Cassius: The Most Despicable Character In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

Cassius is a talented general, and does not like the fact that Caesar has become `god-like' in the Roman people's minds (see above quote Act I, Scene ii). Cassius can be seen as a

Both Cassius and Brutus play major roles in the play Julius Caesar. Cassius and Brutus both plan Caesar’s death. Although they are working towards a common goal, Cassius and Brutus have very different motivations for doing this. On the one hand, Cassius sees it as a way to gain more power for himself while destroying the king and all his power. On the other hand, Brutus believes that in killing Caesar he is preserving peace for the Romans’ future years. Throughout the play, Shakespeare uses different techniques to create biased characterizations of the two men so that readers and viewers develop identical attitudes towards each of them. In Julius Caesar, Cassius is portrayed as a greedy villain while Brutus is depicted as an

Brutus was very naive and got influenced by Cassius very easily. Cassius was very smart and manipulated Brutus to make him agree with him. Cassius said, “If I were Brutus now, and he were Cassius, He should not humour me.” (Shakespeare, p.13). Brutus believed that his friend, Caesar had a negative impact on Rome decided to join the conspiracy to assassinate Caesar. Even though Caesar was his friend, Brutus always showed loyalty towards Rome. Brutus' tragic flaw is that he is not good at figuring out other’s intentions, and trusted Cassius. If Brutus never listened to Cassius in the first place, he would not have joined the conspiracy, and might not have had a tragic end.

Marc Antony, Brutus, and Cassius are all critical characters in William Shakespeare’s famous play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. Due to their distinctive personalities and values, there is no trait that all of these characters share, although they do share some traits with one another. Firstly, Marc Antony and Cassius are manipulative in nature, while Brutus is not. Secondly, the root of Brutus and Cassius’ failure is their personality flaw, while Marc Antony proves strong in all the ways they prove weak. Lastly, Antony and Cassius, unlike Brutus, do not separate their private affairs from their public actions while acts only with honor and virtue and completely ignores his personal concerns.

In Act I, Scene 2, the purpose of Cassis’ speech is to persuade Brutus to distrust Caesar, and to join him in a conspiracy against Caesar. In his speech to Brutus, Cassius uses a variety of persuasive and rhetorical devices to persuade Brutus to join his cause against Caesar. Cassius is desperate to have Brutus on his side because of his close relation to Caesar and great respect and trust from the people of Rome. The tone of Cassius’ speech to Brutus is introduced with Cassius appealing to Brutus’ sense of responsibility towards Rome. Cassius tells Brutus that he has, “Heard where many of the best respect in Rome, except immortal Caesar, speaking of Brutus and groaning underneath this age’s yoke, have wished that noble Brutus had his eyes” (I.ii.64-68). Cassius tells Brutus that he is admired by Rome, appealing to Brutus’ value of putting Rome ahead of himself. Cassius uses knowledge of this value to his advantage in his speech, insisting that killing Caesar will be for the good of Rome. Cassius also introduces his speech by persuading Brutus that he is honorable and can be trusted. Cassius tells Brutus that, “Honor is the subject of my story”(I.ii.99). This appeals to the speaker Cassius’ credibility and has an ethical appeal on Brutus, or ethos. This appeal is effective because it connects with something that Brutus values, honor. In Cassius’ speech to Brutus, he uses a comparison comparing Caesar to a Colossus saying, “Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus, and we petty men walk under his huge legs and peep about to find ourselves dishonorable graves”(I.ii.142-144). Cassius is using an analogy comparing Caesar to Colossus, which was a large statue. Cassius again uses Brutus’ value of honor to persuade when he tells Brutus that if Caesar is in power, he and Brutus will die dishonorable deaths. During the time period, an honorable death was very important to noble Romans, especially Brutus. When Cassius is comparing the two names Brutus and Caesar, he uses the strategy of asking rhetorical questions. “Brutus and Caesar: what should be in that ‘Caesar?’ Why should that name be sounded more than yours?(I.ii.149-151).” Cassius also asks, “Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed that he

First, Cassius was one who was involved in the murder of Julius Caesar. In document A of my evidence found, Cassius said that Julius was paying too much attention to the lower class. Also, in document D, One of the Senate members saw Cassius at the meeting, the day of his death. Finally also from document D, it said that Julius disciplined Cassius and he was humiliated

Cassius’s character, being sneaky and conniving, was my least favorite character. His motive to kill Caesar being for his country and because his character is jealous, and his role was being the mastermind behind the plan. Cassius’s character was sneaky, conniving character and had been able to manipulate people into killing Julius Caesar. He also played a part in the downfall of Brutus and himself. Cassius’s motive to kill Julius Caesar was because he believed that Caesar had been leading Rome to its downfall. Cassius was jealous of Caesar probably as a result of him wanting to be where Caesar had been.

In Act 1, Scene 2, Cassius is trying to manipulate Brutus into believing that there will be danger as Caesar’s power increases. Cassius is trying to bring Brutus to the conspirators side. He uses this quote to exaggerate what might arise from Caesar’s power: “Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world / Like a Colossus, and we petty men / Walk under his huge legs and peep about / To find ourselves dishonorable graves.” (1:2:136-139) Alongside this, Cassius tries to convince Brutus that he would be a better leader than Julius Caesar. Cassius claims he would never manipulate his good friend, Brutus, but this is exactly what he does. “And be not jealous on me, gentle Brutus. / Were I a common laugher, or did use / To stale with ordinary oaths my love / To every new protester; if you know / That I do fawn on men and hug them hard / And after scandal them, or if you know / That I profess myself in

Jealousy drove Cassius to have Julius Caesar killed. Cassius was Caesars closest advisor and used that as an advantage to convince Brutus to destroy the life of Julius Caesar because he felt as if Caesar wasn’t fit to be Roman King. Cassius was also motivated to kill Caesar because he believed that Caesar sought to subvert the republic into his own identity. He felt that is Caesar was Roman King, a dictatorship would form. Cassius’ main intention was to convince Brutus that removing Julius Caesar from power would be a good way to help the republic prosper.

That was his motivation behind killing Caesar. As he stated early in the play “Did I the tired Caesar. And this man/Is now become a god, and Cassius is/ a wretched creature and must bend his body/If Caesar carelessly but nod on him” (I.ii.115-118). Cassius obviously hated what Caesar had become, and how was so powerful. Cassius obviously hated what Caesar had become, and how he was so powerful. He knew the truth about Caesar, and that is why he killed him. He even said to Brutus, “Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed/That he is grown so great”? (I.ii.149-150). Cassius saved Caesar’s life, and now Caesar doesn’t even like or trust him. After the games, Caesar mentioned to Mark Antony “Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look/He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous (I.ii.194-195)”. Cassius knew Caesar felt this way. That was his motivation, and that is why he isn’t noble. Hate is not a valid reason to kill someone. The rest of the conspirators aren’t noble either. They never stated a clear reason to kill Caesar. All of them only went along with it because Cassius convinced them.

Cassius feels threatened by Caesars power. Cassius does not think that Caesar deserves all this power. Cassius does not like the fact that Caesar does not like him. “yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;/ he thinks too much, such men are dangerous.” (I.II.284) He thinks that Caesar’s temper is very dangerous. Casca is also jealous of Caesar. Casca feels disgusted by Caesar’s manipulation of the commoners. He says that it is “mere foolery.”(I.II.327) All of the conspirators are very jealous of Caesar’s power and they all want to see him fall.“Jealousy is a fear of

Leadership is a skill or ability of an individual to motivate, persuade and lead their followers a certain direction. In Act 1, it started by commoners celebrating for Julius Caesar’s success over Pompey, and the two tributaries yelling at these ungrateful people for forgetting how they used to support Pompey instead. Then later on when Cassius and Brutus came into the scene, Cassius was using his own method to slowly “pull” Brutus to his own side, which ended up catching Caesar’s attention that Cassius is too smart and dangerous to stay close to because he reads, thinks, and observes too much. Although it’s clear that Caesar is supported by the people to be the king, Cassius could also be characterized as an effective leader. Cassius’ characterization in this play enhances the meaning and development of the conflict in this play because while the commoners are supporting Caesar becoming the ruler, Cassius would be the

I am now going to discuss Cassius. I would say that Cassius was a very

On the other hand Cassius is murdering Caesar for his unknown motives (since we covered the play only until Act III, Scene I) but we know that he is definitely lying and is being ironic when he says: “well, honor is the subject of my story” (Act I, Scene II, 92) to Brutus. Although their motives might be different, they both want to remove Caesar from the image. Another different point between Brutus and Cassius is the time they get stressed out about their conspiracy plan. Brutus is very worried about dishonoring a friend and is sleepless for a month because of over thinking and stressing out about their murder plan.

Caius Cassius plays one of the most important roles in William Shakespeare’s play, “Julius Caesar”, which is centred round the assassination of the Roman dictator. The driving force behind the conspiracy is Cassius though there are others who are unhappy with the state of affairs under the prevailing system. Yet, they do not take an active part in the design to get rid of powerful Caesar. So, it is not incorrect to state that the chief protagonist of the assassination plot is no one but Caius Cassius.