The Downfall of Brutus
The play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare, has two main tragic heroes. Set in Rome and spanning from forty- four to forty-two B.C., the play tells of Brutus and Caesar whom both fall from the highest positions to the lowest of misfortune and then are enlightened on their mistakes. Brutus is the stronger example of a tragic hero in this story. Throughout this play, Brutus commits many faults, falls more drastically than all other characters, and regrets his previous actions by the end of the play.
Brutus commits three costly mistakes during the play. The first mistake that he makes is that he participates in the assassination of Julius Caesar. “People, and senators, be not affrighted. /Fly not; stand still; ambition’s debt is paid”(938). In doing this, Brutus does just the opposite of what he set out to do which is to protect Rome from the ambition of humans. This action also perpetually gives him the name of a traitor. The second and most important mistake that Brutus makes is that he allows Antony to speak at Caesar’s funeral. “And you shall speak in the same pulpit whereto I am going /After my speech is ended”(945). Not only does Brutus allow Mark Antony to speak after Cassius tells him not to let him have such a right, but he gives him the better time to do it as well. Speaking second is more strategic than first because of the fact that the man or woman that speaks second is delivering the speech that the audience will remember. The citizens most likely will not remember Brutus’s meager speech that is soon disregarded after Antony begins to speak. This act of arrogance is actually the backbone to the downfall of Brutus. The third mistake that Brutus makes is tha...
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...al 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.
In conclusion, Brutus is the tragic hero in this play because of the mistakes that he makes, the fall that he takes, and the regrets that he feels after. Brutus will forever be labeled as a traitor, but in the end he is truly sorry for the mistakes that he makes. Because of this, Brutus is the tragic hero.
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare is the story about the men who conspired and followed through with the assassination of the great Julius Caesar. These men fear that Caesar will take the crown and become the next king of Rome. The roman people had a true averse feeling toward the idea of monarchy. So in order to prevent this they come up with a plan to end Caesars life, which is duly followed through on March 15, 44 B.C. Out of these conspirators there is one man that stands out to be a tragic hero, and that is a man by the name of Brutus. He was a great friend of Caesar who ultimately became one of Caesars worst adversaries. He betrayed Caesars trust and friendship when he agreed to be part of the assassination plot. A tragic hero is someone who is in a place of high standings or a place of power. This leads to a huge fall from greatness to death. A tragic hero must have many deep complex character flaws that are revealed throughout the course of the story. They then must ultimately accept responsibility for their mistakes; along with being humbled and enlightened. Brutus demonstrates all of the attributes of a tragic hero.
According to Aristotle, a tragic hero experiences a change in fortune from good to bad brought about by his or her own errors. By this definition, Brutus acts as the tragic hero of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar because, despite his good intentions, his actions ultimately lead to his death and the downfall of the Roman Republic. Throughout Julius Caesar Brutus acts in accordance with his morals, which makes his eventual fall all the more tragic as Brutus genuinely believed his actions benefitted the future of Rome. Unlike most of the self-interested people around him, Brutus genuinely cares for the continued well-being of the Roman republic. Brutus sees Caesar's rise to power and imminent crowning as a danger to the freedom of the people in Rome.
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 the villains who killed his beloved Caesar. After Antony turns a rioting Rome on him and wages war against him and the conspirators, Brutus falls by his own hand, turning the very sword he slaughtered Caesar with against himself. Brutus is unquestionably the tragic hero in this play because he has an innumerable amount of character flaws, he falls because of these flaws, and then comes to grips with them as he bleeds on the planes of Philippi.
First and foremost Brutus is the Tragic Hero of the play as has been said. Now with the
“Brutus, a Tragic Hero” Tragic heroes are composed of the following characteristics: nobleness/wisdom by birth, a tragic flaw, reversal of fortune by the tragic flaw, and anagnorisis. Being excessively honorable can be a person’s tragic flaw. In Julius Caesar, written by William Shakespeare, Brutus is shown to be a tragic hero. Born a nobleman, Brutus was Caesar’s close friend. However, he betrayed and murdered Caesar, which eventually led to Brutus’s death.
The second reason why Brutus should not be a tragic hero is because he has a tragic flaw and this flaw leads to his ultimate downfall. The tragic Flaw for Brutus is his idealistic view of the world. He contracts this view about Caesar after Cassius persuades him by saying that Caesar will be a tyrant. Because of this, Brutus joins the conspirators and kills Caesar. This shows that Brutus, like other tragic heroes uses his tragic flaw and thus will cause his eventual defeat. Later in the play Brutus directs, as any ideological man would, to charge rather than wait for the enemy to attack. This is an excellent exemplar of the Brutus’s tragic flaw since Brutus did this so that he would not lose support in Rome.
The tragic hero is one of literatures most used (and sometimes abused) characters. The classical definition of a tragic hero is, “a person with heroic or potentially heroic qualities. The person is doomed by the Gods or some other supernatural force to destruction or suffering. The hero struggles against the fate, but due to a personal flaw, ultimately fails in the battle against fate. It is my personal opinion that Brutus,as he is portrayed in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, is a tragic hero by this definition. I came to this conclusion due to the fact that Brutus shares many similarities with other tragic heroes in literature such as Oedipus, Hamlet, and Ralph from Lord of the Flies. All four characters share the two critical traits that are needed to be tragic heroes: a tragic flaw that eventually leads to a tragic downfall. The tragic hero was defined by Aristotle, yet the “invention” of the tragic hero goes to Sophocles.
Brutus’s first characteristic that deems him a tragic hero is his flawed persona. Brutus is an honorable, trustworthy man to even the most respectable Romans. However, he is easily manipulated. Caesar was a friend to him and never would have believed his benevolent friend would literally stab him in the back. Brutus never wanted to partake in the duplicity of the assassination. Unfortunately, he is a pliable man and Cassius knew how to mold him into the ringleader of the conspiracy. “Brutus and Caesar: What should be in that ‘Caesar’? / Why should that name be sounded more than yours? / …Upon what meat doth our Caesar feed, / That he is grown so great?” (893). Brutus listens to Cassius, who only wants Caesar assassinated because he is envious of him. Cassius lacks a legitimate reason to truly hate Caesar. Brutus fails to see this. He also fails to see how much Cassius deceives him. “If I were Brutus and he were Cassius, / He should not humor me. I will this night, / In several hands, in at his windows throw, / As if...
In the play the Life and Death of Julius Caesar (just as in all of Shakespeare’s tragedies) there is much death, much tragedy, and of course, a tragic hero. However unlike most of Shakespeare’s plays this time the tragic hero is not particularly obvious. Throughout the play a few main characters present themselves as possibilities for being the tragic hero. But as being a tragic hero is not only having a tragic flaw but also entails much more, there really is only one person to fit the mold. The character Brutus is born into power and is higher/better then we are. He has a tragic flaw that causes his downfall and at the end he realizes his mistake (a trait none of the other characters can really claim).
Brutus put his trust in Antony to not turn on him at the funeral. He was lead to believe that Antony would only speak good of the conspirators and defend them for the actions they have made. He trusted Antony when he told him he would not express such hate and talk of the bad they did and then later turned against them for the vengeance of Caesar. Brutus told Antony, “You shall not in your funeral speech blame us, But speak all good you can devise of Caesar” (III.i.245-246). He told him that the only way he is going to be able to speak at Caesar’s funeral is if he speaks good of the conspirators. After Antony said his speech, the whole crowd immediately switched and sided with him against them. They wanted nothing more than for Brutus, Cassius and the other contributors to be dead. This reveals that Brutus is shameful for putting his trust in someone who was so close to Caesar. Brutus trusted that Antony wouldn't do anything and just imagined he would be to scared to step up and speak out. This leads to Brutus losing the trust he had for Antony and starting a war between the people and the conspirators. As the war was about to proceed, they all prepped for what was about to happen. Antony and his army completely dominated Brutus’ and lead to many of them fleeing for their lives. Many people died by genocide while other committed suicide. Brutus was among the ones of suicide. He no longer wanted to be alive and felt that he had lived and fulfill what he had wanted. People were dead and he knew he was going to be one of them. Brutus’ last words were, “Caesar, now be still; I killed not thee with half so good a will” (V.v.50-51). He wanted Caesar to know that he can now be at rest because the vengeance he was looking for has been given. Because of all the trust he put in the people that were taking advantage of him, he ended up finishing his life. This reveals that Brutus really did
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.
The William Shakespeare play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar tells the story of the assassination of Julius Caesar and the eight conspirators behind it. The play takes place in 44 B.C. in Rome. Marcus Brutus is the protagonist and face-man of the insidious conspiracy. He is also the tragic hero in this classic work of literature. Aristotle’s definition of the tragic hero is a character that has a character flaw, also known as hubris, and experiences a downfall from a high position in society due to this flaw. After this downfall, a tragic hero experiences an enlightenment. Brutus fits Aristotle’s description perfectly. Brutus has a severe character flaw and experiences a downfall from a high position in society. However, he is an honorable character that truly provokes sympathy from the audience.
In tragedy plays, there is a character who suffers from a tragic flaw in his or her personality may it be excessive pride, poor judgement, or both which eventually leads to the hero’s downfall and makes the character the tragic hero. In Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, Marcus Brutus is the tragic hero of the play due to his tragic flaw which is his naïve and over-trusting personality, which he eventually realizes too late but still aims to prevent his loss of dignity.
Brutus's fatal flaw is his trustworthy nature. He joins the conspiracy not because he "loved Caesar less but loved Rome more." ( ) Brutus joins the conspiracy under the impression that he is preventing Caesar's tyranny and saving the people of Rome. He also trusts the motives of the other conspirators. In entering the conspiracy he is also responsible for the death of Caesar and the movement of the plot. The civil war is a direct result of Caesar's assassination and eventually Brutus's own death. Brutus's fall is definitely caused by his trustworthy nature.
Throughout many of Shakespeare's plays, a tragic hero is identified; a heroic figure that possesses a character flaw that leads to his defeat. In The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, there has been controversies over who is actually the tragic hero. Many people agree that Marcus Brutus is the tragic hero. However, others argue and identify Julius Caesar as the tragic hero. After examining these two characters, a conclusion is easily drawn. Brutus is the tragic hero of this play because when a person who possesses such heroic qualities dies, it is a true tragedy.