Character Analysis of Brutus and Marc Antony
Brutus and Cassius work together with other conspirators to kill Caesar. Caesar had good ideas, which would work, but Brutus goes against him, thinking his tactics are good enough. Brutus is killing Caesar for the good of Rome. He knows that Caesar will overpower Rome and be too ambitious.
Analysis of characters:
Brutus is an orator. Antony makes this clear by telling the crowd that he is "no orator as Brutus is." He can manipulate the crowds because, after his speech, the crowds cheer him. He does this by using rhetorical questions: "Who is here so rude/ that would not be a Roman?" By using the word "rude," nobody is going to object or say anything.
Secondly, I will note some of Brutus' negative points. The first point is that he is easily manipulated. We know this because Cassius makes him join the conspirators. This is quite strange, as Brutus was a good orator himself. He is described as a traitor by Mark Antony: "more strong than traitor's arms." Brutus and Cassius are described as "madmen" by a servant: "like madmen through the gates of Rome." These words weren't true because the conspirators were well-organized, and almost nobody knew about what they were about to do to Caesar. However strong he is, he is still quite vulnerable. This is proved when he sees Julius Caesar's ghost. I think that Brutus made the largest mistake: trusting Antony and allowing him to make a speech at Caesar's funeral when Brutus (or no other conspirator) was present.
Analysis of speeches:
In Antony's speeches, Antony did not try to act as a ruler talking to the people (as Brutus seemed to do), but he seemed to talk to the people as though he was one of them. The Plebeians knew that Antony was not a high ruler, and Antony made himself out to be one of the local senators who listened to the people and truly respected them. Antony uses repetition to get his message across to the Plebeians.
Brutus, Honorable Man Brutus, an honorable conspirator? Honorable is defined as genuine, truthful and displaying integrity, while a conspirator is defined as one that engages in an agreement to commit an illegal or wrongful act. Anyone can clearly see that these two words do not belong together. There are also other reasons why Brutus should not be considered honorable. In the play, three distinct acts can be recalled.
his ally not for who he is, but what he could become. It is for this
Brutus’ tragic flaw was his perception that all men were identical to him in their motives. This factored allowed his decisions to be easily influenced by others whose motives were devious. Cassius was able to convince Brutus to join the conspiracy because Brutus thought the only reason behind the conspiracy was to prevent one man from becoming “Rex.” He allowed Antony’s speech to occur because he was sure that Antony was motivated by the same “honor” which motivated himself.
“Good government consists in the ruler being a ruler, the minister being a minister, the father being a father, and the son being a son” (Riegel). Confucius spent his life pushing for equality and a new way of life in ancient China to give the Chinese people something to believe in during difficult times. Modern day China is the hidden engine room of the world. Through the overpowering role of a communist government, it allows them to focus the drive of the industrial workforce into a point in order to take on jobs outsourced by other countries. The official religion of China as of 2002 is Atheism, but the country is still filled with religious diversity including many religions spouting from the efforts of Confucius and his journey to preach a better life (Central). Brutus saw that Rome was in danger of falling into the grip of an all powerful ruler that would crush the rights of his fellow Romans. Brutus dared to step out from the basic crowd mentality that followed like a herd of cattle, and stood against the perceived threat. In Confucius’ path to build a better world through a peaceful bond of a social and political lifestyle, he created a reputation of doggish, yet calculated, perseverance to strive towards peace that matches the unwavering loyalty and unameliorable nobility of Brutus.
Brutus is shown as being easily manipulated in the play. This trait is shown a few times in the play. At the beginning, Brutus is tricked by Cassius into believing that killing Julius Caesar would be for the better of Rome (1, 2, ll. 32-321). Cassius is able to deviously influence Brutus into thinking that Caesar is no different from Brutus. He says, “Brutus and Caesar: what should be in that Caesar?/ Why should that name be sounded more than yours?” (1, 2, ll. 142-143) Cassius also uses many other examples to manipulate Brutus. Later on, when the conspirators gather at Brutus’ home, Brutus believes that the other conspirators are killing Caesar for the good of Rome as well (2, 1, ll.114-116). After Brutus and the conspirators have killed Caesar, Mark Antony masks his anger ...
Brutus was a very selfish and self-centered person. He continually ignored Cassius’ and the conspirators’ ideas. He was the leader and everyone was supposed to go along with them. Not to mention that all of his decisions went against Cassius and they were all the wrong moves. Brutus refused to admit that he was wrong or listen to other people.
Brutus was a devious man, even though what he thought he was doing was right. Brutus told his fellow conspirators to kill Caesar “boldly, but not angerly.”(3.1.256-257) Brutus was one of Caesars right hand men, and yet Brutus kills his own friend. When Antony asks to speak at Caesars funeral, Cassius says no, but Brutus tell him that Antony will speak, but only what Brutus tells him to say. Brutus also embraces the fact that he just killed his friend, and also tells the senators who had just witnessed it to not be afraid, but to stay because ambition has paid its debt.
This flaw eventually leads to his downfall because of all the bad decisions it causes him to make. The first mistake pride causes him to make is to kill Caesar and the next mistake follows right after. “ Mark Antony, here, take you Caesar’s body. You shall not in your funeral speech blame us, but speak all good you can devise of Caesar, and say you do’t by our permission; Else shall you not have any hang at all about his funeral; and you shall speak in the same pulpit wherto I am going, after my speech is done.” (24) This was said by Brutus to Antony right after Caesar’s death. Brutus not only allows Antony to live but then allows him to speak at Caesar’s funeral after Brutus speaks, completely unsupervised. This choice of Brutus’ is brought about by his pride (and maybe a little bit of shortsighted stupidity).
The second flaw is Brutus’ poor judgement. His judgement is taken advantage of by Antony. The first sign of this is when Antony talks Brutus into letting him speak at Caesar’s funeral. Another example of Brutus’ poor judgement is how Brutus thinks that Antony could cause no harm to the conspirators and their plan. The judgement Brutus made when he let Antony speak at the funeral was the turning point of the play and it led to the conspirators downfall. Brutus’ final act of poor judgement was when he decided to attack Antony and Octavius at Philippi. This decision lead to many deaths’s including his.
Brutus has several tragic flaws. One of these tragic flaws is how he trusts people a lot. Brutus says that he “know[s] that we shall have [Antony] well to a friend” (1140). He trusts Antony will be a friend of the conspirators, yet he seems to not realize that Antony is obliviously against them, because they killed his friend. Brutus trusts Antony so much, that he lets Antony speak to the public alone. Antony turns the people against Brutus and the conspirators, leading to the wars where Brutus takes his own life. Brutus also receives letters, supposedly from the people of Rome. As he reads the letter out loud, Brutus remarks “‘Speak, strike, redress!’ Am I entreated to speak and strike? O Rome, I make thee promise, if thy redress will follow, thy receivest thy full petition at the hand of Brutus” (1118).
Brutus made his speech effective in persuading the people by using tone and rhetorical devices. Brutus was compassionate when referring to how he loved Caesar as much as Caesar`s friends of his speech. Brutus was showing compassion on lines18 - 20 when he said, "If there be any in this assembly, any dear friend of Caesar's, to him I say that Brutus's love to Caesar was no less than his." Brutus said this to help the people understand the sorrow he felt for the loss of Caesar, but he felt he killed Caesar for the good of Rome. Brutus anticipated an objection by the people when he said he loved Caesar , so he went on to say on lines 20 - 23, "If then that friend demand why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer: Not that I love Caesar less, but Rome more."Brutus manipulated the people with rhetorical questions. He asks them on lines 29 - 33, " who is so base, that they would be a bondman, who is so rude, that they would not be a Roman, and who is so vile, that will not love his country," the people do not want to be against their country nor do they want to be so base to be a slave....
A tragic hero is a person who has helped change a friend for their good but dies while in the process or has to kill the person for their good. A tragic hero is a person who has kept a watch on someone then dies or gets hurt while keeping them safe or trying to change them. In Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare he uses Brutus as a tragic hero.Brutus is a tragic hero because he does everything for the better of Rome, he doesn’t abuse power, and being friends with Caesar at a young age then killing him. In the whole play Brutus believes that everything has to be for the better of Rome to be a tragic hero. A tragic hero to Brutus is someone that commits their whole life to bettering Rome and their people.
Both Cassius and Brutus play major roles in the play Julius Caesar. Cassius and Brutus both plan Caesar’s death. Although they are working towards a common goal, Cassius and Brutus have very different motivations for doing this. On the one hand, Cassius sees it as a way to gain more power for himself while destroying the king and all his power. On the other hand, Brutus believes that in killing Caesar he is preserving peace for the Romans’ future years. Throughout the play, Shakespeare uses different techniques to create biased characterizations of the two men so that readers and viewers develop identical attitudes towards each of them. In Julius Caesar, Cassius is portrayed as a greedy villain while Brutus is depicted as an honorable hero.
There is no such thing as the perfect person. We may dream of such a person, but sadly, everyone has flaws. These flaws are what make us human. Something else that makes us human is our need for heroes. We attribute 'perfect' qualities to our heroes. In reality even our heroes are flawed. The closest thing to the idealized person, or hero, is the Shakespearean tragic hero. The tragic hero is someone of high standing, good character, and a flaw. While it may be only one flaw, it is often fatal. An example of a tragic hero can be best seen in William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar. Marcus Brutus is a prominent leader and noble citizen of Rome who leads in the assassination of Julius Caesar. We see that Brutus plays the role of the tragic hero through his noble standing, fatal flaw, and legacy.
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 death. Antony convinces the Roman populous to destroy the conspirators and eventually begins a war with Cassius and Brutus' armies. Both Cassius and Brutus commit suicide to save their honor and Antony and Octavius win the war. The characterizations of Brutus and Cassius show a distinct contrast in their character traits and motives for the assassination of Julius Caesar.