Lend me your ears Why Should I Care

Why Should I Care?

Before Antony takes the stage, the Romans are ready to crown Brutus. By the end of Antony's little speech, we learn that Brutus and Cassius have fled the city like madmen. Now that's what we call a successful speech.

But we're guessing that you don't exactly care about an ancient civil war in Rome. If that's the case, then we should tell you that we don't really think that's the point of this speech.

Sure, that's when it's delivered, and that's how it's used. But we think the real purpose of this speech is for Shakespeare to show off to all his buddies in the theater crowd. You see, Shakespeare didn't go to university like some other playwrights in his day. We now know him as one of the greatest writers of all time, but back in the day, he was made fun of for the little Latin he knew. Burn.

He wrote Julius Caesar when his acting company began to work in a new theater called the Globe. His plays ended up being super popular there, but this was one of the first ones performed in the new theater. And he probably wanted to show everyone just what he could do. So it's fitting that he chose to pen a play populated with characters who would have all spoken Latin.

Shakespeare loved language and he loved to mess around with it, too. We can just see Shakespeare thinking of a way he can one-up himself as the scene goes on. So we ask you this: have you ever tried to show off to your friends? Then you know exactly what's going down here.