we look at art and characters. Legendary critic Harold Bloom in his book Shakespeare, The Invention of the Human, essentially says that Shakespeare “not only invented the English language, but also created human nature as we know it today.” We continue to read Julius Caesar because it is one of the first plays or any form of art really to reveal human nature in its characters. Every action of each character is based on what they want. For example, Cassius wants to kill Caesar because he does not want him to become a king. He feels Caesar is not fit to rule, he may even think that he himself is more fit to rule (like when he says he saved Caesar from drowning), even though he puts Brutus “in charge” of the conspirators (Brutus is merely Cassius’ puppet really). In this play, everyone’s a villain, everyone’s a good guy, they’re both, and they are human. While keeping in mind that Shakespeare’s art shaped humanity and human nature, we must ask ourselves the question: “Does art imitate life or does life imitate art?” When you really look at the history of humankind, the answer is simple: both. Art imitates life in the sense that what we create is based on how we feel, or what we see, or what we know. Artists may paint a beautiful sunset they see at the beach; or perhaps a songwriter may compose a dark, melancholy piece because a loved one died. On the other hand, someone may see a movie or read a book and want to be like their favorite character; or do what they’re favorite singer does in their new music video. Art imitates life and life imitates art; and passion always trumps intellect, even when it really shouldn’t. To conclude, next time you pick up a book and love a character and what they say and do, make sure you thank Shakespeare for coming up with the idea to make characters act like real people.
ReplyDeleteOne of the greatest battles of life is between your head and your heart. Your head demands you to think and rethink and think again before you take action. It provides your common sense and allows you to digest a situation before you react. Your heart, however, is full of passion. Your heart pumps meaning and genuine care into your words and actions. Your heart drives you to act on something impulsively and permits you to do so with enthusiasm and zealousness. Ultimately, the heart wins this battle. When Shakespeare wrote the play Julius Caesar, he had all these things in mind. Shakespeare created an atmosphere where the human emotions and flaws are portrayed in a way that people of all different cultures can connect to. He depicts the certain reactions of people to different situations. Shakespeare creates two completely different characters named Mark Antony and Brutus. In the play, both of these men have a chance to speak to the anxious crowd of Romans. Brutus, a dull and stoic man, provided the crowd with intellect and fact, allowing the Romans to judge whether his actions were good or bad. Next, Mark Antony stands before the crowd with passion. He talks, even cries, about the tragic death of his good friend Julius Caesar and stirs the crowd with emotions. He even tricks the citizens in order to make himself look like the better person. Eventually, the crowd is swayed by Mark Antony’s passion and emotion and they begin to support him. Alex Bledsoe states, “In his famous speech, he turns the crowd entirely against Brutus by appealing to their emotions…” This is a prime example of passion vs. intellect. Brutus’ boring, lifeless speech was shoved under the rug by Mark Antony’s passionate, hard-hitting lecture. Furthermore, Alex Bledsoe’s interpretation of Julius Caesar is spot on. He identifies that Shakespeare’s main purpose of the play is to illustrate the human mind and to connect to different readers, even hundreds of years later. Bledsoe describes Julius Caesar as a “timeless” piece and I agree completely when he says that we owe our ideas of what actually makes us human to Shakespeare. So, why do we still read a play as old as Julius Caesar? Sure it’s important to have an understanding of literature, but how does a play like Julius still affect us in 2014? Well, Shakespeare created a connection between readers everywhere because we all have one thing in common- being human. Shakespeare really built his play off of this foundation of human nature. After all, we can all understand the phrase “we’re only human.” Instead of giving the characters outlandish qualities that a normal human being could never possess, Shakespeare switches up the game. He creates characters like Caesar, who is too prideful for his own good, and someone like Brutus, who has trouble speaking his true feelings. The reason why Julius Caesar is still being read by high schoolers everywhere is because there is a little bit of ourselves in each of the characters.
ReplyDeleteNice ending!
Delete“In states unborn and accents yet unknown”, is one quote from Julius Caesar that perfectly defines the entire purpose and writings of Shakespeare (III,i). Even in 1599 A.D., the worlds most famous writer of all time, William Shakespeare, was able to portray all of humankind for the next several hundreds of years. Thus, we still remain to read Julius Caesar because it is the first piece of literature that “invents the human.” When you look at stories before Shakespeare's time you can see that from Odysseus to Gilgamesh, the characters consist of nothing more than a God-like complex with an unmistakable superiority from human life. Shakespeare is the first to to clearly identify the war of intellect versus passion that practically defines the human psyche.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, when analyzing Julius Caesar, you can see the opportunity for interpretation rather than a distinct set of what is right or wrong. Is Brutus a hero? A traitor? An honorable man? There are no answers to any of these questions because the characters become real people with manifold layers and elements. Although Brutus and Cassius assassinate Caesar, they are not wholly “bad people” throughout the entire play. In Act V Scene v of Julius Caesar, Antony even refers to Brutus as “The noblest Roman of them all”. Furthermore, we see that Shakespeare is the first to humanize characters because of even the names of Brutus and Cassius. Even though the names of Brutus and Cassius refer to being eaten alive by Lucifer in Dante’s Inferno, Shakespeare allows the audience to make their own assumptions about them. While motivated by envy and greed, we can still see some sense virtue and righteousness; which is seen more in Brutus than Cassius. Thus, Shakespeare is the first to actually be a clear mirror to the human race and show the reality of who people are.
Moreover, I believe that Bledsoe’s interpretation of Shakespeare's inexorable role in influencing humanity hits the nail right on the head. Bledsoe succeeds to define the original ideas role of ethos, pathos, and logos in the writings of Shakespeare. He explains how Shakespeare essentially invented the way people live and think today and how passion will always triumph over logic. In the blog post Bledsoe analyzes the power of Antony’s speech to the crowd in Act III, Scene ii and how the use of emotion greatly overpowers the factual speech given by Brutus. Shakespeare makes the audience aware of how pathos, which is an emotional plea, always wins over logos, which is logic. In the world today, people spend all of their lives at an attempt to explain the the psychology that Shakespeare can describe in a few simple lines. Whether it would be a politician or a kindergarten school teacher, people still continue the endless search of how to effectively communicate with others.
The physicality of Julius Caesar is a story of the assassination of the leader of Rome, yet the play in reality has nothing to do with Rome, but everything to do with people. The play is an art form that essentially created what human life truly is; the conflict between what our heart desires for us to do, what our mind tells us to do and how the combination of the two will allow us to find ultimate peace, ho! Like Harold Bloom explains in the aforementioned text, Shakespeare is the first example of true literature. His well-constructed, timeless and universal plays transformed human nature as we know it. Shakespeare's art imitated the life and perception of the the human species and almost five-hundred years later, we attempt to imitate the art of people made up characters in Julius Caesar. Shakespeare will always be a timeless treasure that defines what it is to be a human. There is no other art form that will ever illustrate the endless battle between passion and intellect as well as the everlasting works of the brilliant Shakespeare.
~Alex Peters
The famous work Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare had nothing to do with Roman history, but more to do with the everlasting battle of passion vs intellect. William Shakespeare accomplishes this by not just making his characters these simplified people, good or bad, he made them for the first time in literature, human. Because he portrayed the characters in the play as these humans that were psychologically complex they had human tendencies, like saying things that contradicted themselves, did things that were completely wrong for whatever situation and idiotic because that is human nature. By doing this Shakespeare shaped the humanity we know today, he made people realize that we are complex creatures with complex ideas. We still read the story of Julius Caesar four hundred years after it was made for good reason; it’s not just some stupid story we are forced to read in English class in high school. Julius Caesar may not seem like a story that is universal but in many ways it is. It is a prime example friendship, betrayal, tragedies, and especially how passion always overcomes intellect. No matter how intellectual you are passion will always overcome in certain situations. In Julius Caesar there are many situations where the truly human characters show these complex ideas of passion vs intellect. For example when Brutus tries to talk to the mob of Rome after he killed their fearless leader Caesar he uses logic to explain his actions and makes the crowd understand the logic behind killing Caesar, he tells them that he did it for them for the wellbeing of Rome itself. Right after noble Brutus is done speaking to the Roman people Mark Antony, who just witnessed his best friend get brutally murdered by a band of conspirators, starts to talk to the crowd of these actions. Mark Antony is very passionate when he speaks to the Roman people about the death of his best friend and how he feels about the conspirators, instead of using facts and common logic to express his feelings about the situation he becomes very temperamental and tells how the Roman people should be weeping over the death of such a great man. To show his passion he uncovers the butchered body of Julius Caesar, he tells about how all he wants to do is give him proper burial and even cries during this speech. At the end of Antony’s speech the Roman people completely turn against Brutus and the other conspirators, even thought they just thought that killing Caesar was the most logical thing to do, but the passion that Antony showed during his speech far outweighed the logic that Brutus gave during his speech. This not only shows that passion always outweighs intellect, but again it shows that the characters that Shakespeare has implemented in this play are not just the simple bad and good characters but they are extremely complex and human. Due to this they can be interrupted in complete opposite ways by different people, which is a major reason people still read this book it can be viewed in such a variety of ways just because of how brilliant Shakespeare was at showing the human side of people.
ReplyDeleteSorry Mr. Clark it was a little repetitive, I was really interested about how he made the characters in the play and how that cause the play to have its own level of complexity to the fact that it can be told in countless different ways and that it can still relate to the way we live our lives today.
No apologies necessary, B-man.
DeleteHuman beings have a very unique way of speaking, that no other creature has, and that is to express oneself through art. Art allows anything to be up to interpretation. The play Julius Caesar, written by the famous William Shakespeare, is one of those plays where you can interpret it many different ways without either way being wrong. Since this play is open up to many different views, many people have different opinions on how this play should be interpreted. One of these views, is from Harold Bloom, written in his book, Shakespeare The Invention of the Human, saying that Shakespeare invented human nature, what it means to be human. Young adult author, Alex Bledsoe, who is a fan of Bloom's book, says that the play tells us so much more than Brutus' plans for killing Caesar and the results of misguided actions, it's about the war between passion and intellect, and how passion always wins. Meaning, there are always two sides to any given situation. The side of passion, how one knows that in their heart, it is something that they truly want, their gut instinct, what one individual decides in the heat of the moment. While intellect is how one comes to correct conclusions, concerning more with facts rather than feelings. The play Julius Caesar demonstrates these qualities directly. While Brutus and Antony delivered their funeral orations for Caesar, Brutus relied on logic, on his intellect, which didn't really sway the crowd that much. But, then Antony comes along and moves the people with his words, which he spoke solely off of passion, and influenced the crowd to turn against the conspirators. Which here, clearly shows how passion has overcome intellect, and in any given situation, it always will.
ReplyDeleteShakespeare had brought a depth understanding into the human character. We don't read Shakespeare just to read it. When reading his plays, he shows a tremendous outlook on how these characters go through the wide range of human emotions throughout the play. Shakespeare shows basically how fragile a human can be, going from anger to sorrow, and from love to envy within a few minutes. Through his work, he compiles his plays with all these human emotions that everyone can relate to or experience at a point in their lives. Julius Caesar has nothing to do with Roman history, it shows the emotions that influence a person's decision on how to carry out their actions. So, is it safe to say that Shakespeare practically invented the human? I wouldn't go so far but he definitely influenced human nature.
Shakespearian literature are some of the only works that have lasted the test of time. In Shakespeare’s tragedy Julius Caesar, a roman leader loses his life to conspirators who fear that he may be gaining too much power. The play is based on historical events surrounding the conspiracy against Roman leader Julius Caesar. This play has an inexorable role in influencing humanity. The main reason for why people have been reading this play for the past 400 years is a question that is still often debated. People often say that we read Julius Caesar because it teaches students “how to analyze the language” and that it’s based on a “historical incident”. Therefore, they say that by reading this the students will gain insight. When in reality, the play in a way, has shaped us into who we are today. Alex Bledsoe has a very simple explanation as to why this piece of literature has a surprising timelessness. His answer is that in a war between passion and intellect, passion always wins. Throughout the play, both Antony and Brutus display this conflict. While Antony conquers problems by using a more pathos view, Brutus on the other hand, uses ethos and intellect. When it comes down to giving speeches and influencing crowds Mark Antony is noticeably more effective because of the passion that he pours into his speeches. By doing so he easily influences the Roman people by emotion. At one point in the play, Merullus even states "you blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things". At this moment in the play he is talking about the roman people and how easily they could be swayed to love someone and then completely hate those same characters only a few minutes later. All of the characters throughout the play make decisions based off of their feelings like everyday people in the world today. This makes them relatable and this is one of the major factors in the reason as to why Shakespeare’s works have been considered to be timeless. In the end, without Shakespeare, the world as you know it would be totally different.
ReplyDeleteShakespeare is possibly the best writer of human history. He basically created the english language and shaped the modern human. He gives emotion and human characteristics to the characters in his literature. Antony breaks down in tears as he makes his speech at Caesar's funeral, while in other literature such as the Odyssey, Odysseus watches many of his men get slaughtered and shows zero grief or sorrow. In addition to the huge difference in compassion, shakespeare gives his characters believable human qualities as opposed to in the Odyssey, Odysseus is viewed as an almost invincible super hero who can take on one hundred men single handedly. Julius Caesar is completely based off of the battle between passion and intellect, and as Bledsoe stated, passion always wins. The passion and emotion that Shakespeare has and that he infuses in his characters is what kept audiences coming back for more back then and what keeps us as readers so enticed by his writing. Mr. Costal asks the question, does art imitate life or does life imitate art? I believe that life imitates art due to the fact that people attempt to change themselves based on the art they say. Women see pictures of supermodels and constantly believe that they have to lose weight or change their looks just because of what they see on a magazine cover. The argument can go both ways since there are paintings and sculptures of historic events. I guess it's safe to say that we continue to read Shakespeare because he invented the key components of our lives. His works should be read out of respect as one of the greatest literary minds of history.
ReplyDeleteSports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue: art?
DeleteShakespeare, a name that just about everyone is familiar with, is associated with some of the greatest plays of all time. Julius Caesar, one of his great works, is a play that most people read at some point in their life. The reason this four hundred year old play is still constantly read and performed is because it is well-constructed, timeless, and universal. Harold Bloom, a literary critic and Yale University Professor, writes in his book, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, that “Our ideas as to what makes the self authentically human owe more to Shakespeare than ought to be possible.” Bloom is saying that Shakespeare is responsible for inventing the Human and its qualities. This raises the question “Does art imitate life or does life imitate art?”
ReplyDeleteOne thing that is prominent in all of Shakespeare’s works is passion. Passion is the thing that separates us, as humans, from all other animals. The goal in life for an animal is to survive and make offspring. While this is true for humans as well, there are other things in life for us besides surviving and making babies. For example, humans enjoy leisure, art, being creative, and challenging ourselves. All of these qualities result from the passionate tendencies of the human nature, something that all of us are born with, not something invented by Shakespeare. I would not go as far as to say that Shakespeare invented the human, but I would say that he does an amazing job of illuminating and capturing the nature and ideals that are human.
The characters in Shakespeare are very relatable and come across as undeniably human. The story of Julius Caesar is not a story of murder, vengeance, revenge, or liberation; but a story of passion. The main characters in this play, Cassius, Antony, and even Brutus, are extremely passionate in the way they act and think. At almost no point in the play is there an absence of passion. A clear example of this is Antony’s speech following the assassination of Caesar. Antony addresses the confused crowd of citizens using pathos, or emotion, to try and sway the Roman public into a passionate revenge riot. As well as the speech, there is clearly passion in the civil war that follows, the assassination of Caesar that proceeds, and the suicides of Cassius and Brutus. Alex Bledsoe, an author and frequent Shakespeare blogger, even calls the play “a war between passion and intellect…”
So back to the question “does art imitate life or does life imitate art?” It’s hard to say which influences the other. Is it possible that before Shakespeare human nature and qualities were different? Or is human nature something that we have always been born with? Is it possible for someone to influence the qualities that make us human and separate us from every other animal? All these questions are very open ended. One thing is for sure and that is the nature of humans and their qualities are undeniably expressed through the plays of Shakespeare, whether reflecting human nature or attempting to invent it.
Einstein, Hitler, Brutus, Antony. These people had something in common. They also proved something. Albert Einstein spent countless hours on a chalkboard trying to solve math problems so he can discover relativity, and so he can win a Nobel Prize. His drive, or passion, to discover something important, ignited his intellect to commit to a chalkboard everyday for years. Adolf Hitler also had the passion to rule Germany with his might (which he did) even though he was put in prison. He used his smartness to manipulate the Germans to follow him. This was his passion, and this wouldn't have happened i he didn't have the drive to control Germany. Both of these people had passion and smartness, but passion controlled and manipulated Einstein's and Hitler's intellect. This is proof that Bledsoe was right when he wrote, "in the war between passion and intellect, passion always wins."
ReplyDeletePassion is the force that makes people do things that are good or bad. Passion is what all human beings have. Passion leads to our downfall.
Shakespeare, the prophet of literature, wrote many plays on passion and how it enters the human as a parasite, then spreads to other characters like cancer, then destroys the characters like Ebola. His plays reflect the human condition. For instance, people have a passion for accomplishing things, or getting the fresh fruit, and then they let their passion get in the way of common sense, and thereby resulting in a spoiled fruit. This has been shown in "Romeo and Juliet", where two teenagers have an undying passion for each other, and they let their passion knock out their common sense. They then fulfill their passion of getting married, but they ruined their own lives and he lives of their families.
People read "Romeo and Juliet" and other Shakespearean plays because they reflect the human condition and what happens when humans commit errors out of passion. "Julius Caesar" is also another example of this. For instance, Cassius and Brutus wanted to assassinate Caesar very badly, and they also wanted power. The only way to get power was to kill Caesar. The next thing you see is Caesar's corpse with a reeking, sour smell and the floor flooded with acidic blood. Brutus and Cassius had passion and used it. That passion beat intellect and common sense and made them murder the Roman leader in front of the Senate. Had they murdered him after he came back from the Senate, things would have been much better for the two. This shows how passion beats intellect. This is also why people read "Julius Caesar". It is because important things can be learned from this play, like how passion is dangerous, and how one should never be desperate or passionate about anything, for it leads to failure. To sum up, basically, people read Shakespeare and in particular, "Julius Caesar" because it reflects on the human condition and its consequences. Shakespearean plays are relatable and timeless. Since ancient Roman times, passion has put humans in harm's way and eventually left them in the land of failure.
I believe that Bledsoe is right when he says, "that in the war between passion and intellect, passion always wins." For example, when Brutus speaks after killing Caesar, he uses ethos and logos, or the intellect, to persuade the people into thinking that what he did was right. It worked until Antony started to speak. Antony only used pathos and passion in his speech. This gave Antony the higher ground over Brutus since he was able to persuade the Romans into believing him. Brutus lost and Antony won, thereby allowing passion to win over intellect, just like Bledsoe wrote. Also, during a time of crisis, when a leader dies, people are bound to be desperate and will believe in emotions instead of intellect. Antony also used his passion of avenging Caesar's death by instilling passion. Therefore, passion always beats intellect, and it has been shown in countless timeless and universal plays of Shakespeare.
Intense, K-dawg, intense.
DeleteWhen reading any play by William Shakespeare, the overwhelming comprehension of human nature is, well, overwhelming. Shakespeare was so before his time and understood how humans acted that it can be easy to see why Harold Bloom thinks Shakespeare, in a way, created human nature. However, that is silly and far-fetched. Humans are born with human nature. It is what separates us from animals. We are able to have conflicting feelings, and think deeply about things that have no correct answer. We are born with this. Shakespeare did not influence or create human nature in anyway. However, he shed light on the ins and outs of how humans think, act, and do. He gave us a perspective on humans and human nature that at the time, had never been seen before.
ReplyDeleten Julius Caesar we learn after a multitude of speeches, slaying of rulers, and tragic suicides, that in a war between passion and intellect, passion always wins. The envy we see in Cassius that fuels his desire to rid of Caesar is his biggest flaw. However, envy is a human emotion. One cannot stop himself from being envious or jealous, it is a human passion that cannot be ignored. The desire to be liked by the Roman people that we see in Brutus is also a major flaw that is hard to ignore. Brutus was so controlled by this desire and passion that it led to his downfall. Finally, the spite we see in Antony drives him to become so passionate about seeking revenge that a war of all things breaks out. Passion always triumphs in the war between head and heart. Your head will try to convince you, but your heart will win . In the end it seems that our character's biggest flaws are being human. Shakespeare does such an amazing job of portraying this in Julius Caesar, and all of his plays and sonnets, that you cannot help but relate and interpret it to your own experiences and understandings. This is why Julius Caesar is such a timeless piece: every person who reads it will have their own ideas of who plays what role. Are Brutus and Cassius villains or heroes? Are there good guys and bad guys in this play? Are there good guys and bad guys in life? These are the questions that have shaped modern literature and how people understand each other and themselves. William Shakespeare did not create the nature of these beautifully complex beings, but mirrored them into wonderful pieces of art work.
“The very essence of literature is the war between emotion and intellect, between life and death. When literature becomes too intellectual - when it begins to ignore the passions, the emotions - it becomes sterile, silly, and actually without substance.” -Isaac Bashevis Singer
All I have is questions.
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ReplyDeleteHuman Nature in Julius Caesar.
In life, the battle between the head and the heart, the heart always wins. This is the main idea in Shakespeare's famous play Julius Caesar. The play has little to nothing to do with roman history but more to do with human nature and the war between passion and intellect. Shakespeare brings many humanistic qualities into characters like Brutus and Antony and lets them clash. In Julius Caesar, the intellectual aspect of human nature does not win, it is the one with the most heart that triumphs. For example, Brutus spoke to calm the masses using the rhetorical modes ethos and logos, ethos is credibility, and logos is logic. “...If then that friend demand why Brutus rose against Caesar , this is my answer: Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more…”.Brutus cites his credibility stating that he is an honorable man. (“for i am honorable”). Then, the spotlight turns to Caesar's friend and general of the Roman Army, Mark Antony, who starts his speech. Antony uses the rhetorical mode pathos(emotion) to manipulate the masses . For example, the mob becomes enraged and wants to avenge Caesar. Antony later reveals.. ("Brutus and Cassius are rid like madmen through the gates of Rome.") The result is a civil war or it is arguably a war between intellect and passion, Brutus vs Antony. The war between Brutus and Antony ends with Brutus losing. Passion will always overcome intellect. Why? Human nature is to do what feels good and feels right. The keyword in that sentence is feels. The rush of adrenaline, the release of endorphins, and euphoria are all things humans experience when they let passion overcome intellect. And this is exactly why the mob supported antony and not brutus. Never once does the mob think, " hey, Caesar was power hungry, maybe brutus was right". The crowd does the complete opposite and wants to slay brutus and cassius for killing their leader and sending them into a state of panic.
Human Politics
Mark antony is a political genius in Julius Caesar. This may sound contradicting but antony uses his intellect to manipulate the masses with pathos(emotion). Antony knows well before he speaks what his intentions are and what the end result will be. The roman masses do not know, they are in a state of panic and are very vulnerable. Antony then uses this to his advantage by getting the crowd fired up. One other charismatic public speaker that used the same technique to manipulate the masses is.... that's right, you guessed it... Adolf Hitler! Hitler was a furious speaker, for that is how fooled millions of Germans into thinking that killing millions of Jews, gypsies, and independent thinkers was humane. Was intellect what he focused on to manipulate the masses?.. No it was not, but did he use his own intellect to figure out that its emotion that drives us people to do what we do, yes he did.
In conclusion, we still read Shakespeare today because it captures what makes human beings both civilized and animalistic.
P.S. i dont like politics
Me neither. Good connection to historical events: passionate political speakers are often charlatans and silver-tongued devils.
DeletePerhaps Brutus is right: we need to be ruled by reason.
In many ways Julius Caesar, one of the many great plays written by William Shakespeare is a piece of literature that expresses the constant war we face between passion and intellect. We are at war with our head and heart everyday whether it is what we want to be when we grow up, what sport to do, or even whether to eat something healthy or unhealthy the point is though some may say that the play is about Roman history it is far from about the history of Rome but simply about finding a balance between both passion and intellect. You may feel passionate about something but logic may tell you to do otherwise. For example, during the funeral that was held for Caesar both Antony and Brutus made speeches but the difference between the speeches is that while Brutus used logic and boring facts to explain his reason for killing Caesar was not personal but necessary Antony manipulated the crowd by using emotion and passion. The crowd was hanging on to every word Antony spoke and were moved by the tears he shed when talking about the death of his dear and beloved friend. Also, when Antony says he needs to pause for a moment to gather his thoughts because he was too upset showed the crowd that he was hurt and when he repeatedly says the "honorable men"said killing Caesar was the right thing to do also influenced the crowd into thinking they were wrong for killing Caesar. I personally 100% agree with Bledsoe that passion always wins over intellect and I think that he was right when he said that Shakespeare's plays are timeless because even now we can still find ways to relate it back to ourselves. The reason we continue to read this play even after 400 years is because it perfectly portrays human nature and the flaws we all have. For the first time in literature Shakespeare made his characters human and showed to the audience that no one is a hero or a villain but everyone is both because we all have some good and evil in us. The play still even after all this time connects to the actions of people and students can still relate to the characters personalities in the play.
ReplyDeleteShakespeare taught us how humans are really are and how their qualities affect everyday life. Shakespeare shows us humans how passion overcomes intellect in every case. This is how Harold Bloom, a Yale University professor feels and interprets William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar play. Mark Antony is a great manipulator who wins over the Roman crowds because he uses passion to sway the people to think his perspective is right and to follow him. It only takes him a passionate speech to forget about Brutus, the one they all just got done loving and thinking he was a noble man. Brutus is more intelligent and uses tactics than using soft words and compassion to relate to the crowd. The crowd is on Antony's side because they see Antony has heart and feelings for the needs of the Roman people although it's just talk and him being evil behind their backs. We learn a lot by reading this play because the characters Brutus and Antony represent the old and modern civilizations. If two candidates were running for president and one only seemed like he would get done what he wanted without caring what happened to the people of his or her country but get results and the other showed he would attempt to get done his intentions and help the country while being passionate and caring about the people of his or her country, of course everyone will want to vote for that person. For the four hundred year old Julius Caesar he is still teaching us the ways how "real" people are and how we vote or favor one person to another. For the question Does art imitate life or does life imitate art? the class had a discussion today on what we thought which one was true and you said you thought both were true. I completely agree because you cannot have one or the other without the one. For an example, say someone is painting a portrait of their town or a piece of land they have seen before and the portrait is their ruined town or a wasteland, then the life they are living or seeing is reflecting their art. All of their masterpieces would be of life henceforth life imitating art. Also, a random person or someone who feels sad about what they see can build a new town or area with life in it where people thrive every day and night. From the art they saw a new lifestyle and place of living is made which contributes to the saying art imitates life. Art is important to one's culture because it's what makes a culture different and unique. Without art a country wouldn't be able to express their way of life or a person in general wouldn't be able to. I know music has influenced me a lot from feelings, how I act, and what kind of party goes on in the weekends. All the the art, music, movies, and other types of art have shaped how we live and who we ourselves are.
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ReplyDeleteJust as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue.
ReplyDelete-Buddha
Art guides our society. Children, teenagers, and adults all are influenced by art. The music we listen to. The books we read. The television we watch. It all affects us in some way. Art can bring happiness, sadness, anger, relief, guilt and hatred. No matter if it’s negative or positive all humans are affected. These thoughts, emotions, and feelings typically are the building blocks for every human, no matter the severity. When the tremendous playwright William Shakespeare started writing plays about these emotions, people were down right shocked. One of his most renowned works, Julius Caesar, demonstrates just how human one can be. In Julius Caesar, Mark Antony is a manipulator who becomes very powerful and popular after the conspirators assassinate the leader of Rome. Where Antony relies on manipulation, Brutus uses intuition. Brutus addressed the crowd during his oration using basic logos, saying he killed Caesar for the greater good which has become his obsession, the crowd was not pleased seeing as they were known to be won over with emotion. Mark Antony addressed the crowd using pathos, he cried, claimed he had “…neither wit, nor words, nor worth… to stir men’s blood” but as this was going on, that was exactly what he did. Antony cries so much so that he cannot speak and then unveils the crippled, lifeless body of Caesar. Here, one can see the crowds reactions played out in their mind as they read the dialogue being shouted, “O most bloody sight!” and “He will be revenged!” This reveals how the Romans feelings are easily persuaded from someone they once admired, to someone they have come to hate. As we can see humans are influenced a lot and very easily.
What makes us human? What makes us who we are? You see, this is a complicated question to answer. Humans are not linear beings. Unlike other species, we have the brain capacity for higher levels of thought and communication. Art, technological advances, and civilization have all sprouted from this higher brain capacity that humans, as a species, contain. Our brain capacity also allows humans to have “layers”; humans have conflicting ideals, motives, passions, desires, emotions, and ways of thinking.
ReplyDeleteAnd this is why we still read and study Shakespeare and his works, 400 years after his death. Shakespeare truly understood human nature. He knew that humans had this depth that many other authors of his time period had not fully understood at that point. Shakespeare was years and years ahead of his time. His works show a level of understanding of the human psyche that stands unprecedented to the other playwrites of the time.
Take the character Brutus, for example. Cassius manipulates Brutus into killing Caesar. To do this, Cassius played upon Brutus’ sense of public honor and his need to preserve the sanctity of the Roman people. Although Brutus has this need to protect and serve the Roman people, he also loved Caesar as a brother. They were clearly good friends, as seen in the dialogue shared between the two in the acts before caesar’s ultimate demise. This leads to an internal war being waged within Brutus; does he kill one of, if not the, closest friends he has to protect good of the people. This conflict is fully explored in the many soliloquies posed by Brutus.
Shakespeare incomparably grasped the way a human acts. He realized that passion was the ruling factor in humans. As we discussed in class, passion always wins in the war between it and intellect. The fact that many of the conflicts in his plays are started by human passion evidences Shakespeare’s realization of human nature. This reason in itself is why we still study Shakespeare’s works.
The deep questions have no answers, but we continue to ask and in this continuing process, we inch towards the higher truth.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, metaphysical questions cause us to reflect on deeper things, and in that sense, the question is more important than the answer, which is likely unobtainable.
Life imitates art. Everything we do, say, wear, listen to and watch is an imitation of something we have seen before. When we were little we wanted to be like our favorite singer or actor. We would want to dress like them act like them be like them. Art is very diverse but it brings people together. It is a language that anyone in the world can speak. When I went to Italy there was this song that everyone would listen to and I would hear it everywhere it was very catchy so I liked it too. A couple of months after I got back I heard the same exact song on the radio here! I bet people here didn't know that it actually first came from Italy and people over there don't know that it traveled all the way to the United States. Just like the music traveled from Italy to here so did all of Shakespeare's works. I never really understood why we read Shakespeare I hated reading Romeo and Juliet last year but Julius Caesar was not as bad as I thought it would be. Shakespeare shows us the reality of life. He shows us tragedy,love and betrayal. As Alex Bledsoe said "in a war between passion and intellect, passion always wins." Antony wins the Roman people over with his emotions while Brutus' intellect does nothing for him. Most people make decisions based on emotions. The conspirators killed Caesar because they hated him and didn't count on Antony taking revenge. The play Julius Caesar shows us how fast someone you thought was your friend can turn around and stab you in the back literally. Romeo and Juliet shows us that there isn't always a happy ending to a love story. Without William Shakespeare we wouldn't know the true nature of people we would just believe what we saw in movies. Even though he wrote these plays hundreds of years ago his characters still can relate to people today and in the future.
ReplyDeleteMr. Clark I really want to talk about Mr.Costal's favorite question: does life imitate art or does art imitate life? For me, art is a huge part of my life in general. Without music I would not be able to function. It is a way for me to escape and I can connect to the lyrics so much. So to answer that question I think that art imitates life. Art is a way for people to express themselves about the world around them. Every song that I listen to is about some kind of problem or situation that is going on in the world around me. When people write songs it almost always has to do with or is inspired by life and I think that is why people connect to music so well. Art is inspired by life and the things we do in life. I think Shakespeare did what any great artist or musician would do today. He took the characters in his play and made them so that they had human like qualities and made people able to relate to them. He was able to make us read the play, relate it to ourselves, and think about how we act in life. This is a lot like how all art is in the world. Musicians write lyrics so we can relate to them, and artists paint pictures so we can interpret them ourselves and relate to them. Shakespeare was the founder of this technique used by every artist in the world. I feel like that is the sole reason we still read Shakespeare's plays to this day. He was the first person to take the idea of relating his art to the people so they can connect more. He is basically the reason that I love music and art so much.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing that makes us human is our passion. Therefore the way we balance passion in our lives makes us the people we are. Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" completely represents the constant battle between passion and intellect in our lives. Shakesphere created humanity in his plays. For example no matter what setting you put his tales in they all can be striped down to one human imperfection.
ReplyDeleteOne character who represents passion versus is Brutus. He was constantly troubled from the beginning of the play whether to stick by his friend Caesar or conspire his assassination for the "good of the people" when really he was manipulated by Cassius. He is best representation of passion versus intellect in the play and his inner war can be stripped down and related to problems in all of our lives.
Next, Does art imitate life or life imitate art? Our lives imitate our art, because that is the only thing that separates us from all the other animals on earth. Art displays our passion, spirituality, imagination, and desire all aspects that make us Humans. Art has created cultures which lead to civilizations and has gotten us where we are now. Therefore without art we would be no different then the animals in the wild.
Lastly Shakespeare was the first to create the human in literature. He understood human nature more than anyone of his time. That is why we read his Plays, Poems, and Stories hundreds of years later. He is the perfect example of how our art imitates our lives. In conclusion Shakespeare mastered the the Human.