Julius Caesar Lesson 1

Today's L.A. Lesson started with a simple discussion on the first scene of Julius Caesar.

I'm not very strong in Literature, so it took me a while to fully understand the story of Julius Caesar and to keep up with the discussion today. We discussed on why Shakespeare chose a chaotic scene for the beginning of this book. Various reasons were raised by my classmates and I felt that this helped me better understand the story and the first scene.

The beginning scene starts with a chaotic marketplace, with the people rejoicing the overthrow of their King. This gives us a sense of disorder and chaos and it keeps us wondering why are the people rejoicing for the overthrow of their King. Scene 1 also provides us with better understanding of the characteristics of the common people (plebeians) and the higher ranking officials (tribunes), through a conversation between them. The hook, which is the beginning of the book, is rather interesting and is able to keep readers curious about the rest of the story.

After that, we watched an interpretation of the play of Julius Caeser, which was in black and white. However, Mrs Seah pointed out that the sets and costumes were unrealistic as at that period where the incident took place, there was not enough resources and the standard of costumes and sets weren't that high yet.

We also discussed the actor who was Julius Caeser in the play. Honestly, I never expected Julius Caeser to look like a almost bald, plump man. I always imagined him as a strong warrior with an aura of leadership. In fact, after looking at the Julius Caeser in the play, my impression of him plummeted. Perhaps the actor protesting Julius Caeser was just not appropriate for my interpretation of how Julius Caeser looks, but literature is subjective, so maybe others just interprate his image differently. Despite not looking like Julius Caeser (the one in my mind), the actor was pretty good at showing the arrogant side of Julius Caeser.
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Mrs Seah decided we should try to learn 5 new words every lesson, so here are my 5 new words for today!

1. Asterisk (the figure of a star)
2. Pentameters (unrhymed verse of five iambic feet; heroic verse)
3. Cacophony (a discordant and meaningless mixture of sounds)
4. Gravitas (seriousness or sobriety, as of conduct or speech)
5. Virile (pertaining to, characteristic of, or befitting a man; masculine; manly)

That's all for today's lesson! :D