ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
Power Videos 32 videos
We were so moved by Angelina Jolie's overseas adoptions that we created a proposal to bring foreign-born children over by the thousands! Think abou...
Are humans civilized, or are we just savages waiting to come out? William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies tackles that question.
We may not always agree with the government, but at least they aren't pigs. We mean that literally. Whether or not you think they're pigs in a figu...
Julius Caesar Summary 56997 Views
Share It!
Description:
We totally understand loving your country, but don't murder your best friend over it. That's a bit over the top. Stick to flying flags and singing national anthems, please.
Transcript
- 00:04
Julius Caesar, a la Shmoop Greetings, fellow countrymen. I am Brutus…
- 00:12
….Okay, okay, you all probably know me for my um, shaky moral compass…
- 00:17
…you know – murdering my good friend…
- 00:19
…who, uh, also happened to be a beloved Roman general and senator…
- 00:24
…but I swear this wasn’t just some popularity contest gone wrong.
Full Transcript
- 00:28
I mean, I did think that Caesar was getting too popular.
- 00:31
I was afraid that he was going to become the king of Rome…
- 00:37
…but it’s not like I wanted to be king instead! I just wanted no kings! Not even
- 00:42
the nice kind!
- 00:43
Just a good old fashioned republic…
- 00:44
…where everybody gets a voice.
- 00:47
Well, except the dead guy.
- 00:49
Okay, I admit… I guess we could have tried more, um, republican techniques, but it’s
- 00:56
not like we could have voted for the people to stop liking him!
- 01:00
Plus, I had my friend Cassius breathing down my neck.
- 01:05
He was all “Caesar thinks he’s soooo cool” and “nobody even likes him” and “we
- 01:10
need to murder him before he becomes a vicious dictator…”
- 01:13
Talk about pressure.
- 01:16
It’s especially uncomfortable when, at your murder victim’s funeral, after you’ve
- 01:21
gone on and on about how you did it all for the love of your country…
- 01:24
….it turns out that the guy you killed bequeathed all his money to the citizens of that country.
- 01:30
Doesn’t really make you look like you love your country all that much.
- 01:34
But I did, I swear… I was just misguided in my love…
- 01:37
Overly eager, pressured, a little obsessive – like that guy who keeps messaging you
- 01:42
on OKCupid…
- 01:44
Before this murder thing, I used to be one of the good guys. Well-loved in the community,
- 01:50
rubbing elbows with rising stars like Caesar, a good husband and a hard worker…
- 01:58
…but my love of country made me lose it all.
- 02:01
I lost my wife… she killed herself because I was so obsessed with Rome I’d forgotten
- 02:07
about her.
- 02:07
I lost my friend Cassius to the war…
- 02:09
…and then I lost the war.
- 02:12
And then, after all that, I lost myself.
- 02:16
Mine is a tale of caution: love can make you do crazy things. Like, really crazy things.
- 02:22
Seriously, people, don’t murder your friends.
- 02:25
But while I majorly screwed up with Rome, I didn’t lose the love of my life completely.
- 02:31
See, after I realized that the war was lost, and I killed myself…
- 02:34
…Antony, Caesar’s ally, spoke over my dead body. He said that, in spite of the huge
- 02:39
mess I helped create…
- 02:41
….I was the only one who did it because I truly loved my country.
- 02:44
So… yeah. At least I’ve got that going for me.
Related Videos
This video defines utopias and dystopias, and investigates how a utopia might become a dystopia. Can a seemingly perfect world actually be a dystop...
We may all be fools when it comes to love, but thankfully none of us will accidentally switch places with our twin brother and fall in love with ou...
Picking a theme for a party is pretty easy—always go karate party, because they come with nunchuck egg rolls. Themes in writing are a little diff...
They say that honesty is the best policy, but Jack lies about his identity and still gets the girl. Does that mean we should all lie to get what we...
Ever wish you could remember everything that you ever studied? How about everything that everyone has ever studied? Yeah, pretty sure our brains ju...