How Is Brutus A Tragic Hero

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It is clear that Brutus, in William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, is a heart wrenching tragic hero. But what really makes a tragic hero, and how does Brutus fit? There are many characteristics to a tragic hero, but three traits that Brutus fit the best are that he has major flaws, makes unchangeable mistakes, and both of these lead to his death. Brutus fits Shakespeare’s common characteristics of a tragic hero perfectly.

The first tragic hero characteristic Brutus has is his major flaw(s) that lead to his downfall. Brutus tends to be overly trusting. To anyone, a group of people planning to kill their friend sounds pretty sketchy, but Brutus quickly trusts them.Not only that, he had complete faith that Marc Antony would believe them, and not betray him and the conspirators. As for his main flaw, he is very idealistic. Brutus had complete faith that killing Caesar would have no consequences. His belief that doing this would get him glory is very unrealistic and narrow minded. As it can be seen, because of his idealistic nature, he trusted the wrong people that led him to his own demise. …show more content…

His biggest mistake in the play was letting Antony speak at Julius Caesar’s funeral. He had no clue that Antony would find a way to make the conspirators look bad but he was very wrong. After Antony’s speech, people began to riot and chased after Brutus and the conspirators, making them outcasts. Brutus then marched to Philippi, where he met his doom.Cassius advised him not to go, but he didn’t follow his advice and went anyway. If that wasn’t enough, Caesar’s ghost told him that they would meet again at Philippi. As shown above, Brutus’s mistakes not only changed his life, but ended

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