Et tu Students: Conflicting Perspectives in Julius Caesar

To understand conflicting perspectives in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, we need to examine other sources on the life and assassination of Julius Caesar.
Use the websites below to learn more about the history behind the story. For each resource, make notes on key similarities and differences to Shakespeare's perspective of the events and personalities in the play.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Caesar
http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/caesar.html
www.livius.org/caa-can/caesar/caesar01.html
www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/caesar2.htm
www.livius.org/caa-can/caesar/caesar_t09.htm
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Caesar*.html

Websites relating to the play
Use the websites below to help with your understanding of the play.
http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/juliuscaesar
http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/juliuscaesar/quiz.html
http://www.william-shakespeare.info/shakespeare-play-julius-caesar.htm

Videos
Brutus Speech
Mark Antony's speech
What's so great about Caesar?
Brutus falls for Cassius
HBO series Rome - Assassination of Caesar
HBO series Rome - Battle of Philippi
New Video Critical Moment - The Rise and Fall of Ancient Rome - Examine the portrayal of Caesar in this series. How does it compare to Shakespeare's portrayal of Julius Caesar? How are language features are used in this docu-drama - think narration, music, dramatic recreations, acting,  dialogue etc.

Related Texts:
You may consider the conflicting perspectives of other historical events and personalities. One example with striking parallels to the assassination of Julius Caesar is the recent political assassination of Australian prime minister by members of his own party.
Read the texts below and compare the perspectives given of the cause of Rudd's downfall. Compare the style of journalistic writing as well.
Rudd's Downfall - He never really got it
Lack of Oratory skills
Gillard plotted Rudd's Downfall
Gillard plotted against Rudd
dark-clouds-that-spelt-doom-for-a-prime-minister

Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Frankenstein vs. Bladerunner

Dear students,

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe..."

Mostly by using this new whiz bang high tech thingee called the Internet. Here are a few resources to help you in your comparative study of Frankenstein and Blade Runner.

Tips for Writing about the Comparative Study 

Watch the video for this old intelligent sounding guy's tips on understanding Frankenstein and Bladerunner

A good overview of the Comparative study for students (although a bit studenty) is this Student website



Frankie Links
A good site for a definition, explanation and history of the Gothic novel http://www.jahsonic.com/GothicNovel.html



This site http://www.frankensteinfilms.com/ is great for a summary of Mary Shelley's personal history, how she came to write Frankenstein, the context and Frankenstein's legacy in popular culture.  as is this one http://www.nlm.nih.gov/frankenstein/preface.html for an overview of the main ideas and themes and relevant quotes. For an 'interesting' (well I think it's interesting) take on the religious and moral element of the novel read this article. While for a discussion of Mary Shelley's novel as a nineteenth-century, Romantic, and Feminist reading of Paradise Lost read: http://www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/mshelley/pva229.html

Blade Runner Links

The source material for Blade Runner "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" was written by sci-fi writer Phillip K Dick. To learn more about him, his work and his influence go to: www.philipkdick.com
and www.wired.com 

Get an insight into Dick's mind through his speech  How to build a universe that doesn't fall apart in two days - pay attention to Dick's ideas on reality and what constitutes an authentic human being - an 
important theme in BR and throughout his stories.  

For links to analysis of the film go to: http://br-insight.com/analysis/
And for a great review and side by side comparison of Dick's novel and the film try:  http://www.filmsite.org/blad.html
There's much more out there. I'll keep updating this over the next few lessons. Here's the visual representation - game I was talking about... 




What did the Shelley's monster look like? The classic image of Frankenstein - as the monster became known overshadows the image from the novel. 
See the trailer of the 1931 movie.... 

Kenneth Branagh's 90's version with Robert De Niro as the monster is probably more accurate....