Julius Caesar provided a unique opportunity for Shakespeare to represent a well-known story of a public figure whose life and death enormously affected the future of his nation and it citizens. Caesar’s life could serve as a reflection on the prevailing worries about monarchal leadership, while dipping into questions of public and private life of leaders and studying the famously conflicted rationales of Caesar’s murderers. From the moment the conspirators pulled their swords …showed first 75 words of 975 total…

…showed last 75 words of 975 total…ends on two different notes, as Antony compliments a dead Brutus, foregrounding Brutus’ conflict and tragedy, while Octavius stands by to take command. Brutus the republican may be the last of his kind, the last to stand for the way Rome was, while Octavius the politician prepares to become Rome’s next emperor and lead Rome into a different future. Bibliography Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare; Dover Publications, Inc., 31 east 2nd Street, Mineola, N.Y., 11501