Julius Caesar And Brutus's Intentions

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The play of Julius Caesar is mainly about how the idealism of Marcus Brutus leads to his downfall. Brutus is too quick to trust Cassius and the other conspirators, and does not clearly examine their intentions. The conspirators intentions is the driving force to Caesar’s death. The actions that Cassius takes to get Brutus on his side is to only get Brutus to talk to the people; for he “sits high in the people’s hearts” (1.3.159). The love that Brutus has for his Romans is his biggest weakest of all. Ironically, his role in the play is to convince the people that Caesar’s intention was ambition, which he fails at. Instead, Caesar's friend, Anthony, wins the crowd over by convincing the crowd that Caesar was not ambitious. The mistakes that leads …show more content…

He is unable to see through the roles being played by Cassius, Casca, and Antony, and trusts everyone. Although Brutus is supposed to be intelligent, he does not recognize the bogus letters as having been sent by Cassius (2.1.32-34). Throughout the play, it is obvious that Cassius is envious of Caesar and manipulates Brutus to become powerful. Cassius draws comparisons between Caesar and Brutus instead of Caesar and himself (1.2.135-147). Again, Brutus would not suspect Cassius to manipulate him because he trust him. Another fault of Brutus is that he underestimates Antony as an opponent, and he loses control over the discussion at the Capitol following the assassination by meeting Antony's requests too readily. When he spoke to the crowd he did not get emotion out of them as much as Antony did. He thought that killing Caesar was the right thing to do and would win over the people easily. Brutus didn’t explain to the crowd why Caesar’s ambition for he simply neglected to figure out …show more content…

"Ambition in Julius Caesar." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed. Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011.Bloom's Literature, Facts On File, Inc.
Fleming, William H. "Julius Cæsar." Shakespeare’s Plots. New York: Putnam, 1902. 232-318. Rpt. in Shakespearean Criticism. Ed. Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 170. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2016. Literature Resource Center. Web. 19 Apr. 2017.
Honigmann, E. A. J. "Sympathy for Brutus." Shakespeare: Seven Tragedies Revisited: The Dramatist's Manipulation of Response Houndmills, UK: Palgrave, 2002: 30–53. © 1976, 2002 by E. A. J. Honigmann. Quoted as "Sympathy for Brutus" in Bloom, Harold, ed. Julius Caesar, Bloom's Shakespeare Through the Ages. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2007.
Adney, Karley K. "Marcus Brutus." In Baker, William, and Kenneth Womack, eds. The Facts On File Companion to Shakespeare. New York: Facts On File, Inc.,

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