Idealism In Julius Caesar Research Paper

There are many themes in William Shakespeare's play, Julius Caesar. Themes that Shakespeare discusses topics like ambition, heroes, villains, identities, omens, and idealism. Each character struggles with many themes. Brutus particularly struggles with the theme of idealism. This is evidenced in many ways throughout the first three acts of the play. Brutus has strong beliefs in an idealistic world. He has a wonderful life with his wife and home. He fears that the ambitions of Caesar will bring this crashing down around him. He strives for even more perfection and idealism in his life and is conflicted as to how to deal with his friend Caesar. Brutus knows in his heart that power hungry friend Caesar must be stopped. He knows that Caesar

When he finally made the decision to join the conspiracy, he was all in. He justified he decision through the lens of idealism. This decision was going to save his perfect life and the lives of many Romans. The assassination of the power hungry and ambitious Caesar was also going to save the Roman Empire. Brutus, clinging to his idealism, did not want to kill Caesar in a brutal way. He even stated that he wished he could just cut out the bad part of him without killing him. He knew that this was not at all possible. He killed him in front of the entire Senate. Then gave a speech to further his idealistic views. He had the entire audience believing that Caesar was going to ruin the Empire had Brutus no sacrificially killed him. When an individual is viewing a situation with blinders on, much like Brutus did, there is generally only one outcome. Brutus saw only one end to the situation. He had to save his perfect life and the Roman Empire. There was one person in the way of all of the ideal perfection. Caesar. Brutus eliminated the problem. Without these strong idealistic convictions, Brutus may have been able to view Caesar’s rise to power with a different perspective. However, much like all humans, he