Julius Caesar: Overview (AQA GCSE English Literature): Revision Note

Julius Caesar: Overview

The Julius Caesar question is part of Paper 1, Section A of your GCSE. For this, you are required to write one essay-length answer to one set question. This can seem daunting at first, but this page contains some helpful information and links to more detailed revision note pages that will enable you to aim for the highest grade. This page includes:

• A summary of Julius Caesar

• A brief overview of what is required in the exam

• Julius Caesar characters

• Julius Caesar context

• Julius Caesar themes

• Julius Caesar quotes

• Top tips for the highest grade

Julius Caesar summary

Julius Caesar is a historical tragedy written by William Shakespeare in 1599. Like Shakespeare’s other tragedies, it explores power, ambition and deception, and it follows a tragic hero who is destroyed by a single decision.

Rome is celebrating Caesar’s return from defeating Pompey’s sons, but a soothsayer warns him to “beware the ides of March”. Cassius, who resents Caesar’s growing power, works on Brutus, a politician loyal to the Roman republic, and persuades him that Caesar must be stopped before he becomes a tyrant. Brutus is convinced not by envy but by principle: he has nothing against Caesar personally, but believes he is acting for the good of Rome.

Ignoring his wife Calpurnia’s warning dream and Artemidorus’s letter, Caesar goes to the Capitol, where the conspirators stab him. Brutus then makes the fatal decision to let Antony speak at the funeral. Antony’s speech turns the crowd against the conspirators, and Rome erupts into rioting.

Antony forms a ruling coalition with Caesar’s heir Octavius and the senator Lepidus, and civil war follows. Brutus and Cassius quarrel bitterly in Brutus’s tent, where he learns that Portia has killed herself, and Caesar’s ghost appears to him. At Philippi, Cassius kills himself after wrongly hearing that his army is defeated, and Brutus, accepting defeat, stabs himself. Antony and Octavius grant Brutus an honourable soldier’s burial, and Rome’s future is left uncertain.

For a more detailed summary, please see the Julius Caesar: Plot Summary page.

How is Julius Caesar assessed in the exam?

• Your GCSE Paper 1 requires you to answer two questions in 1hr 45min. That means you have approximately 52 minutes to plan, write and check your Julius Caesar essay

• Paper 1 is worth 64 marks and accounts for 40% of your overall GCSE grade

• The Julius Caesar essay is worth 34 marks in total, because it also includes 4 marks for AO4 (spelling, punctuation and grammar)

• The Julius Caesar question is in Section A of Paper 1 and you are required to answer the one available question on the play

• Your question will also include a printed extract of about 25 lines from the play

• It is a closed-book exam, which means you will not have access to a copy of the text (other than the printed extract) in your exam

• The question will require you to analyse and write in detail about an aspect of Julius Caesar

• Your answer will need to address both the extract from the play that you will be given, and the play as a whole

For a much more detailed guide on answering the Julius Caesar question, please see our revision notes on How to Answer the Shakespeare Essay Question.

Julius Caesar characters

The characters you should focus on when revising Julius Caesar are:

• Brutus

• Cassius

• Caesar

• Antony

• Calpurnia

• Portia

When considering a Shakespeare play or any other text, it is crucial to remember that characters are intentionally crafted by the writer to serve a specific purpose. In many cases, these characters embody certain concepts or beliefs, and the writer, such as Shakespeare, uses them to reflect on and examine these ideas. For more details, please see the Julius Caesar: Characters revision notes page.

Julius Caesar context

Understanding what context actually is can be tricky at GCSE. Examiners understand context not as historical information or biographical facts about a writer, but as the ideas and perspectives explored by a writer through their text. Therefore, the Julius Caesar context you should explore in your essay response is not information about ancient Rome, or facts about William Shakespeare, but ideas about:

• Republic and monarchy

• Superstition and omens

• Stoicism and honour

Lots of these ideas and perspectives are universal, so your own opinions of them are valid and will be rewarded in an exam. For a detailed breakdown of the contextual topics listed above, see the Julius Caesar: Context page.

Julius Caesar themes

Understanding the themes that Shakespeare explores in Julius Caesar is one of the best approaches any student can take when revising the play. This is because to get the highest mark on your exam, you need to take what examiners call a “conceptualised approach”: a detailed and perceptive exploration of Shakespeare’s ideas and intentions. The main themes explored by Shakespeare in Julius Caesar are:

• Power and leadership

• Manipulation and self-promotion

• Fate and superstition

• Honour and bravery

Shakespeare explores numerous other themes in Julius Caesar beyond those mentioned above and you are encouraged to examine these themes as well. However, the above list makes a great place to start and detailed breakdowns of each of these themes can be found on the Julius Caesar: Themes page.

Julius Caesar quotes

Although you are given credit for including quotations from Julius Caesar in your answer, it is not a requirement of the exam. In fact, examiners say that “references” to the rest of the play are just as valid as direct quotations: this is when students pinpoint individual moments in the play, rather than quoting what the characters say. In order to select references really successfully, it is extremely important that you know the play itself very well, including the order of the events that take place in the play. This detailed act-by-act breakdown of the plot will help you to revise the chronology of Julius Caesar.

However, it can also be useful to revise a few — very well selected — quotations from the play that can be used in a variety of essays on different themes and characters. Luckily, we have made that selection for you! For a ‘translation’ and detailed analysis of each of these quotations, see the Julius Caesar: Key Quotations page. If you are revising a particular character, the Julius Caesar: Character Quotations page groups the most useful quotations by character.

Top tips for the highest grade

Please see our revision pages on the Shakespeare exam for guides on:

• Structuring the Julius Caesar essay

• Julius Caesar methods and techniques

• How to include context in the Julius Caesar essay

• Understanding the Julius Caesar mark scheme

• A Shakespeare model answer

Sources

Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor (eds), 2005, The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works (Second Edition), Oxford University Press