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The tragedy of julius caesar brutus character
Critically analyse the role of brutus in julius caesar
Brutus as a tragic hero in Julius Caesar
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A Paper On Brutus’ Conflict Between
Passion and Responsibility
Throughout the play “Julius Caesar,” by William Shakespeare, Brutus is torn between passion and responsibility. There are three very good examples of this, the first being, obviously, Brutus’ mental conflict dealing with the conspiracy surrounding Caesar’s assassination. Less obvious number two, the conflict between himself and Cassius, dealing with Cassius less than noble hoarding of money. And last of all third, Brutus’ argument with the rest of the conspirators to let Antony live.
The conflicts brought about in “Julius Caesar” are incredibly complex. To understand even the very basic conflict between Brutus and his thoughts surrounding Caesar’s death takes a small amount of background knowledge. Know that Brutus and Caesar have been friends for a long time before this play takes place. And Brutus has a great loyalty to his mother country, Rome. The last piece of information you need to work out this whole mess, is that Brutus, with good reason, thinks that Caesar will hurt Rome if he becomes its dictator. And unless someone kills him, Caesar will become dictator. With that information, you must realize the problem presented before Brutus. Be responsible, towards the people of Rome, and assassinate Caesar, or be passionate, in accordance to his friendship with the monarch, and choose not to kill Julius. In the same way that Brutus’ responsible mind make’s him kill Caesar, Brutus’ mind make’s him argue with Cassius, because of Cassius’ immorality. He chooses to argue with Cassius, instead of ignoring the situation, because the responsibility of keeping people moral outweighs the passion of keeping good relations with Cassius. In the third example of Brutus’ conflict, he again chooses responsibility over passion. Brutus acts responsible by telling the other conspirators that Antony will have no power when Caesar’s dead. Brutus does not take the passionate road. The road that leads to the murder of Antony, because if it is good for Rome to have Caesar killer, then killing Antony and Caesar will be twice as good for Rome.
There are some very obvious effects that this conflict has with Brutus’ life. Of course this conflict makes him part of the conspiracy, because that’s what this whole controversy is all about. This conflict also ultimately ended Brutus’ life. As for the other obvious effects there aren’t any. Look deeper and one might find that underlying motif in this work is that men are generally devious, scheming, and backstabbing.
Shakespeare’s complex play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar contains several tragic heroes; a tragic hero holds high political or social esteem yet possesses an obvious character flaw. This discernible hubris undoubtedly causes the character’s demise or a severe forfeiture, which forces the character to undergo an unfeigned moment of enlightenment and shear reconciliation. Brutus, one of these tragic heroes, is a devout friend of the great Julius Caesar, that is, until he makes many execrable decisions he will soon regret; he becomes involved in a plot to kill the omniscient ruler of Rome during 44 B.C. After committing the crime, Mark Antony, an avid, passionate follower of Caesar, is left alive under Brutus’s orders to take his revenge on the villains who killed his beloved Caesar. After Antony turns a rioting Rome on him and wages war against him and the conspirators, Brutus falls by his own hand, turning the very sword he slaughtered Caesar with against himself. Brutus is unquestionably the tragic hero in this play because he has an innumerable amount of character flaws, he falls because of these flaws, and then comes to grips with them as he bleeds on the planes of Philippi.
Throughout the play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, the audience constantly sees Brutus, an honorable man, go against his own beliefs because of men filled with hatred and jealousy. Brutus
Both Caesar and Brutus have a tragic flaw. In the beginning of the play a soothsayer is telling Caesar to beware the ides of march Caesar Responds “He is a dreamer; Brutus leave him. Pass” (shakespeare page??? line????) When Caesar tells the soothsayer this it shows that he does not believe that he could be harmed. Just like caesar, Brutus suffered a tragic flaw, his being trusting everyone. After Caesar is dead Antony wants to say a speech at Caesar 's funeral, after making the crowd violent says “Now let it work. Mischief, thou art afoot, take thou the course thou wilt.”(shakespeare3.2.266-264). Brutus trusted Antony to say some nice words about Caesar, instead he turn the crowd violent. Caesar and Brutus love the roman people and would sacrifice anything for them. after Caesar dies Antony reads “ to every roman citizen he gives, to every several man, seventy-five drachmas”( page lines title). Caesar loved the romans so much he gave them all a bit of his money after he died. Even though he was prideful he loved the romans as much as Brutus. Brutus saw that under Caesar 's rule romans were suffering and says” Not that i love Caesar less, but that I loved/Rome more”(?) He Explains why he felt
Cassius needed a reason to motivate Brutus to join the conspiracy so that the plan would develop. “Brutus, I do observe you now of late: I have not from your eyes that gentleness…” (1.2.34) Cassius is saying that Brutus hasn’t been as affectionate toward him as he typically is. Maybe he suspects something is wrong with Brutus and he thinks it has something to do with Caesar. But I think he didn’t really care about how Brutus was treating him, he was just “buttering him up” so to say. Brutus thinks that Cassius is just being his friend and trying to help, when in reality Cassius is manipulating him. This manipulation of friendship is what drives the rest of the play. Brutus has a hard time seeing through this manipulation of Cassius and it ends up driving him to assassinating his friend, Caesar. Cassius fabricated letters to make them seen like they were from the people of Rome saying that they wanted Brutus as their leader. These letters were really the controlling factor of the assassination because they gave Brutus another reason to assassinate Caesar. Cassius then realized how easy it was to manipulate Brutus. “Well, Brutus, thou art noble. Yet I see thy honorable mettle may be wrought from that it is disposed. Therefore it is meet that noble minds keep ever with their likes; for who so firm that cannot be seduced?” (1.2.320-324) Cassius is saying that even
William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Julius Caesar is a tragic drama, set in Ancient Rome about the horrendous death of Julius Caesar. Brutus, leader of the conspiracy against Caesar, begins as Caesar’s friend. Cassius, instigator of the conspirator, manipulates Brutus into killing Caesar. Brutus agrees to this plan because of his plans for Rome. The bond between these two connects when Brutus agrees to Cassius about killing Caesar for the best of Rome. Cassius, very power hungry, comes up with a plan that will succeed in both of them killing Caesar. They both rely on each other because they want the power that Caesar has been requested to make the best of Rome. This dream of making Rome better was manipulated by Cassius to Brutus. However,
He has two opposing desires that he has to choose between. These are killing Caesar to preserve democracy in Rome and to save Caesar, since he is a friend of Brutus. A quote from J.L. Simmons that summarizes this well is, “Certainly the material lends itself to a conflict between private and public affections” (Simmons 64). Brutus wants to kill Caesar for Rome because the citizens of Rome want to preserve democracy and Caesar is preventing that by being dictator for life. A quote that puts this in other words is, “The ultimate factor in persuading Brutus to join the conspiracy is his belief that his countrymen wish him to act on their behalf” (Shalvi 71). Killing Caesar would be a choice made for not himself, but the citizens of Rome while saving him would be for himself and to preserve his friendship with Caesar. Saving Caesar would be a deed for himself and would strengthen his relationship with Caesar. He could have warned Caesar of the conspirators’ plans and put a stop to them. Brutus ultimately makes the choice of following through and assassinating Caesar. His plan was for this to be a honorable action, but it ended up negative on his behalf. The majority of the citizens in Rome did not take this lightly and wanted revenge for his actions. This is the main mistake made by Brutus that lead to his own
Brutus was a devious man, even though what he thought he was doing was right. Brutus told his fellow conspirators to kill Caesar “boldly, but not angerly.”(3.1.256-257) Brutus was one of Caesars right hand men, and yet Brutus kills his own friend. When Antony asks to speak at Caesars funeral, Cassius says no, but Brutus tell him that Antony will speak, but only what Brutus tells him to say. Brutus also embraces the fact that he just killed his friend, and also tells the senators who had just witnessed it to not be afraid, but to stay because ambition has paid its debt.
Throughout most of the play Brutus is constantly internally conflicted. Does he do what he believes is best for Rome or stay loyal to his friend and leader? Should he assist in the murder of one person to benefit many? Although killing Caesar was in the end a bad choice, Brutus always tries to do what is best for Rome and for the people. However even though all of Brutus’ motives are good he still has the tragic flaw of pride, which ultimately leads to his downfall. The reason that Brutus gets caught up in the conspiracy is because Cassias appeals to his pride and flatters him with forged letters from the Roman people saying he is a greater leader then Caesar.
Brutus put his trust in Antony to not turn on him at the funeral. He was lead to believe that Antony would only speak good of the conspirators and defend them for the actions they have made. He trusted Antony when he told him he would not express such hate and talk of the bad they did and then later turned against them for the vengeance of Caesar. Brutus told Antony, “You shall not in your funeral speech blame us, But speak all good you can devise of Caesar” (III.i.245-246). He told him that the only way he is going to be able to speak at Caesar’s funeral is if he speaks good of the conspirators. After Antony said his speech, the whole crowd immediately switched and sided with him against them. They wanted nothing more than for Brutus, Cassius and the other contributors to be dead. This reveals that Brutus is shameful for putting his trust in someone who was so close to Caesar. Brutus trusted that Antony wouldn't do anything and just imagined he would be to scared to step up and speak out. This leads to Brutus losing the trust he had for Antony and starting a war between the people and the conspirators. As the war was about to proceed, they all prepped for what was about to happen. Antony and his army completely dominated Brutus’ and lead to many of them fleeing for their lives. Many people died by genocide while other committed suicide. Brutus was among the ones of suicide. He no longer wanted to be alive and felt that he had lived and fulfill what he had wanted. People were dead and he knew he was going to be one of them. Brutus’ last words were, “Caesar, now be still; I killed not thee with half so good a will” (V.v.50-51). He wanted Caesar to know that he can now be at rest because the vengeance he was looking for has been given. Because of all the trust he put in the people that were taking advantage of him, he ended up finishing his life. This reveals that Brutus really did
Brutus’ ignorance creates an expectation that develops a path which leads him awry. When Brutus mentions,“ I would not Cassius; yet I love him well” (1.2.81-88 ), he portrays his internal conflict. Brutus depicts the rendering struggle between Cassius’ acquisitions and Caesar’s actions. His oblivion toward the truth and goodwill concerning the greater health of Rome prompt him astray. He acts with the innocence of a child, deceive and swindle by Cassius, Brutus is an
Brutus's fatal flaw is his trustworthy nature. He joins the conspiracy not because he "loved Caesar less but loved Rome more." ( ) Brutus joins the conspiracy under the impression that he is preventing Caesar's tyranny and saving the people of Rome. He also trusts the motives of the other conspirators. In entering the conspiracy he is also responsible for the death of Caesar and the movement of the plot. The civil war is a direct result of Caesar's assassination and eventually Brutus's own death. Brutus's fall is definitely caused by his trustworthy nature.
As a “speculative man of high motives and refined sensibility”(Catherine C. Dominic) Brutus does have his confusion of motives. Act I, scene ii, is the first we see his weakness, “his concern with reputation and appearance, his subtle vanity and pride”(Gayle Green). Yet the main bases of Brutus’s bewilderment of motives takes place in Act II, scene I, with his famous soliloquy beginning with “It must be by his death”. This speech may be the turning point in which Brutus feels better about the assassination of his once called friend.
If then that friend demands why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer: not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more." (3.2.19-24). His concentration on honor and nobility ends up being used against him by Cassius, who instigates him to kill his best friend. Cassius knows how naive and how moral Brutus is and he uses this information into making him help kill Caesar. Being naive and over trusting causes his first mistake and helps with his downfall when he refuses to listen to Cassius, who wants Antony to be also killed because he knows that he will seek revenge for Caesar. However, Brutus code of honor won 't let him approve the killing of Antony "Our plan will seem too bloody, Caius Cassius. We cut off the head and then hack the limbs, seem to kill Caesar in anger and then vent malice on his friends, for Antony is only a branch of Caesar."(2.1.169-172), he doesn 't want to be seen by the Roman people as a killer, but someone who 's doing what 's right for the people of
Brutus’ leadership and compassion for others make him a popular figure amongst the Roman people, and it is his reputation that establishes him as an influential individual. For example, despite the fact that Brutus loves Caesar like a brother, he warily joins the conspiracy to assassinate him. He does this because he believes that Caesar’s ambition would become tyranny and that Caesar’s death is a necessary evil in order to preserve the liberties of the Roman people. In his own words Brutus claims, “It must be by his death; and for my part, I know no personal cause to spurn at him, but for the general.”(Act 2, Scene 1, Page 1116). In addition, Brutus takes the reins of authority from Cassius and becomes the leader of the conspiracy. He gains this prerogative because of his convincing tongue and powerful influence. His leadership is evidenced when he begins to challenge Cassius’ ideas. When Cassius asks the conspirators to “swear our resolution”(Act 2...
Though they were close friends, their motives and descriptive character traits display a distinct contrast between them. Works Cited and Consulted. Bowden, William R. "The Mind of Brutus. " Shakespeare Quarterly. 17 (1966): 57.