JULIUS CAESAR: ACT 5, SCENE 1
Questions to Consider:
1) What reason does Antony give for why Brutus and Cassius (and their army) decided to meet them at
Philippi rather than staying in the hills?
2) What news does the messenger bring at the start of scene 1?
3) What does Brutus mean when he says “Words before blows” at the top of page 1172? What are the two
armies going to do?
4) The men go back and forth, trading insults, on page 1172. What is one insult that Antony receives from
Brutus/Cassius and what is one insult that Brutus/Cassius receive from Antony?
5) Once the men stop insulting one another, and Antony and his army takes their leave, what does Cassius tell
Messala in lines 76-88 on page 1173?
6) Cassius then talks with Brutus about how this might be the last time they speak to one another. In this
discussion, Brutus reveals his attitude about suicide. What is his attitude (based on lines 100-107)? What
would be the only circumstance where he would go against this belief (lines 107-115).
JULIUS CAESAR: ACT 5, SCENE 3
Questions to Consider:
1) Why are Cassius and Titinius upset at the start of Act 5, Scene 3? Why does Pindarus want Cassius to “fly
further off”?
2) What instructions does Cassius give Titinius? What happens to Titinius, based on what Pindarus says in
lines 28-34?
3) What does Brutus ask Pindarus to do for him? Why does he feel like Pindarus owes him this? What does
Pindarus do?
4) Who enters on scene after Cassius dies? What are the two men talking about?
5) Upon discovering Cassius’s body, what does Messala say he has to go do in lines 74-79? When he leaves,
what does Titinius do? Why does he do this?
6) What does Brutus mean when he says “O Julius Caesar, thou are mighty yet!” (line 95)?
7) Why does Brutus want Cassius’s body to be sent to Thasos (lines 99-11)?
JULIUS CAESAR: ACT 5, SCENE 4
Questions to Consider:
1) Who does Lucilius pretend to be at the start of Act 5, Scene 4? Why would he want the enemy to think he
was this person?
2) When Antony comes on scene he realizes that Lucilius is not Brutus. Lucilius says to Antony that if Brutus
is found he will be found “like Brutus, like himself” (lines 20-25). What does he mean by that comment?
How does Antony react to what Lucilius says?
JULIUS CAESAR: ACT 5, SCENE 5
Questions to Consider:
1) What does Brutus whisper to Clitus, Dardanius, and Volumnius on page 1180? What are their reactions to
what Brutus asks of them? Why would Brutus ask them to do this (consider what he tells Volumnius in
lines 16-20)?
2) Reread lines 31-42. Which details in Brutus’ farewell speech show his courage and dignity in defeat? How
does Brutus end up dying?
3) Octavius, Antony, Messala, and Lucilius enter and discover that Brutus is dead from Strato. What is
Lucilius’s reaction? What does Octavius decide to do with the rest of the men in Brutus’s army?
4) In lines 68-81, Antony and Octavius honors Brutus.
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How does Antony characterize Brutus?
According to Antony, how did Brutus’s reason for killing Caesar differ from the other conspirator’s
reasons?
How does Octavius plan to treat Brutus’s corpse?
Why does Octavius call the day a “happy” one (line 81)?