PLATFORM : Life Imitates Art

In “Julius Caesar,” there is a popular, but very controversial, leader of a great nation who is proposing to drastically change the system of government. Some of the powerful people in that country are opposed to what he’s doing, and they form a conspiracy. They kill him. One of his supporters, Marc Antony, makes a great oration that stirs up the people to support him. And with the aid of the people, he and his allies overthrow the conspirators. One reason that the conspirators fail is that their most prominent member, Brutus, is squeamish. He’s unwilling to be as ruthless as he might be; he’s unwilling, for example, to kill Antony.

This would be a wonderful time for high school students to be reading “Julius Caesar,” and to be thinking about how that play might cast light on what’s been happening in the Soviet Union, and how what’s been happening there might cast light on Shakespeare’s play. And how both of them might cast light on important issues of government and of life, such as, does the end justify the means?