We just finished reading Shakespeare’s play “Julius Caesar.” As we have discussed and experienced, the play deals with many issues of human nature, including: betrayal, trust, loyalty, justice, and leadership. There have been many instances in real life that reflect what happens in plays, one of the most famous is John Wilkes Booth’s assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.
Read this diary entry, which Booth wrote after he killed Lincoln, and compare it to Brutus’s decision to kill Caesar. Be sure to note his mention of Shakespeare’s character, Brutus, in his diary entry.
Once you have read the entry, answer 3 of 7 questions (you decide which 3!) listed below and post them as a comment. Use complete sentences and evidence from the text to support your answers.
1. Describe how Booth justifies the shooting of Abraham Lincoln in his diary entry. How does this compare to the way Shakespeare's character Brutus justifies the assassination of Julius Caesar?
2. Assess Booth's claims that his "action was purer than" that of Brutus and that he never sought any personal gain.
3. How do you think Brutus might respond to the claims made in Booth's diary? What might these two figures, Booth and Brutus, say to each other if they met?
4. Diary entries like Booth's give us access to a writer's innermost thoughts. How do we gain access the innermost thoughts of a dramatic character like Shakespeare's Brutus?
5. Why do you think Booth kept a diary after shooting Lincoln? (Do you think he ever anticipated that the diary would be read and/or published? If so, does this change the way we read and interpret the diary? In other words, is it possible that Booth's journal entries were crafted to sway his potential readers?)
6. Do you think there is ever any way to justify the assassination of a political leader? Why or why not?
7. Has reading Booth's diary changed your perception of Brutus's actions in the play?
1 comment:
6. Do you think there is ever any way to justify the assassination of a political leader? Why or why not?
- In my opinion there is now way to justify the assassination of a political leader. There is no way to justify any assassination, fir the reason being that no matter how strong you feel about someone or feel something towards someone no one deserves to die. Everyone should have a chance at living making it right or just passing it by, no matter the problem.
7. Has reading Booth's diary changed your perception of Brutus's actions in the play?
- Reading Booth’s diary doesn’t change my perception of Brutus’s actions because he is a back stabber. If Ceaser was really his best friend and he loved ceaser like he said then he wouldn’t have killed him. He wouldn’t have smiled in his face and planned his death behind this back. He is fake!
3. How do you think Brutus might respond to the claims made in Booth's diary? What might these two figures, Booth and Brutus, say to each other if they met?
- I think if the two of them ever met they would have a lot in common. They would be able to relate in many ways such as feeling that they did something good for mankind or even there self. If they felt so strong about it then they would probably be such great friends and take over the world!
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