Self Righteousness In Julius Caesar

Selflessness, a noble trait to have, but when one puts everything before themselves, it will only lead to tragedy. The character Brutus in ¨The tragedy of Julius Caesar” makes the choice to murder his personal friend Caesar, the soon to be ruler of Rome, for the future of his country. This leads to Caesar's second in command, Antony, to pursue Brutus and the others involved in the murder until their death. In William Shakespeare's play ¨The tragedy of Julius Caesar” Brutus through his selflessness in acting for the better of Rome instead of himself, and putting aside personal matters for his country becomes the tragic character.

Julius Caesar, a Roman general, dictator, and leader, is considered to be one of history 's most influential and powerful rulers to this day, in which his rise to power, conquest of Europe, and controversial downfall all remain to be told during modern days. The play Julius Caesar written by William Shakespeare, portrays the events leading up to Julius Caesar’s assassination, and how those who conspired against him banded together and plotted Caesar’s demise. Many of those conspirators assassinated Caesar due to his quick rise to absolute power, his “acts” of disrespect against the senate such as his failing to stand to receive the title of becoming a “god,” and pure jealousy and anger towards Caesar’s success and rule over the Roman empire. Caesar, an ambitious man, was able to conquer many lands and peoples for Rome through successful military campaigns in which he became one Rome’s best generals due to the amount of successful battles he had won and the amount of blood he had shed for Rome’s expansion. However, Caesar’s trait of ambitiousness would prove to be a double edged sword.

In William Shakespeare's play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, two speeches are given to the people of Rome about Caesar's death. In Act 3, Scene 2 of this play Brutus and Antony both try to sway the minds of the Romans toward their views. Brutus tried to make the people believe he killed Caesar for a noble cause. Antony tried to persuade the people that the conspirators committed an act of brutality toward Caesar and were traitors. The effectiveness and ineffectiveness of both Antony's and Brutus's speech to the people are conveyed through tone and rhetorical devices.

In the iconic play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare displays his characters as being manipulative and deceitful. Throughout the play his characters continuously apply manipulation by playing off of other’s ignorance, often causing political upheaval as a result. Caesar in particular is especially ignorant, and so it appears that Shakespeare is suggesting the idea of Caesar’s own ignorance leading to his own untimely demise.

In the play, Julius Caesar, Caear has recently been betrayed and killed by his Bestfriend Brutus and conspirators. Antony (a friend of Caesar’s) is distraught by his friends death and promises to him in private that he will avenge his killers. Brutus allows for Ceasar to have a funeral arrangement and Antony asks Brutus about speaking in front of the capitol during the ceremony. Brutus allows for this to take place but he tells Antony to promise not to say anything bad about him or any of the conspirators and to only speak about Caesar. Antony accepts this arrangement and heads to the stage of the capitol to give his speech. Brutus also says that he will speak at Caesar’s funeral arrangement so that he can tell the citizens he and the conspirators killed Caesar and explain to them why they did it.

Antony reminded the crowd that Caesar had been offered the crown three times yet refused to accept it; certainly, an action that an ambitious man would not do as Antony implied. By doing so, he makes the slow-witted crowd start to say “Methinks there is much reason in his sayings”. Antony had repeated Brutus is an honorable man to meet the requirement of not defaming the conspirators that had been laid down for Antony to be able to speak at Caesar’s funeral. Antony was constrained by this condition requiring him to take a different approach than fully explaining Caesar’s gruesome death.

First, he carries out Caesar’s body triggering an emotional response in the crowd. Then he goes on to state to the crowd that “when the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept; Ambition should be made of sterner stuff. Yet Brutus says he was ambitious…” (Shakespear 56). This causes another emotional response from the crowd to Caesar, making them sympathize with him and feeling loved by their deceased leader. It also is logo for he explains that Brutus did say Caesar was ambitious even though he cried for the poor. To furthermore disprove Brutus’s claim that Caesar was ambition he declares, “I thrice presented him a kingly crown, which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?” (56). Here he uses rhetorical questioning, directed toward the crowd, to show the obvious answer as well disprove Brutus’s claim. Antony goes on to repeat “yet Brutus says he was ambitious” (Shakespear 56) and “and Brutus is an honorable man” (Shakespear 56) throughout his speech, using repetition to mock as well as retaliate against him.

In Shakespeare’s play, Caesar is a highly respected man that holds great power, and as he gains more power there are men who stand to oppose him. This is how Caesar shows so many good qualities of leadership, like keeping an open ear to the people, being observant and proud, as well as being honest. The attributes that Caesar shows has gained him the trust of all of the people, already proivng just how worthy he is to be called the greatest authority figure in Shakespeare’s drama The Tradgedy of Julius Caesar.

The way his speech is said he contradicted everything Brutus had said before about Caesar being to ambitious and that is the reason he had to die. Antony argues that if Caesar was ambitious would he have denied the crown offered to him three times. If he were truly and ambitious man, would he suffer with the people when they were in trouble. As he is talking the crowd gets louder and louder and listen very closely to what he is saying.

This passage revealed how much of a conceited person Caesar is. The words that Shakespeare chose to make Caesar says showed how he had too much confidence in himself considering that his death is in the next scene. The words that Shakespeare used are intended to reach out to the reader and give them a better understanding of the kind of person that Caesar is. He was successful in carrying out the message. Overall, Shakespeare is known for each character a specific personality that suits them depending what plays they are

6. In the play, Shakespeare portrays the common man as almost incoherent. The people constantly seem to be easily swayed by the words of each and every important character. Also, all of the common people are followers. Not one stands up to the officials. At one moment, they are saying, “This Caesar was a tyrant,” (3.2.74) and the next they say that they must “tear him to pieces! He’s a conspirator,” (3.3.29), now angered with the retaliation against Caesar.

William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Julius Caesar is a story of envy, downfall, dishonesty, and true loyalty. The story begins with a celebration of Julius Caesar’s return home from a victorious battle. The people of Rome are excited for Caesar’s return, as they value and respect him as a potential leader, but there are also a handful of people that express their unhappiness with all of the attention surrounding Caesar. Caius Cassius is among those handful of individuals unhappy with Caesar’s popularity. Cassius is envious of Caesar and does not understand why he has gained so much power over the people of Rome, which brings him to the conclusion that he needs to bring about the fall of Caesar. Cassius expresses the issue to his brother-in-law

In the tragic play Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, the ruler of Rome, Julius Caesar, is stabbed to death by some of his so-called friends. Brutus, one of Caesar's best friends, is approached by some of the other senators to join the conspiracy to kill Caesar. Brutus weighs his options and decides to join the conspirators for the good of Rome. At Caesars's funeral, Brutus gives a speech to convince the citizens that the conspirators were right to kill Caesar. In contrast, Antony gives a speech to convince the Romans that there was no real reason to kill Caesar. Both characters try to persuade the audience, but they achieve different tones using literary and rhetorical devices. The tone of Brutus' speech is prideful, while the tone of Antony's speech is dramatic and inflammatory.

The speech began using strong Logos, specifically Faulty Syllogism. Antony starts by stating that, “Brutus is an honorable man; So are they all, all honorable men,” (I.ii. 78-79) and that whatever this honorable man says must be true. Except, he says it all very ironically. “[Caesar] was my friend, faithful and just to me; But Brutus says he was ambitious, and Brutus is an honorable man.” (I.ii. 82-84) And if he is so honorable, then why would he lie, except to cover up what they did. Antony continues to tell the people these caring things Caesar had done, and following it by asking them, “Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?”(I.ii.87) As said in Joseph Romm’s book Language Intelligence, “Repetition, the re-experiencing of something identical, is clearly in itself a source of pleasure,”(Romm, 29). So by using repetition, he

At the start of the timelessly classic play, Julius Caesar was in the final stages of parlaying his military prowess and growing cult of personality into enthronement as the long absent autocrat of Rome. His brother-in-arms, Marcus Brutus, after fighting at Caesar’s side for so long, was forced to weigh his loyalty to Caesar against his loyalty to Rome, setting the stage for the troubling events to come. As Caesar’s divine right to rule and infallibility were trumpeted throughout Rome, others were not so convinced of his purity and worthiness. Cassius, a dissident Senator, opened Brutus’ eyes to the circumstances unfolding before them and to what could be lost should Caesar take the throne. Cassius voiced his opposition strongly, saying: