The story of Julius Caesar is a historical one . . . [however] Shakespeare was writing drama and poetry, not history, so he altered the facts somewhat. Events are placed closer together than they actually occurred, the personalities of the characters are altered for better dramatic effect, and characters speak lines that the historical people never uttered. But many of the most familiar scenes in Julius Caesar came from Plutarch . . . (Remember that Plutarch was writing over one hundred years after the event, so the accuracy of his story is questionable; what’s important for this class is not Caesar’s true history, but how Shakespeare treated his source material.)

Julius Caesar is probably the Shakespeare play most commonly read during high school. It is one of Shakespeare’s shortest plays, and at least on a surface level it is easily understood. Although it lacks the emotional depth of Shakespeare’s later tragedies, it is finely constructed, and benefits from the drama and pathos that arise naturally from the historical events.