Dishonorable Heroes in Classical Literature

Many people who are honored aren’t honorable. In Shakespeare’s Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, a very proud and dishonorable character, trumps Brutus’ speech to the public regarding the assassination of Caesar. After Brutus convinces the public that the assassination was necessary Antony steps up and turns them from loyal to Brutus to wanting to kill him. This is because the public honors Antony more than Brutus even though his speech was more honorable. The crowd couldn’t see though Antony’s manipulating speech which didn’t technically break his agreement with Brutus but had more of an effect than if he did. In Animal Farm by George Orwell, one of the least honorable characters, Napoleon, gradually himself into a human. He takes over

the farmhouse and even changes the sheep’s chant from “Four legs good two legs bad” (29) to “Four legs good two legs better”(134). Napoleon uses the sheep to help motivate the farm to get rid of their human ruler and make humans enemies at the start but at the end promotes human qualities and turns into one himself. His switching of sides is not something that should be respected and is therefore dishonorable yet the farm respects him so much. Octavius and Napoleon are very similar characters sharing many qualities such as being honored but dishonorable. They where both parts of power which had three parts, Octavius in the 2nd triumvirate and Napoleon in the set of 3 pigs who ruled the farm. They both betrayed their allies, which they only used to obtain power; Octavius killed Lepidus and Napoleon got rid of Snowball. These almost exact parallels shows how characters that are dishonorable do things, which lack respect and are only possible because they are respected.