Biography Help

Question: Act IV of Julius Caesar please help?

(1) What do we find out has happened to Portia? How has she died? Compare/contrast reactions to this news by Cassius and Brutus, her husband.

(2) How do Titinius and Messala play important roles in the final act?

(3) Note the response by Brutus to Messala’s question about Portia. How do you explain this response?

(4) What suggestion does Cassius make about where to fight the armies of Antony and Octavius? What reasons does Brutus give for meeting the armies and fighting them in Philipi? Copy his reasons and state whether you agree with Cassius or Brutus.

(5) What is the role of the ghost of Caesar? Why does Shakespeare add this character to the play at this point?

please help me

Answer: No one likes to read Shakespeare, but these are the notes I wrote for myself. Read them then answer the questions in your own words. I have the notes numbered according to the questions, the notes have two different passages with one giving more info than the other so make sure you read all the notes. If you go to the same school I go to, there’s a second part with questions to a test, I have the answers to that as well. I received a 100% on that. Let me know if you need the answers.

1.a. She committed suicide. 1.b. She kills herself by swallowing hot coals from the fire after Mark Antony and Octavius assume power in Rome.
1.c. Cassius is surprised by the hearing of Portia’s death and wants to know more but Brutus tells him not to speak of her anymore.
(This can go with questions 1. And 3.) Brutus stands out as an example of Republican stoicism on the battlefield. He describes the cause of Portia’s death as, “Impatience of my absence” (4.2.204). His calmness when speaking about his wife’s death frightens even Cassius, who remarks that, “How scaped I killing when I crossed you so?” (4.2.202). He is further taken aback by the ease with which Brutus dismisses the topic when Titinius and Messala arrive. Brutus immediately changes the subject, forcing Cassius to take him aside and ask, “Portia, art thou gone?” (4.2.218). Brutus tells him not to speak of her anymore. Later, when Messala asks Brutus if he has heard anything about Portia, Brutus replies, “Nothing, Messala” (4.2.236). Stoicism and honor mean everything to Brutus, and like Hotspur in Henry IV, Brutus refuses to show weakness to his troops.
No man bears sorrow better. Portia is dead. CASSIUS: Ha! Portia! BRUTUS: She is dead. CASSIUS: How ’scaped I killing when I cross’d you so?
O insupportable and touching loss!
Upon what sickness? BRUTUS: Impatient of my absence,
And grief that young Octavius with Mark Antony
Have made themselves so strong:–for with her death
That tidings came;–with this she fell distract,
And, her attendants absent, swallow’d fire. CASSIUS: And died so? BRUTUS: Even so. CASSIUS: O ye immortal gods! [Re-enter LUCIUS, with wine and taper] BRUTUS: Speak no more of her. Give me a bowl of wine

2. Titinius: an officer in Cassius’ army. He kills himself when he finds Cassius dead on the battlefield.
Messala: an officer and soldier in Brutus’ army.
Brutus and Messala compare letters they have received informing them that Antony and Octavius are marching towards them from Greece. Messala tells Brutus that over one hundred senators have been put to death, but Brutus says his letter only mentioned seventy, including the orator Cicero.
Messala, I have here received letters,
That young Octavius and Mark Antony
Come down upon us with a mighty power,
Bending their expedition toward Philippi. MESSALA: Myself have letters of the selfsame tenor. BRUTUS :With what addition? MESSALA: That by proscription and bills of outlawry,
Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus,
Have put to death an hundred senators. BRUTUS :Therein our letters do not well agree;
Mine speak of seventy senators that died By their proscriptions, Cicero being one.

3. Messala then asks Brutus if he has heard anything about Portia, to which Brutus replies, “Nothing, Messala” (4.2.236), and asks Messala for news of her, pretending to hear of her death for the first time.

Had you your letters from your wife, my lord? BRUTUS :No, Messala. MESSALA: Nor nothing in your letters writ of her? BRUTUS: Nothing, Messala. MESSALA: That, methinks, is strange. BRUTUS: Why ask you? hear you aught of her in yours? MESSALA: No, my lord. BRUTUS: Now, as you are a Roman, tell me true. MESSALA: Then like a Roman bear the truth I tell:
For certain she is dead, and by strange manner. BRUTUS: Why, farewell, Portia. We must die, Messala:
With meditating that she must die once,
I have the patience to endure it now. MESSALA: Even so great men great losses should endure. CASSIUS: I have as much of this in art as you,
But yet my nature could not bear it so.

4. Brutus and Cassius then decide whether to wait for Antony and Octavius in Sardis or march to meet the opposing army in Philippi. Cassius prefers to wait and keep his men fresh, but Brutus thinks that the enemy is gaining in power every day and therefore must be stopped as soon as possible. Cassius finally agrees with him and leaves for his tent to rest before leaving in the morning.
BRUTUS: Well, to our work alive. What do you think
Of marching to Philippi presently? CASSIUS: I do not think it good. BRUTUS: Your reason? CASSIUS: This it is:
‘Tis better that the enemy seek us:
So shall he waste his means, weary his soldiers,
Doing himself offence; whilst we, lying still,
Are full of rest, defense, and nimbleness. BRUTUS: Good reasons must, of force, give place to better.
The people ‘twixt Philippi and this ground
Do stand but in a forced affection;
For they have grudged us contribution:
The enemy, marching along by them,
By them shall make a fuller number up,
Come on refresh’d, new-added, and encouraged;
From which advantage shall we cut him off,
If at Philipp.
These people at our back. CASSIUS: Hear me, good brother. BRUTUS: Under your pardon. You must note beside,
That we have tried the utmost of our friends,
Our legions are brim-full, our cause is ripe:
The enemy increaseth every day;
We, at the height, are ready to decline. There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat;
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures. CASSIUS: Then, with your will, go on;
We’ll along ourselves, and meet them at Philippi.

5. Brutus starts reading a book, but the ghost of 1. Julius Caesar appears, causing the flame to dim. Brutus demands to know who has entered the room, and the ghost tells him, “Thy evil spirit, Brutus” (4.2.333). Brutus then asks the ghost why he has come, and is told that the ghost will see him again at Philippi. The ghost leaves, and Brutus immediately wakes up everyone else in the room. He orders Lucius to go back to sleep, and tells Varrus and Claudio to inform Cassius that he should take his army and march ahead.

Enter the Ghost of CAESAR] How ill this taper burns! Ha! who comes here?
I think it is the weakness of mine eyes
That shapes this monstrous apparition.
It comes upon me. Art thou any thing?
Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil,
That makest my blood cold and my hair to stare?
Speak to me what thou art. GHOST Thy evil spirit, Brutus. BRUTUS Why comest thou? GHOST To tell thee thou shalt see me at Philippi. BRUTUS Well; then I shall see thee again? GHOST Ay, at Philippi. BRUTUS Why, I will see thee at Philippi, then. [Exit Ghost]
BRUTUS Go and commend me to my brother Cassius;
Bid him set on his powers betimes before,
And we will follow. VARRO

CLAUDIUS |
| It shall be done, my lord.

{Think about what would have happen if Brutus had went ahead of Cassius.}

(Part 2 question) A messenger whom he sent to Cassius informs him that Cassius is not as friendly anymore. Brutus remarks, “Thou hast described / A hot friend cooling” (4.2.18-19). At that moment Cassius’ army arrives and Cassius himself appears. He is angry with Brutus and starts to accuse him of wronging him, but Brutus makes him enter the tent so that they do not appear to be fighting in front of their men.
1. Cassius is upset that Brutus publicly disgraced a friend of his for taking bribes from the Sardians. Apparently Cassius had sent several letter to Brutus urging for the man’s release, but Brutus refused. Brutus is furious that Cassius would even consider defending a man for taking bribes, arguing that Caesar was killed for exactly such behavior. He states, “What, shall one of us, / That struck the foremost man of all this world / But for supporting robbers, shall we now / Contaminate our fingers with base bribes” (4.2.73-76). Cassius and Brutus end up threatening each other, with each man convinced he is better able to lead the armies than the other.
The two men continue arguing, and Brutus finally tells Cassius that he is upset that Cassius refused to send him gold with which to pay his soldiers. Brutus says, “I did send / To you for gold to pay my legions, / Which you denied me” (4.2.130-132). Cassius denies it, and in exasperation pulls out his dagger and offers it to Brutus. He tells Brutus to kill him if he is such an terrible man, but Brutus recants and they finally embrace in friendship.
A poet forces his way into the tent and demands that the generals (Cassius and Brutus) not be left alone. He argues that there is a grudge between them. However, having already resumed their friendship, they order him away.
2. The stoics considered passionate emotions to be the result of errors in judgment, and that a sage, or person of “moral and intellectual perfection,” would not have such emotions.1. [1] Stoics were concerned with the active relationship between cosmic determinism and human freedom, and the belief that it is virtuous to maintain a will (called prohairesis) that is in accord with nature. Because of this, the Stoics presented their philosophy as a way of life, and they thought that the best indication of an individual’s philosophy was not what a person said but how they behaved.

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