Julius Caesar- Honor of Brutus Essay

Unlike Cassius, Brutus is always doing what he feels is best for the Romans. In addition, Cassius feels inferior to Brutus. Brutus has much power from the people and is friends with the soon-to-be king, which is why Cassius is so desperate to have Brutus on his side. Once he persuades Brutus to join him, he shifts from being the leader of the conspirators to the subordinate of Brutus. For instance, Brutus gives Antony permission to speak at the funeral, even though this went against Cassius’ own will. Lastly, Cassius is quick to make decisions but Brutus analyzes things before coming to a final decision. It takes Brutus many days of agony to finally agree that joining Cassius was the right thing to do. In contrast, Cassius spends only a few seconds to decide on committing suicide. Directly after Pindarus says, “Now they are almost on him… And hark they shout for joy,” Cassius kills himself. (Act V Scene III Lines 31, 34) He is quick minded, not realizing that Brutus has actually not been captured.

Similarly, by not destroying Mark Antony along with Caesar, let alone allowing him to speak in Caesar’s funeral, Brutus engineers his future’s demise. “‘. . . Antony is but a limb of Caesar. Let’s be sacrificers, but not butchers . . . let’s kill him boldly, but not wrathfully . . . and for Mark Antony, think not of him; for he can do no more than Caesar’s arm when Caesar’s head is off’”(916). This is an even greater fallacy than the first. Antony’s rage and passion is enough force alone to drive him and the Roman army to kill every last conspirator, gossiper, and senator who was set against his great Caesar. The fiery drive behind Antony was an imminent threat to Brutus and the conspirators, yet because of Brutus’s flawed logic, Antony lived and they died. Another illustration of this is when Brutus makes the decision to allow the silver tongued Antony to speak in Caesar’s funeral. After a weak, unconvincing speech given by Brutus to the public, Antony takes center stage, capturing the hearts, minds, and attention of the people, essentially turning them on their former leader. “‘Oh most bloody sight!’ ‘We will be revenged.’ ‘Revenge! About! Seek! Burn! Fire! Kill! Slay! Let not a traitor live!’”(954). Brutus’s most prominent, fatal flaw is his lack of sound judgment.

Antony and Cassius, unlike Brutus, never separate their private affairs from their public actions while Brutus tries to prove himself by acting only with respect to honor and virtue, completely ignoring his personal concerns. For example, Cassius disliked the fact that Caesar became “godlike” in the eyes of the Romans, so he leads Brutus to believe that Caesar had become too powerful and must die by sending him forged letters claiming that the Roman people support the death of Caesar, ultimately converting Brutus to his cause. At last Brutus ends up murdering his good friend in an act he truly believed was honorable. Marc Antony, who also shares in Cassius’ selfish trait, persuaded the conspirators that he is on their side, therefore gaining their leniency. He proceeds to persuade the plebeians of the conspirators’ injustice and gains support of the masses.

While the group of conspirators meet up there is a discussion of whether kill Antony or not. This is what Brutus has to say, “Our course will seem too bloody Caius Cassius to cut the head off then hack the limbs, like wrath in death and envy afterwards” (II.I.169-71). This is an example of how nice Brutus is, he doesn’t want to kill because he wants to, he kills because he needs to. When Casca and Cassius are talking Casca brings up a good point. He says, “Oh, he sits high in all the people’s hearts (I.III.159-60).This quote shows that since he is popular with the people he has to be nice and honorable for people to like him. When they were at Caesar’s funeral Brutus made mistake and gave Antony permission to speak at the funeral, and this is what Antony said, “For Brutus is an honorable man; so are they all, all honorable men” (III.II.81-82). This quote show that Brutus was nice and he got manipulated as the people turned against them and their

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.

He states that Brutus is just as noble and worthy as Caesar. (Act 1, scene ii). He says that Brutus cannot see what everyone else does and recognize his worthiness. Cassius and the other senators do not want Caesar to be king because they would lose all their power. Cassius is slowly luring Brutus in to do his dirty work. He builds Brutus’s confidence up to make him thing that killing Caesar is the right thing to do. Cassius is basically playing with Brutus’s head because he knows Brutus will listen. So, Brutus joins the conspirators in killing Caesar. Cassius tells Brutus that it is for the good of Rome, and that he is saving them from a dictatorship. Cassius is going for Brutus’s weakest point, his care and concern for Rome. He knows that if Brutus believes the people distrust Caesar, then he will be convinced that Caesar must be thwarted. Brutus knew that if Caesar was crowned, he would never have a chance, and he was power hungry. This is what ultimately leads to the tragedy of Julius Caesar. After Brutus kills Caesar off, he starts to feel guilty for killing his friend, thus creating an internal conflict. Brutus was so confident that the plan would go exactly as planned that he fell apart when they encountered problems. If Brutus and the other conspirators had taken more time to think things through, they probably would have been more prepared for the situation that was handed to them.

Antony was looked down upon by all the conspirators except for Brutus. They wanted to kill Antony as well as Caesar because they feared that he would become as powerful as him and possibly a dictator. Brutus persuaded the others not to add to the assassination by saying, "And for Mark Antony, think not of him: for he can do no more than Caesar's arm when Caesar's head is off"(2.1.181-183). Brutus underestimated Antony and perceived him as a person who didn't always take life seriously, couldn't have a serious nature and therefore, not a thinker. Brutus continued to argue with Cassius who did not believe him. "Alas, good Cassius, do not think of him. If he love Caesar, all that he can do is to himself -- take thought and die for Caesar. And that were much he should, for he is given to sports, to wildness, and much company (2.1.185-189). Brutus judged him as being frivolous, and simply liking sport and partying, with a reputation for womanizing. Unfortunately for Brutus and the conspirators he was respected by Caesar and so simply couldn't be ignored.

Once Cassius gets what he wants, Brutus to be on his side, they and some others begin to plan how they will get to Caesar and kill him. Then when Brutus agrees to join the conspiracy to annihilate Caesar, it is the beginning of him becoming the villain. He is still the hero though; he only joined the conspiracy for the good of Rome. "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" (V.v.68-72). This quote is said by Antony at the end of the play. In that scene, he and Caesar's adopted son, Octavius have seen Brutus's dead body. They have seen the good in Brutus and have noticed that he has acted out of his love for Rome." ...not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more" (III.ii.21). That was part of the speech Brutus gave to the citizens after he and the other conspirators killed Caesar. This was the last act Brutus did before he started becoming more of a villain. This quote and the quote Antony says at the end of the play are the same. They both are saying how Brutus didn't really want to kill Caesar. He just felt like he had no choice, he saw that what Caesar was doing was changing Rome.

    Shakespeare’s tragedy, Julius Caesar, displays Brutus as a tragic hero, blinded loyalty and devotion. Brutus's heroic belief of honor and virtue was so powerful that it drove him to perform villainous actions and lead to his destruction.

He compares Caesar to a serpent in an egg which he must kill before it hatches. Brutus knows that Caesar is gaining too much power too quickly and it must come to an end. He shows his belief in a republic government by saying, “We all stand up against the spirit of Caesar / And in the spirit of men there is no blood" (II.i. 180-181). Cassius is a character who is jealous of Caesar’s power and also wants it to end. He forms a group of conspirators who are against Julius Caesar. He persuades Brutus to help him and the other conspirators to kill Caesar during the ides of March. Brutus joins but only due to his love for Rome and its people. He proves this by saying "Let us be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius." (II.i. 179). This also proves his love for Caesar because he wants to kill him with some sort of honor. Brutus wants the citizens to look at him not as a murderer but for someone who cares for his country. He expresses his ideas toward the stabbing by saying , “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" (III, ii, 17-19).

Cassius' loyalty line goes the other way. In the beginning he is out to set himself up in a position of power, and through Caesar's death he continues to act out of self-interest. By the end of the play, however, he has developed a sense of loyalty to Brutus and to Titinius. Brutus's pattern lies somewhere in between Antony's and Cassius's. In the beginning of the play most students feel that Brutus' loyalty is ambiguous. Although he seems loyal to Caesar, he is swayed by flattery to himself. By 2.1, when he makes the decision to participate in the murder, Brutus seems to be acting out of self-interest, though he disguises it in a rationalization of the good of the country. I find that students often engage in a really interesting discussion of the subtle shifts in Brutus' use of language; he shifts, for instance, to the use of the royal "we." By the end of the play Brutus, like Cassius, develops a sense of loyalty to his new comrades, and his last words, like Cassius's, are a self-condemning recognition of

In the beginning of the play, we meet Brutus, a highly respected, much loved, senator of Rome. He loved Rome as a republic and he has a good life until he is led astray by Cassius. When he becomes embroiled in the assassination of Caesar, he is very reluctant to do so. In the way he acted, you could tell he has sleepless nights over what he should do. He decided to kill Caesar for

Brutus and Cassius are very different in the way they perceive Antony. Brutus is very trusting and naïve when he judges Antony. When the subject of killing Antony comes up among the conspirators, Brutus underestimates how dangerous Antony could be and says, “For Antony is but a limb of Caesar”(2.1.178). This statement means Brutus does not

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.

In William Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar, many themes are developed. One character, Brutus, displays a significant theme that develops through the entire play. The theme that is supported most by this character is the idea that honor and respect are gained through performing works for the good of others instead of for personal gain.