Contextual Questions and Analysis on Five Key Passages from Act 1, Scene 1 of 'Julius Caesar

 Below are five longer passages from Act 1, Scene 1 of "Julius Caesar," each accompanied by five contextual questions and their answers.

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### Passage 1:

"You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!  

O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome,  

Knew you not Pompey?"

#### Questions:

1. Who is speaking these lines?

2. To whom are these lines directed?

3. What is the speaker’s emotional state?

4. Why does the speaker mention Pompey?

5. What metaphor is used for the crowd?

#### Answers:

1. Marullus

2. The commoners

3. Angry and frustrated

4. To criticize the crowd’s fickle loyalty

5. Blocks and stones

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### Passage 2:

"If you do find them deck'd with ceremonies.  

...  

These growing feathers pluck'd from Caesar's wing  

Will make him fly an ordinary pitch,  

Who else would soar above the view of men  

And keep us all in servile fearfulness."

#### Questions:

1. Who is speaking?

2. What is meant by "deck'd with ceremonies"?

3. What is the implication of "growing feathers"?

4. What does "fly an ordinary pitch" mean?

5. What is the speaker’s intent?

#### Answers:

1. Flavius

2. Decorated for the celebration

3. Caesar's growing power

4. Be reduced to a normal level of influence

5. To diminish Caesar's growing influence

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### Passage 3:

"Go, go, good countrymen, and, for this fault,  

Assemble all the poor men of your sort;  

Draw them to Tiber banks, and weep your tears  

Into the channel, till the lowest stream  

Do kiss the most exalted shores of all."

#### Questions:

1. Who is speaking these lines?

2. What "fault" is being referenced?

3. What does "Tiber banks" symbolize?

4. Why should they "weep your tears"?

5. What is meant by "most exalted shores"?

#### Answers:

1. Marullus

2. The commoners’ fickleness

3. A place for contemplation or remorse

4. To atone for their fickle loyalty

5. The greatness of Rome

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### Passage 4:

"Is this a holiday? What! know you not,  

Being mechanical, you ought not walk  

Upon a labouring day without the sign  

Of your profession?"

#### Questions:

1. Who is speaking?

2. To whom are these questions asked?

3. What does “mechanical” refer to?

4. What does “labouring day” mean?

5. What does “sign of your profession” signify?

#### Answers:

1. Flavius

2. The commoners

3. Working-class people

4. A regular working day

5. Tools or symbols representing their trade

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### Passage 5:

"Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home?  

What tributaries follow him to Rome,  

To grace in captive bonds his chariot-wheels?"

#### Questions:

1. Who is asking these questions?

2. Who are these questions directed at?

3. What is being questioned?

4. What is meant by "captive bonds"?

5. What is the tone of the speaker?

#### Answers:

1. Marullus

2. The crowd

3. The reasons for celebrating Caesar’s return

4. Prisoners taken in war

5. Sceptical and confrontational

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