Examples Of Betrayal In Julius Caesar

People often betray themselves without realizing it, whether it is through their public self or private self, one great example to represent this is Julius Caesar. In William Shakespeare’s play “Julius Caesar”, betrayal is the base of the play, Shakespeare shows that betrayal occurs between friendships, country and the character themselves, characters such as Julius Caesar and Brutus break trust not only with each other and other people, but themselves as well, and that their way of thinking may change.
Throughout the play up until his death, Julius Caesar does not turn his back to anyone, but it was his arrogance that betrayed himself. His arrogance is shown several times, one of them saying, “But I am constant as the northern star, Of whose

Think you to walk forth? You shall not stir out of your house today.” However, when Caesar agreed to stay back, Decius persuaded him to go and to not listen to Calpurnia,

Cassius, the first to start the conspiracy against Caesar, illustrates his betrayal to Caesar by convincing the future conspirators to stand on his side, such as Casca and Cinna, “Now know you, Casca, I have moved already some certain of the noblest-minded Romans to undergo, with me, an enterprise of honourable dangerous consequence;”. After Cassius gathered all the conspirators he managed to convince to get together, it is suggested to invite Brutus to join, “If you could but win the noble Brutus to our party---”. Cassius then successfully persuades Brutus to join by sending an anonymous letter to Brutus’ house. Another betrayal that occurred in the play was through Antony. After Caesar’s death, Antony returns to the Capitol, and shakes hands with the conspirators, “Let each man render me this bloody hand.”, showing that he stands on their side. However, once Caesar’s funeral is over and he succeeds in turning the citizens against the conspirators, he goes to war against Brutus and Cassius who fled Rome, “I heard him say, Brutus and Cassius are rid like madmen through the gates of Rome.”. The last evidence of betrayal is between Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus. It is seen that they are allies, but after Lepidus is sent to run an errand, Antony explains how he doesn’t trust him, “This is a slight unmeritable