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Conflicting Perspectives Julius Caesar

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Conflicting Perspectives Julius Caesar
Conflicting Perspectives – Julius Caesar

Personalities, events or situations often elicit conflicting perspectives. To what extent has textual form shaped your understanding of conflicting perspectives.
In your response, make detailed reference to your prescribed text and one other text of your own choosing.
Conflicting perspectives are often the outcome of diverse and contrasting views of ones personality, event or situation. This is evident is the play Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, as Caesar's personality develops and the diverse perspective of his death in ensuring civil war create conflict within the play. Raymond Briggs' picture book The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman generates an understanding of the injustice of Falkland's war through contrasting the perspectives of both the political leaders at the time and the Falkland Islanders. Through the use of dramatic, language and visual techniques both Shakespeare and Briggs have shown how differences in opinion can offer a understanding and ideas of certain personalities, situations or events.

From the opening scene of Julius Caesar, Shakespeare introduces conflict. Flavius and Murellus introduce Caesar as a contentious personality, as they rebuke the “mechanicals” who “make holidays to see Caesar” and “rejoice his triumph”. The Tribunes are unhappy with these celebrations as shown through the contrast in tone when Murellus adresses the “Mechanicals” with “You blocks, You stones, you worse than senseless things!” demonstrating the conflicting perspectives within the social classes. The Tribunes believe that Caesar's “growing feathers” need to be “Pluck's” as they are concerned that with his growing power they will be kept in “servile fearfulness”. Shakespeare conveys their anger at the fickleness of the “Mechanicals”, through the use of imperatives such as “answer me directly” and “be gone!'...” as they rebuke their “ingratitude” to Pompey. This shows the dominance of the Tribunes and

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