Brutus Character Analysis

Brutus’ tragic flaw is his honor, poor judgement and his idealism. The conspirators wrote him fake letters to get him to join them. They made it seem good that they were killing Caesar. For his second flaw, which is first taken advantage of by Antony, when he talked Brutus into letting him speak at Caesar’s funeral. His second example of poor judgement is thinking Antony could cause no harm to the conspirators or their plan. His last example of poor judgement was attacking Antony and Octavius at Philippi. His idealism leads him to believe what everybody tells him, he believes Antony and Cassius. Cassius makes him believe they are killing Caesar for the betterment of Rome. Everybody took advantage of Brutus’ flaws except Caesar.

In Roman history, some elite men held certain values that they felt strong enough to take their life in order to defend it. In William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, there are certain characters portrayed to show how a person’s values or ideas can change their behavior and influence some significant decisions. The protagonist of the play, Marcus Brutus, supports this thought by having an idealistic view on the world and by showing his patriotism toward Rome. In William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Shakespeare uses Brutus as an honorable, idealistic man in order to show the depth that a high-class Roman man will go through in order to defend his honor.

Brutus in William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar In 'Julius Caesar', Shakespeare intended us to see Brutus as 'noble'. I wish to review his actions, and the motivating factors behind those actions. I intend to prove that Brutus had a strong and well-grounded character. He had good intentions, however, he made one fatal mistake and that was his downfall. When learn that Brutus is dedicated to the public, when Brutus decides Caesar must die, because he fears his ambition, this comes as a big shock to the Shakespearian audience as well as the modern day audience.

Shakespeare’s complex play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar contains several tragic heroes; a tragic hero holds high political or social esteem yet possesses an obvious character flaw. This discernible hubris undoubtedly causes the character’s demise or a severe forfeiture, which forces the character to undergo an unfeigned moment of enlightenment and shear reconciliation. Brutus, one of these tragic heroes, is a devout friend of the great Julius Caesar, that is, until he makes many execrable decisions he will soon regret; he becomes involved in a plot to kill the omniscient ruler of Rome during 44 B.C. After committing the crime, Mark Antony, an avid, passionate follower of Caesar, is left alive under Brutus’s orders to take his revenge on

As noble and great as Brutus might be, all tragic heroes have some tragic flaws and make some errors of judgment, which leads them to their downfall. In this case Brutus's great flaw is that he is too honorable, and he's too naïve when he is dealing with people. An example of an error of judgment is when Brutus underestimates Antony, and thinks him incapable of being dangerous after Caesar's death, "For Antony is but a limb of Caesar...he can do no more than Caesar's arm When Caesar's head is off."  This turns out not to be the case. One example of Brutus's excessive honor being damaging to him, is when he decides that only Caesar should die and no one else even if they seem to threaten his cause, as Cassius warns repeatedly that Antony does.

The actions of Brutus can be seen as either heroic or villainous depending upon your own opinion, in my opinion I find the needs of the few out weighing the needs of the many in this situation. I believe this because first off it wasn’t Brutus’s decision to make whether or not Julius was capable of leading and his sole objection to this doesn’t resound the voice the people but instead drowned out their thoughts and emotions towards Julius for his own ideologies, thus making him make a decision he never was meant to make. Brutus couldn’t handle the weight of his selfish decision, he couldn’t accept it was right this is shown by when he takes his own life because he finally realizes the gravity of the error he has made and sees that the punishment he deserves for it his own

In “The Tragedy of Julius Caesar”, Brutus was a villain. He was a man who loved Caesar and was a friend of Caesar’s throughout the play leading to his death. Throughout the play, Brutus fell for the manipulative ways of Cassius and the other conspirators. Brutus made several mistakes along with being a bad person in the play. He had several faults which involved him killing one of his closest friends one of the first acts of the play. There were some ways that Brutus is a good person, but those ways are hard to find over the bad choices he made over the course of the play.

Brutus is an important character in the play ‘Julius Caesar’ as he is portrayed as a tragic hero where he possessed heroic traits such as being noble and honourable that earn the sympathy of the audience. However, he also has flaws and made many mistakes and hamartias that ultimately lead to his downfall.

Indeed, Brutus was a honorable man. His honor was his greatest strength, but it was also his weakness. He murdered and betrayed his closest and only friend, due to the fact that he was so focused on doing the most honorable thing. Brutus focused more on principles, than the one person who truly cared about him. Consequently he also cared more about principle, than his own common sense. Therefore, his main focus was on honor and principle, which caused him to kill Caesar. He murdered Caesar because he thought it would solve the problem, but it only caused pandemonium.Consequently, his actions produced an angry mob, ready to avenge Caesar's death. If Brutus never took matters into his own hands, he would not have created a vicious crowd of citizens filled with hatred. He never solved the problem. When it got out of control, he resorted to killing himself. Cowardly, when things got tough, he ran away from it. He

Brutus is truly “an honorable man.” He was initially resistant to Cassius’ suggestion to betray Caesar. Also, Brutus says, “not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.”(3.2.22) This proves that he only does what he feels is necessary to protect the Rome. In act 4, Brutus sees the ghost of Caesar, and this tells us that he is regretting his actions. He never felt right about killing Caesar afterwards. In fact, when he realized that he was wrong, he used the knife that he stabbed Caesar to take his own

He wishes that he had never fallen for Cassius’s insidious plan to assassinate Caesar, “Caesar, now be still; / I killed not thee with half so good a will”(997). He regrets, that through these actions, he destroys his name and his stature. Brutus, scrutinizing all of his mistakes, and wishing that he had done things differently verifies that he is the main tragic hero in this classic work. Through these final moments of Brutus’s life, the audience of the play can truly see that Brutus is not lying about his love of Caesar, but that he honestly regrets participating, and is sympathetic about the last years of his life. Brutus, even though he has made many mistakes throughout his life, he makes one final one with his last action. Unfortunately, the audience does not know whether or not he regrets committing suicide. Had he not done so, Antony most likely would have restored some of his stature in Rome, and granted him his life, “This was the noblest Roman of them all. / All the conspirators save only he / Did that they did in envy of great Caesar; / He, only in a general honest thought / And common good to all, made one of them”(998). It is clear that Antony is saddened by the loss of Brutus, because he realizes the true meaning of Brutus’s actions.

Brutus a high-ranking, well-regarded Roman nobleman that killed Julius Caesar, went to the top of the ranks and was crowned king. Even though Brutus was able to become king, he was not going to get that title without killing Caesar. In the play Julius Caesar, Brutus agrees to kill Caesar and is one of the three murderers that stabbed Julius Caesar. In Act III scene i William Shakespeare writes “CASCA and the other conspirators stab CAESAR. BRUTUS stabs him last.” This is when Brutus’s fate begins because he starts listening to the wrong people such as, when Cassius uses his power and authority to convince Brutus that he loves Caesar but loves Rome more. This is quoted when Shakespeare writes in Act III scene ii, “ I say to him that my love for Caesar was no less than his. If, then, that friend demands to know why I rose up against Caesar, this is my answer: it’s not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.” This shows Brutus’s major flaw and when he starts to believe things that other people tell him. Brutus shows that he is the Tragic Hero right when he agrees to kill Caesar because this is his tragic flaw that begins the downfall of himself.

Brutus made an overwhelming amount of decisions based on the good of Rome, not contemplating how it could affect or hurt himself or those around him. One example of this is after Brutus and the conspirators killed Brutus he gave a speech. In this speech he said, “If then that friend demand why/ Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer: Not/ that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.” (3.2.20-22). This quote is saying that the reason Brutus killed Caesar was not because he disliked him, but because he thought it was for the good of Rome. Brutus made this decision solely based on patriotism. He never thought about the effects or consequences it

Brutus possesses many ideals and mannerisms that make him the tragic hero in William Shakespeare’s tragedy. To begin with, Brutus has a deep sense of love for his city, and concerns himself with its well-being. His concern for Rome is actually what causes him to backstab Caesar. He worries that he is too arrogant to be an adequate leader, “I do fear the people/ Choose Caesar for their king.” (Shakespeare I.ii. 85-86). Secondly, Brutus has an undying moral compass that navigates him on his integrity driven choices. Brutus thinks long and hard before he joins the conspirators, and wonders whether or not it is the right choice and questions his choices, “Into what dangers would you lead me…/ That you would have me seek into myself/ For which is not in me?” (Shakespeare I.ii. 69-71). His strong beliefs are what ultimately convince him to join the conspirators, for the good of Rome. Also, Brutus believes in equality and respect. He gives a speech to the public because he feels they deserve to know the reason why Caesar dies, ‘And, waving our red weapons o’er our heads,/ Let’s all cry “Peace, freedom, and liberty!”’. (Shakespeare III.i. 121-122). This heroic quality is one of the things that drives him to be a good leader, and a good person as well. As much as these traits lead us to believe

William Shakespeare's play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, was mainly based on the assassination of Julius Caesar. The character who was the mastermind behind the assassination was, ironically, Marcus Brutus, a senator and close friend to Julius Caesar. But what would cause a person to kill a close friend? After I examined Brutus' relationship towards Caesar, his involvement in the conspiracy and his importance to the plot it all became clear. Brutus had one particular reason for killing Caesar and that was for the good of the people and the republic. Brutus had no personal reason for killing Caesar. Some of his most admirable traits were his morality and leadership skills.