The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare is an intimate portrayal of the famed assassination of Julius Caesar and the complex inner workings of the men who committed the crime. In one particularly revealing scene, two of the men closest to Caesar, one a conspirator in his murder and one his second-in command, give orations for the deceased. Despite being simple in appearance, these two speeches do much of the work in developing and exposing the two characters in question. Though both have a love for Caesar, Mark Antony's is mixed with a selfish desire for power, while Brutus' is pure in nature, brought to a screeching halt by his overpowering stoicism. These starkly-contrasted personalities influence the whole of the play, leading to its tragic-but-inevitable end.
The speech given by Brutus exemplifies his defining characteristics of stoicism, morality, and justice. At one particularly polarizing point in his speech, Brutus tells the commoners, "If then that friend demand why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer: not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome
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While Brutus sees life as something to be solved with logic and guided by morality, Mark Antony views life as something that he can twist and mold into whatever he needs it to be at any given moment. Mark Antony uses the audience of the funeral speech as tools to wrench the Roman Republic from the hands of Brutus and place the crown on his own head. He inspires rage and distrust in the plebeians, and directly spurs on the Battle of Philippi. Brutus is roped into this situation despite his unselfish motives, and has to defend himself and his fellows against the armies of Mark Antony and the young Octavius. From beginning to end, the characters of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar are true to their defining qualities and do not depart from the molds they have cast of
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare is a historic tragedy about the brutal murder of the Roman senator, Julius Caesar. Within the play, Caesar has two close friends—Brutus and Antony. Antony is a loyal friend, supporting Caesar and encouraging him in his climb to kingship; Brutus is a king-fearing traitor who leads the plot to murder Caesar. After Caesar is murdered, both friends make speeches—Brutus to justify his actions and Antony to passive-aggressively disprove his claims. In the speeches, they use three rhetorical literary devices: ethos, the appeal to gain the crowd’s trust; pathos, stirring the crowd’s emotions to influence behavior; and logos, the use of logic to reason with the crowd. By comparing the use of ethos, pathos, and logos in each speech and by
Greed, ambition, and the possibility of self-gain are always constant in their efforts to influence people’s actions. In Julius Caesar, Marcus Brutus, a venerable politician, becomes a victim of the perpetual conflict between power-hungry politicians and ignorant commoners. He is a man of honor and good intentions who sacrifices his own happiness for the benefit of others. Unfortunately, his honor is strung into a fine balance between oblivion and belief and it is ultimately the cause of his downfall. His apparent obliviousness leads him to his grave as his merciful sparing of Mark Antony’s life, much like Julius Caesar’s ghost, comes back to haunt him. Overall, Brutus is an honest, sincere man who holds the lives of others in high regard while he himself acts as a servant to Rome.
Brutus has a naive view of the world. He is unable to see through the roles being played by Cassius, Casca, and Antony. He does not even recognize the fake letters were sent from Cassius. Then Brutus says,“You shall not blame us Antony, in your funeral speech, but speak all the good you can of Caesar.
Brutus was a supporter of the republic as well as Caesar’s truthful friend. However much he loved Caesar, he opposed the fact that a single man ruled Rome and he feared Caesar would rise to hold that power. Brutus was a good leader. He was truthful and honourable. Brutus tries to justify his reason for killing Caesar and he says
Julius Caesar Act I Graphic Organizer Name Character Notes Important Quotes Evidence of Loyalty (to whom?) Flavius Annoyed with the crowd because they are too fickle. It is no matter.
...ation and well being of a country, people, and republic. “‘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). Although a seemingly menacing traitor to his country at first, Brutus makes the journey to a sympathetic and noble tragic hero in the end.
The play Julius Caesar depicts Brutus to be an extremely noble being who is well respected and honored by all Romans, even his enemies. Brutus was a loving friend of Julius Caesar and wished anything but death on his comrade, but his love and dedication to the majestic city of Rome would force him to commit anything. He fights a war to defend Rome from a king or emperor's tyrannical rule. When the war was finished, even his enemies saw that he was the most respectable Roman of them all.
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.
The Roman Republic has acted as a model for most Western countries and some empires have even tried to name themselves the heirs to this powerful empire. One of the most famous plays about this ancient empire describes the death of Julius Caesar, a well known general dictator of Rome. As we all know, Caesar was murdered by the Roman Senate in order to terminate his dictatorship. The play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, was written by William Shakespeare and includes two speeches which are analyzed frequently for their rhetorical appeals and figurative language. One speech is given by Mark Antony while the other was given by Brutus. Both of the speakers were close friends of Caesar and delivered effective speeches using powerful rhetorical
William Shakespeare is one of the greatest playwrights of all time. He has written over 30 plays that include comedies, histories, and tragedies. One of his greatest tragedies is the story of Julius Caesar. A tragedy is about the downfall of a tragic hero. The tragic hero’s downfall is caused because of this tragic flaw.
Julius Caesar was born on 100 C.E. in Rome, Italy. Rome was in disarray at this time, with weak leadership and ineffective government. Only adding to the chaos in his life, Caesar’s father died when he was only 16 years old. This dissention in the leadership throughout his childhood may have helped create the hunger for power and control that led him to be such an important leader. Caesar began his rise to power by winning a seat senate. While in office, he formed an alliance with a general, Pompey, and a patrician, Crassus. The trio took over control of the empire together, and Caesar was placed in the position of consul. Julius Caesar was historically significant because he greatly expanded Roman territory, established the Roman empire,
In Julius Caesar there was a character named Caesar. My thesis is that Caesar was loved by many but he needed to die, in fear of becoming too powerful. In this essay I will prove my thesis statement. To make you better understand I will talk about it. His wife Calpurnia had a bad dream, doesn’t think nothing of the weird stuff that is going on in the Roman streets, danger should fear Caesar, he enjoys Decius’ flattery swayed, and compares himself to the North Star.
Antony tells the people of Rome that they should not turn a blind eye to the actions of Brutus and his accomplices, he tells them that they should remember Caesar for the great leader and war hero that he was. In Antony’s speech he uses Repetition, Pathos, and Ethos to turn the crowd on Brutus and his accomplices without them even
William Shakespeare illustrates Brutus to have outstanding morals, but also displays Brutus’s naive and over-trusting personality which becomes his tragic flaw. For example, when Brutus suffers from an internal conflict on deciding if Caesar should be emperor or not, Cassius
Shakespeare wrote Julius Caesar around the early 1600s, and even today scholars argue whether Brutus or Caesar is the tragic hero of the play. The definition of a tragic hero is a person of nobility and honor who unfortunately falls after a struggle against an opposing force. However, the true tragic hero of the play was Marcus Brutus.