Marcus Brutus Tragic Hero

Throughout history, people have loved heroes. From the earliest Greek heroes to modern superhero movies, people have always shown interest in these stories. However, there exists a different type of hero, the tragic one. In William Shakespeare’s play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Marcus Brutus is the true tragic hero. Brutus’ tragic flaw is his idealism. This trait causes him to be convinced by the conspirators. It also plays a major role in his eventual downfall. His misreadings about the situation and rationalizations about Caesar’s death match the pattern of a tragic hero. Brutus’s tragic flaw is his idealism. He kills Caesar because he really believes that he is improving Rome. His idealism causes him to make this poor decision. In this case, his idealism has done him harm rather than good. When he is justifying

He believes that after killing Caesar the people will see that he was right. When told by Cassius that Antony may be able to sway the crowd, Brutus responds by saying that he will “show the reason of our Caesar’s death” (III.i. 244). He thinks he will be able to sway the people to his side because he is doing it for the betterment of Rome. He thinks that he will not be punished because he is doing it for the right reasons. He puts his ideals above everything else, even his logic. His idealism also makes it easy for Cassius to persuade Brutus. This is shown when Brutus says that “since Cassius first did whet [him] against Caesar, [he] has not slept” (II.i.61-62). Here, Brutus says that he has been swayed by Cassius. By hinting to Brutus that killing Caesar would greatly benefit Rome, Cassius is able to sway him. Because he is guided by his ideals, Brutus is easily persuaded when Cassius aligns his goals with Brutus’s ideals. In this way, Brutus’s idealism nearly guarantees Cassius’s success at convincing him. Brutus’s flaw causes his downfall, which is also a part of the pattern of a Shakespearean