Suggestions
Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.Please wait while we process your payment
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
Please wait while we process your payment
By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy.
Don’t have an account? Subscribe now
Create Your Account
Sign up for your FREE 7-day trial
Already have an account? Log in
Your Email
Choose Your Plan
Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan!
Purchasing SparkNotes PLUS for a group?
Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more!
Price
$24.99 $18.74 /subscription + tax
Subtotal $37.48 + tax
Save 25% on 2-49 accounts
Save 30% on 50-99 accounts
Want 100 or more? Contact us for a customized plan.
Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
SparkNotes Plus
You'll be billed after your free trial ends.
7-Day Free Trial
Not Applicable
Renews June 13, 2023 June 6, 2023
Discounts (applied to next billing)
DUE NOW
US $0.00
SNPLUSROCKS20 | 20% Discount
This is not a valid promo code.
Discount Code (one code per order)
SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Free trial is available to new customers only.
Choose Your Plan
For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more!
You’ve successfully purchased a group discount. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. You'll also receive an email with the link.
Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership.
Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! Continue to start your free trial.
Please wait while we process your payment
Your PLUS subscription has expired
Please wait while we process your payment
Please wait while we process your payment
The tone of Julius Caesar is serious and elevated, suggesting the audience should view the events of the play as having lasting, wide-ranging significance. The play contains little humor or moments of levity, and the characters take themselves very seriously, to the point of being willing to die for their ideals. Brutus’s calm, rational explanations for his actions maintain the tone of stately dignity even at moments of intense crisis, as when he faces death. In Act IV Scene i he says, “But it sufficeth that the day will end, / And then the end is known.” This line sums up much of the tone of the play – the characters all understand that they will die eventually, but that their actions in life will reverberate after they’re gone. Although the play ends bloodily, with many characters dead at their own hands, the characters never become hysterical or overly emotional, maintaining the sense that their choices are political rather than personal.
Departures from the overall high-stakes tone come across in scenes with Calpurnia and Portia. The discussions between Brutus and Portia, or Calpurnia and Caesar, have little to do with the sweeping course of history: “Y’have urgently, Brutus,/ Stole from my bed. And yesternight at supper/ You suddenly arose, and walked,/ Musing and sighing, with your arms a-cross”(II.i). Here, Portia’s concerned and intimate tone reveals Brutus’s conflicted inner life. His emotional anxiety is something Portia has noticed, and wants to fully understand. Similarly, Calpurnia begs Caesar to stay home with an equally candid air: “Caesar, I never stood on ceremonies,/Yet now they fright me”(II.ii) Through these tonal shifts, the play highlights the mistakes of its heroes, who feel compelled to sacrifice their interior, private lives for what they believe to be higher ideals.
Please wait while we process your payment