The Tragedy of Julius Caesar: Compare and Contrast Marc Antony, Cassius, and Brutus

In Roman history, some elite men held certain values that they felt strong enough to take their life in order to defend it. In William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, there are certain characters portrayed to show how a person’s values or ideas can change their behavior and influence some significant decisions. The protagonist of the play, Marcus Brutus, supports this thought by having an idealistic view on the world and by showing his patriotism toward Rome. In William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Shakespeare uses Brutus as an honorable, idealistic man in order to show the depth that a high-class Roman man will go through in order to defend his honor.

The qualities a tragic hero, in Shakespeare's plays, normally displays consists of the hero falling from a place of glory, or rank, or happiness. We are astounded by the extent to which they fall, or allow themselves to stoop. The resulting catastrophe from the hero's mistake is of monumental proportions. With the discussed play Julius Caesar, Cassius exhibits Jealousy, Rashness, and Impulsive behaviour. Cassius makes mistakes, each with a disastrous effect.

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.

Second, In The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Cassius is even more corrupt than Caesar. For instance, Cassius does what is best for him. For example, after Caesar is killed, Cassius persuades the conspirators that killing Caesar is what people will

Brutus in William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar In 'Julius Caesar', Shakespeare intended us to see Brutus as 'noble'. I wish to review his actions, and the motivating factors behind those actions. I intend to prove that Brutus had a strong and well-grounded character. He had good intentions, however, he made one fatal mistake and that was his downfall. When learn that Brutus is dedicated to the public, when Brutus decides Caesar must die, because he fears his ambition, this comes as a big shock to the Shakespearian audience as well as the modern day audience.

Shakespeare’s complex play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar contains several tragic heroes; a tragic hero holds high political or social esteem yet possesses an obvious character flaw. This discernible hubris undoubtedly causes the character’s demise or a severe forfeiture, which forces the character to undergo an unfeigned moment of enlightenment and shear reconciliation. Brutus, one of these tragic heroes, is a devout friend of the great Julius Caesar, that is, until he makes many execrable decisions he will soon regret; he becomes involved in a plot to kill the omniscient ruler of Rome during 44 B.C. After committing the crime, Mark Antony, an avid, passionate follower of Caesar, is left alive under Brutus’s orders to take his revenge on

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 the play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar the main character, Brutus, experiences many things that lead him to become a tragic hero. From the interactions between Cassius and Brutus, the two characters contract each other, Brutus’s character develops into a tragic hero, and the plot advances and a theme is also created.

The topic of leadership in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar has been discussed and argued ever since the play was written. The most prevalent discussion of leadership in the play revolves around Shakespeare’s tragic hero, Marcus Brutus, and the cause of his downfall. According to Shakespeare critic James Bundy, “Brutus... is a man whose affections sway more than his reason, in whom there is this tragic confederacy of passion and imagination against reason” (qtd. in Palmer 402). Ernest Shanzer, however, says that Brutus is “by no means devoid of political shrewdness and practical wisdom”, but he is a “bad judge of character” (Shanzer 1). Although both critics’ descriptions of Brutus have merit, Brutus’ shortcoming, as well as the success of the opposing leader, Mark Antony, is more accurately explained using the observations of Niccolo Machiavelli in The Prince. In this book Machiavelli outlines the characteristics of a successful leader. When using The Prince as a lens to read Julius Caesar, the correlation between a leader’s Machiavellianism and their success becomes very apparent. Marcus Brutus is undoubtedly an honorable and respectable man, but his morality prevents him from adhering to Machiavelli’s principles. Due to his lack of princely virtues, Brutus is doomed to fail, while Antony, a much more Machiavellian prince, successfully seizes power.

Each one of the conspirators stab Caesar leading to his death. Towards the end of the play Brutus begins to regret his decision and clashing with Cassius. Brutus and Cassius, both commit suicide at the end of the play after being on the run and being in a war because of killing Caesar. Brutus was seen as a very ethical and moral character, but was a hypocrite. He murdered, Caesar, his friend and misjudged the Roman people and their feelings. Brutus was very naive thinking that he was doing the right thing and also very gullible to easily be manipulated by Cassius. Marcus Brutus was wrong for murdering Julius Caesar and at the end of the play he finally

In Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Brutus and Cassius are contrasting characters. They differ in the way they perceive Antony as a threat to the assassination plot, their dominance in personality, and their moral fiber. In Julius Caesar, Brutus is the more naïve, dominant and noble character, while Cassius is the more perceptive, submissive, and manipulative person.

Since Brutus is so devoted to Rome this allows him to be easily manipulated Cassius to use that to manipulate Brutus ad convince him to conspire against Caesar. At first, In act one, Cassius tells Brutus that Caesar is no better than him and that Brutus' ancestors even helped found Rome. Later in the act he tricks Brutus by sending him the various letters. Cassius sent letters to Brutus, all in different hand writing, to make it seem like the Roman people disliked Caesar.

    In the play Julius Caesar, written and preformed by William Shakespeare, there are many characters, but two, Brutus and Cassius, stood out. The play begins in Rome where a celebration of Julius Caesar's victory over the former ruler of Rome, Pompeii. The victory leads to Caesar's betrayal by his jealous companions. Senators and other high status figures are jealous of Caesar's new and growing power, while others, like Brutus, fear the tyrannical rule Caesar could enforce. The conspirators, Brutus and Cassius being the most important, assassinate Julius Caesar and Marcus Antonius, better known as Antony, and Octavius Caesar, Caesar's heir to the thrown, revenge Caesar's

He speaks of them often to Cassius, and is greatly disturbed when events force him to act in a manner inconsistent with them. Ironically, his widely reputed honor is what causes Cassius to make an all-out effort to bring him into an enterprise of debatable moral respectability. Brutus ' reputation is so great that it will act to convince others who are as yet undecided to join.Brutus’ concentration on honorable and noble behavior also leads him into assuming a naive view of the world.He is unable to see through the roles being played by Cassius, Casca, and Antony. He does not recognize the bogus letters have been sent by Cassius,although they contain sentiments and diction that would warn a more prospective member. He underestimates Antony as an opponent and he loses control over the discussion at the capitol following the assassination.The events that occurred because of Brutus’ naiveness led to his downfall and death. His first mistake was in Act 2, Scene 1. This was when the fake letters are sent to him from the conspirators. This was all a lie, a trap, to get Brutus to join in on the conspirator for Cassius knew he could not do it without Brutus’ support. Brutus believes these letters are from the people of Rome and agrees to the death of Caesar. Another example of this naiveness is in Act 3, Scene 2. Brutus decides to allow Antony to speak to show honor to Caesar. In the end, this decision ruins him. Antony riles the crowd into believing that the conspirators

Unlike Brutus, Cassius is a far-sighted man. He is aware of the capability of Antony and his solid friendship with Caesar. An important item in his plan is to get rid of Mark Antony as well, along with Caesar since he concludes that he is a potential danger to their cause. But this is over-ruled by Brutus on the premise that it will foul their good intention. Brutus’ reaction to the suggestion is: