Julius Caesar Tragic Hero

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As defined by Aristotle, “a tragic hero is a [literary] character who makes a judgement error that inevitably leads to his/her own destruction”. In Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, Brutus fits this definition for he is the primary tragic hero of the play. Brutus is the tragic hero--but was not the focal point like Julius Caesar who possess’ negative qualities. This is an important play to continue passing on because it teaches lessons such as “be careful who you trust” and shows readers to carefully select their leaders. Caesar is considered to be heroic in my the eyes of Romans, while in the eyes of the senators he is nothing more than a conceited and naive man who longs for complete power so he can cut off the rope to the others, …show more content…

Brutus cares immensely about all the citizens in Rome and will do anything to please his people. To Brutus, Caesar is not fit to be the king; however, he would not have stopped him if he thought the people had wanted him as their king. Brutus received multiple letters from whom he believes is from the people of Rome asking Brutus to save them from Caesar becoming king. What is not realized is that it is Cassius taking advantage of Brutus’s kind heart (Shakespeare l. 3. 144-148). Brutus becomes derange, contemplating if killing Caesar will really solve the citizens problems. Brutus loves his dear friend Caesar but he loves the citizens of Rome more. He decides to side with the conspirators and plot against Caesar to end him before things escalate--to where no one can take him down. When Caesar dies, Antony told the citizens about what is stated in Caesar's will. It said how much Caesar cared about all of them and that he left all the land to the people of Rome (Shakespeare lll. 2. 242-248). After hearing this the citizens despise what all the conspirators and Brutus have done. The citizens go as far as to kill a man named Cinna, who is a poet, just because of his name (Shakespeare lll. 3. 31-33). Brutus’s tragic flaw of being easily manipulated led to these

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