A Midsummer Night’s Dream

by William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
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Content: 5/5
Poetic Mastery: 5/5
Literary Truth: 4/5

Quince, Bottom, Snout, and Snug?

— Read the boobies in Act 1, Scene 2 | Act 3, Scene 1 | Act 5 —

I love Shakespeare’s morons!

Julius Caesar

by William Shakespeare
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Content: 3/5
Poetic Mastery: 4/5
Literary Truth: 3/5

Julius Caesar (fun fact: Romans would pronounce it YOO-lee-us KI-sur) is the tale of the persuasion of Brutus to conspire against the emperor and the struggle over the rule of Rome after the leader’s death.

Brutus’ character, like most in the play, is created from Roman historical sketches. As in these early documents, Brutus is loved and respected by both friend and enemy. Marc Anthony (ANN-tuhn-ee) for his part, praises Brutus for wanting to kill Caesar for noble reasons.

This is strange enough. What’s stranger is that Brutus never really impressed me because he seemed to me to have made tactical blunders. First is the famous debate over whether he was wrong or right to spare Marc Anthony from the fate of Caesar. Brutus then ignored his comrades’ advise against allowing Marc Anthony to speak at Caesar’s funeral. Worst of all, Brutus didn’t even stick around for the speech, meaning that after Marc Anthony’s hilariously sarcastic speech won over the hilariously idiotic plebeians (ahh, the stupid excitable masses!), no one was there to prevent the landslide of public opinion from falling upon the conspirators. Lastly, Brutus may have made a mistake in pressing the battle toward his foes’ position, again against the advise of his comrades; Marc Anthony certainly thought it was a mistake. Brutus’ bullheaded mistakes show him as a noble but fallible man whose reaction against the prospect of servitude to another is certainly plausible!