There is no such thing as a perfect person. People create heroic figures in a hope that they can create the perfect person. Sadly, perfection is unattainable quality, even for a heroic figure. Throughout many of Shakespeare’s plays, he identifies a tragic hero: a heroic character who possesses a character flaw which leads to their demise. Specifically in The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, there has been much controversy about who is actually the tragic hero. Many agree that Marcus Brutus is the tragic hero. However, others argue and identify Julius Caesar as the tragic hero. After examining both characters thoroughly, there is a vivid conclusion. One can easily find that Brutus is the tragic hero of this play because when a person who possesses …show more content…
First of all, throughout the play, he never deceives anyone. Although many consider the murder of Julius Caesar deceitful, it was for the good of Rome, not to deceive him. All of his actions were to benefit someone else rather than himself. In Act V, Antony recognizes Brutus as the noblest Roman of them all: “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 general honest thought.” Brutus cares more about others than he did himself. For instance, in the process of killing Caesar, he could have easily given up his position because of the possible punishments he would face. However, he knew that the absence of a tyrant Caesar, would benefit the common people the most. Another example of his selflessness is in Act II, Scene i, when he decides not to tell Portia of his plans for the murder of Caesar. He feels she already has enough stress in her life and does not need to worry or deal with his plans. Selflessness is the most heroic trait anyone could …show more content…
Brutus believes that everything is good in the world, and that all men are honorable. Due to his inability to distinguish evil, he could easily be manipulated. The naivety Brutus suffers from leads to his fall and ultimately to his death. All of the people he associated himself with, deceives him at one time or another in the play. When Brutus allows Antony to speak at Caesar’s funeral to show him honor, Antony riles up the crowd into believing that the conspirators are evil and provokes them all to want revenge. In result, a war breaks out. In Act II, Scene i, the conspirators send fake letters to Brutus: “In several hands in at his windows throw, As if they came from several citizens, Writings, all tending to the great opinion That Rome holds of his name, wherein obscurely Caesar's ambition shall be glanced at..” This was a lie and a trap to get Brutus to join in on the conspirator’s plan because Cassius knew the plan would not work without the help of Brutus. His last blunder, was not so much because of his naive trait, it was just pure desire in Act V, Scene ii. This fault occurs when he starts the battle with Antony without notifying Cassius about it. Brutus realizes it is the time to strike and knows that he must start the battle. There is no time to tell Cassius. This choice, in the end, costs him the war and was the main reason for his suicide. He kills himself because he realizes it
Brutus is one of the more complex character in Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. Shakespeare added a lot of complexity to Brutus through dialogue, monologue, and soliloquy. Shakespeare created opposing desires in Brutus and created both hesitation and doubt. His major back-and-forth conflict is him trying to give himself an honorable reason for killing Caesar. He is manipulated by Cassius and the other conspirators into assassinating Caesar, a life-long friend of Brutus. “The ultimate factor in persuading Brutus to join the conspiracy is his belief, a belief based on the the letters cast in at his window or conspicuously left for him in public places” (Shalvi 71). When Caesar was attacked by the conspirators, it had been Brutus’ blade and betrayal that had finally killed him. During the beginning and the end of the play, Brutus struggled to accept that killing Caesar was not what he wanted to do. In his head, Brutus is content that he killed Caesar for the good of Rome. In a speech to Romans after Caesar’s death he says, “Not that I loved Caesar less, but
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
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 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
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
On many occassions, Brutus is taken advantage of because of his how naïve and gullible he can be. One example is during Cassius’ soliloquy about Brutus where he states his true intentions: “Well, Brutus, thou art noble. Yet I see / they honorable mettle may be wrought.” (1.2.320-321) He notices Brutus is weak minded and wants to use him for his own schemes. Later, he does just this by forging letters from Roman citizens saying that they were suspicious of Caesar’s ambitions. These writings are eventually successful and demonstrate Brutus’ tendency to get affected by other people’s agendas, especially Cassius. Another example of how Brutus’ quality of honesty and his strong moral character backfire against him is when he and Cassius argue whether or not they should kill Mark Antony along with Caesar. Brutus defends his more nonviolent position, saying, “For Antony is but a limb of Caesar / Let’s be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius.” (2.1.178) This decision ends up being Brutus’ biggest mistake of all, as Antony ends up winning the hearts of the people and defeating the Brutus and Cassius on the
The thought process of Brutus is what got him to his tragic end. He did not think of any other possibilities to take the crown from him, and by doing that he caused Antony to take the crown and to start a war where he killed himself so that he would not be a captive to Antony. Brutus trusted people that they would not lie, but that is how he got to the point where he could not go back and save himself. In Act I Scene II lines 163 through 176, Brutus is saying that he loves Cassius but will think over what he said to him. Cassius used pathos to talk Brutus into becoming a conspirator.
Brutus’s character goes from a well respected and honored man to a traitor in a few short acts. Brutus is introduced to the audience with a bang, quite literally, as the city of Rome celebrates Caesar’s triumphs. This dramatic entrance fits Brutus’s personality and growth over the play. Brutus struggles with a love for country and a love for a man in Scene 2, “I know no personal cause to spurn at [Caesar], / But for the general. He would be crown’d: / How that might change his nature, there’s the question” (JC 2.1.11-13). Brutus is more afraid of what might happen if Caesar is crowned King to realize that Caesar is still the man that Brutus knows. In the end, Brutus chooses his fear of the future and Caesar falls, knowing the man he considered a son had betrayed him. Brutus’s lack of empathy with Caesar causes much of the tension in the later half of the play. Brutus acknowledges his choice to kill his paternal figure here, “Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome / more” (JC 3.2.23-24). Brutus sees himself as connected to the people of Rome through his love for them but fails to see how the plebeians loved noble Caesar. He also fails to see the implications of his actions on his loved ones.
Every human being possesses some sort of flaw, whether it is a small inconvenience, or a major problem. Even famous people, who make their lives seem perfect, possess such flaws. Everyone struggles with decisions, whether it is simplistic like what to eat at night, or whether or not to kill your best friend for one's beliefs. In William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, there are two characters who struggle with possessing the characteristics of being one's tragic hero. Some may ask, what is a tragic hero?
“It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.” -Mark Twain. Brutus would of never believed that he has been manipulated into his actions. Brutus was always blinded at the fact that his actions towards people were wrong. Brutus was one of Caesar's good and trusted friends. Cassius, not a huge fan of Caesar, did not like the idea of Caesar as king, for his weaknesses and had a plan to assassinate Caesar. As the leader, he believed Brutus would be a good member for the group for being respected and well-liked by the citizens of Rome. Cassius was able to manipulate him into joining the conspirators. After the assassination of Caesar all his respect from the citizens started to fade away. Antony, a very good friend of Caesar, was able to turn Rome against Brutus. Due to all the hatred from the citizens, he had to flee town and fight a war against Antony and Rome. After losing the war, his wife , and everything he once had, he committed suicide to avoid being killed by an enemy. In William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, Brutus tragic flaw of being gullible and patriotic caused him to murder a devoted friend and betrayed Rome's trust.
The definition of a tragic hero is perceived as one who is neither wicked nor purely innocent, one who “is brave and noble but guilty of the tragic flaw of assuming that honorable ends justify dishonorable means”. In The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Brutus takes the role of the tragic hero. Brutus’s honor, nobility, and self-righteousness makes him “a tragic figure, if not the hero” (Catherine C. Dominic).
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.
Caesar or Brutus? Many people think that the tragic hero in Julius Caesar is Caesar, only because the title of the play. The real tragic hero is Marcus Brutus. There are many traits you can have to be a tragic hero, Brutus has at least three of them. In WIlliam Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, it is shown that Brutus is the tragic hero because he has noble stature, he has a tragic flaw, and free choice.
Centuries after the murder of a rising dictator, students, historians, and linguists alike continue to study the death of Julius Caesar as immortalized by William Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. In this tragedy, Shakespeare examines the days preceding Caesar’s downfall, and the aftermath that ensues. The tragedy describes Marcus Brutus, a character with noble and honorable intentions, influenced by Cassius to support a conspiracy against an ambitious politician, Julius Caesar. Brutus, Cassius, and other conspirators succeed in ending Caesar’s life, but are forced to flee when Rome turns against them. Much controversy has arisen over who is the tragic hero of the play. A tragic hero is a noble character who, despite his greatness, is led to destruction by his own fatal flaw. Although many argue Brutus is the tragic hero due to his prominent role in the play and his heroic, yet flawed, character, Shakespeare remains justified in the naming of his play. In Shakespeare’s accurately titled tragedy, Julius Caesar, rather than Brutus, remains the tragic hero of the play due to his heroic qualities, his fatal flaw, and Brutus’ ineligibility as the tragic hero.