In Shakespeare’s play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, the title leads the mind to believe that Caesar is the tragic hero; however, this is not the case. The noble Brutus is a much more accurate fit for the role of tragic hero. A tragic hero is a character with a tragic flaw that goes from good fortune to complete misfortune in a fairly quick downfall. Although some may argue that Caesar fits this depiction, Brutus is a better choice. He goes from the top of the social standings to international scumbag when he joins the conspirators and murders Caesar, his friend. After allowing Antony to speak in Caesar’s funeral, the entire country turns against him and he is forced to flee Rome. His downfall is so incredibly terrible that he is …show more content…
He doesn’t think things through enough to suspect a thing. He gets cocky and has his ego so insanely boosted that the conspirators took hold of his mind. Even Brutus’s knowledge is flawed. When speaking at Caesar’s funeral, he feeds the public a ridiculous explanation for the assassination of his friend. “There is tears, for his love; joy, for his fortune; honor, for his valor; and death for his ambition” (948). Caesar was brutally murdered for his ambition. Nowadays, people wish they could be ambitious, yet Caesar was murdered for it? Even the mindless Roman citizens, after Antony’s speech, came to realize that ambition was hardly something to die for. In a tragedy, the tragic hero always has a downfall and sense of enlightenment by the end. Brutus’s downfall is horrid enough that it has made it this far in history. It is a fall that people will always study and remember. Brutus starts out as a popular man, a friend of Caesar. People think very highly of him, he has a strong relationship with his wife, and he lives in Rome, which he loves deeply. After murdering Caesar, Brutus has the nerve to speak at his funeral and tell the people of Rome that he had a right to kill him; however, Antony talks sense into citizens in his famous speech. All of Rome soon considers him and his counterparts to be traitors, enough so that they become a murderous mob. “We’ll burn the house of
In tragedy plays, there is always a tragic hero who has a tragic flaw in his personality may it be excessive pride, poor judgement, or both which eventually leads to the hero’s downfall where the hero can perform no action to prevent it. In Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, Marcus Brutus is the tragic hero of the play due to his tragic flaw which is his naïve and over-trusting personality, which he eventually realizes too late and performs an action to prevent his loss of dignity.
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.
In Julius Caesar Brutus displays the traits of a tragic hero throughout this play. His tragic flaw is need to be nobel. He makes an error in judgment, and when killing Caesar causes all of Rome to turn against the conspirators everything from then on causes tragic events. All of which eventually lead to his death.
William Shakespeare focuses the play on Brutus’s choices even after the assassination of Caesar. The first bad decision of Brutus was trusting the conspirators, which shows his bad judge of character. This was bad because their intentions for killing Caesar were not for justice. It was only because they were jealous of Caesar and his leadership. They did not like the possibility of Caesar becoming the ruler of Rome. Brutus was the only one who did not kill him out of jealousy, which Antony realizes towards the end of the play when he states, “ This was the noblest Roman of them all. All the rest of the conspirators acted out of jealousy of great Caesar.” (5.5.73-75) Another bad choice Brutus made was letting Antony speak at Caesar’s funeral. Antony was going to tell the truth about everything. Before the funeral Antony tells Octavius’s servant, “There I’ll use my speech to test what the people think of these bloody men’s cruel action..” (3.1.307-309) Antony must have been the most angry about Caesar being gone. It’s not surprising for him to be wanting to tell everyone the
All his ideals and principles affected his actions such as joining the conspiracy which then led to his downfall. Being an idealist, he could not see the practical condition and assumed that others have the same ideals as him. This can seen when he assumed that the plan for conspiracy will work out perfectly whereby it would not seem ‘too bloody’ since they did not kill Mark Antony and that they would be seen as noble men since they did it “for the sake and benefit of Roman
A tragic hero in Shakespearean literature is understood as a noble and heroic character who makes a series of bad decisions based on his bad judgment that leads to his downfall and eventually death. In William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, the tragic hero is Marcus Brutus, a powerful Roman senator who joins a conspiracy to assassinate the Roman ruler, Julius Caesar. Marcus Brutus is a tragic hero because of his noble reputation, his moral personality, the cathartic experience that the audience feels from his life and his tragic flaw: idealism.
A tragic hero tries to do the right thing but has flaws in their character that prevents them from being a true hero. Scholars argue over whether Brutus or Caesar is the tragic hero in the play Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare. Both men have tragic flaws which cause their downfall.They are both ambitious. Caesar wanted all the power to himself. On the contrary, Brutus wanted what was best for Rome and to keep a good reputation. Brutus is the tragic hero of the play since he falls the farthest due to the fact that he is too trusting of everyone, he naively allows his enemy to speak out about him, and he lacks self confidence.
In Julius Caesar Brutus displays the traits of a tragic hero through out this play. His tragic flaw is his being too naive. He makes an error in judgment, and when this error occurred it causes his own downfall. But Brutus causes his own downfall when after killing Caesar all of Rome turns against the conspirators. And all these events cause his death. However, the factors that have made him a tragic hero are discussed below:
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.
In 1599 Shakespeare wrote the play Julius caesar. The main character of the play Brutus as he represents a tragic hero. being a tragic hero means. He is above us but human And he falls from a high place, He struggles against his own fate, he is guilty of a fatal flaw (honor), he has an epiphany, and by the end of the play, he is dead
Now, to whom Brutus is and his speech. Brutus is the best friend of Caesar, but he thinks that he saved Rome from Caesar. He says that Caesar was going to enslave all of Rome, and he had to kill Caesar to save Rome. He wants to save his skin from angry Romans, so he gives a speech to the fickle Romans and is able to win their favor, but not for long. His speech is smart and uses many fallacies and many persuasion tactics to assure the audience. He is nonchalant after the speech because he expects the fickle Romans to join his side. So, he makes a mistake and he
Julius Caesar is a work of art by William Shakespeare in 1599. Within this play Julius Caesar is portrayed as a tragic hero. A tragic hero is defined as “the main character of a tragedy [who is] usually dignified, courageous, and high ranking” (novel study guide). Also vital to defining a tragic hero is that, “the hero’s downfall is caused by a tragic flaw” ( novel study guide). It is very evident that Julius Caesar in William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar is a tragic hero given that he is of noble stature, has a fatal flaw and comes to an unhappy end.
In The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, two potential protagonists are presented to the audience. Both Brutus and Caesar have been mentioned as possible protagonists, but there can only be one protagonist. But who is the real protagonist? Although there is proof to back up Caesar, Brutus has more proof and solid proof. Therefore, Brutus should be named protagonist of the story.
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
Brutus’ new-found leadership with the conspirators leads to a downfall because he controls each of them and what they get to do. When others attempt to say that they should do certain tasks, he denies them. “Nor’th insuppressive mettle of our spirits,/ To think that or our cause or our