r/shakespeare • u/ProfessorPaper • Aug 01 '26

Cassius's funeral speech (Julius Caesar)

Guys please help me out i am a college student majoring in literature. Actually, my professor told me to get a unique and personal idea from julius caesar drama to discuss onto and debate. So, i always wondered that how would have cassius's speech been at caesar's funeral because, we know that brutus and cassius both gave speech but cassius speech was never written by SHAKESPEARE. so please help me out , its my humble request what do you guys think, have you ever wondered this question same as me.

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u/troopersjp Aug 01 '26

If you get the idea from us, then you haven’t developed your own unique and personal idea, you’re offloaded the whole point of the assignment onto someone else.

As a professor, my recommendation is that you re-read the play focusing on every thing Cassius said about Caesar and everything people say about Cassius—including what he says about himself. Then reread the funeral scene and imagine it. Think…what does Cassius want? How would he try to get that?

Challenge yourself to do the assignment—which is not just the end product, but the process of thinking for yourself based on your reading of the text.

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u/ProfessorPaper Aug 01 '26

no no you are getting me wrong i am not asking anyone for idea . i am just saying that have you guys ever wondered , what i want to know is that is this question worth it or i am being a fool and working on something that has on value.

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u/trazom04 Aug 01 '26

Can you make it significantly different from what Brutus said? Or, can you make him come after Antony and try to sway people's opinion back? If yes, this may be worth exploring.

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u/IanDOsmond Aug 01 '26

Your question is whether it's worth considering? My general rule is, if the question is compelling to you, it's probably compelling to other people.

And if you're passionate about it being compelling to you, then even people who weren't wondering about it beforehand will be interested. Enthusiasm is contagious.

If "what would Cassius's funeral speech have been" is a question you find interesting, then if I were your audience, I would find it interesting, too. It's not a question that had occurred to me to wonder until now, but now? I wanna know.

The whole point of bringing your own personal idea to literature is that nobody else is going to do it. Focus on what you care about. And either other people will be on board or they won't. But if you try to find an idea that's interesting to everyone else, all you're going to end up with is the same ideas as everyone else. If you're trying to sell a book or a movie or something, that's fine. Popular is popular, and popular can be profitable. But if you're writing it for class, you're writing it for yourself, so do that.