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The them of friendship in julius caesar
The them of friendship in julius caesar
Brutus's bad decisions
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The play Julius Caesar that is written by William Shakespeare, friendship is not always what it appears to be. There is a contrast throughout the play among real and fake friendship. Brutus, Cassius, and other conspirators want to kill Caesar before he may become king and corrupt the republic. To achieve their goal, the conspirators pose as friends and flatter him, make him belief them, and then give him bad advice that leads him into danger. Antony, in contrast, is a true friend who stays loyal to Caesar and serves justice to conspirators. Friendship can be good among friends, but if it is not true friendship in which friends are loyal to each other, then it will turn into a very bad situation. Whereas the conspirators dishonestly use a pretense of friendship to hide the reality from Caesar and use flattery to make that Caesar do what they wanted him to do, Caesar’s true friend, Antony, remains loyal to Caesar to the end.
Caesar’s friendship shall soon be lost to dishonesty and decisiveness. Brutus, Cassius, and the conspirators develop a fake friendship with Caesar that eventu...
Cicero believed friends were people you could use as leverage by building loyalty and connections to build one’s social structure to achieve the highest prize of them all: consulship. According to Cicero, friendship creates problems, stating, “Your exalted character has compelled many to pretend to be your friends while really jealous of you” (Cicero 42). What Cicero is implying is that everyone is jealous of everyone else, and by making friends to become consul you also attract enemies who also desire power. Cicero describes three of these opponents as “First, those whom you have attacked; second, those who dislike you without definite reason; third, those who are warm friends of your competitors” (Cicero 42). One cannot please all in Rome, Cicero recounts, and because of this bitter struggle over power and private ambition friendship breeds enemies..
One of life’s most basic lessons is to be truthful. Parents pound into their kids heads that lying is wrong. As you grow up you learn liars are looked down upon, and the deed of lying itself proves to be a trait of bad character. Liars are manipulative and deceptive. However, telling a lie is not the only way to deceive others. Some twist situations and have a way with words that are as manipulative as lies. For instance, one can be deceptive without lying at all. The character Cassius in The Tragedy of Julius Caesar possesses the ability to exploit others and stirs the pot throughout the entire play. He is the most influential character in Julius Caesar because without his manipulation, the plot of Shakespeare's play would not exist.
The idea of ignorance, and the belief of a false faith, turns this noble man into a vulgar grave, with virtuous notions. Brutus’ ignorance creates an expectation that develops a path that leads him awry. When Brutus mentions, “I would not love Cassius; yet I love him well” (1.2.81-88 ), he portrays his internal conflict. Brutus depicts the struggle between Cassius’ acquisitions and Caesar’s actions.
One friend kills another. Speeches are presented. A war breaks out. This is the story of Julius Caesar, the emperor of Rome who was killed by Brutus and a group of conspirators. Many argue that Brutus was a patriot, and many argue that he was a betrayer. People argue that he was a betrayer because he betrayed Caesar’s trust and gave a speech against him. However, when you think of Caesar’s personality, arrogant and slightly reckless, he could’ve made bad decisions and caused Rome a great deal of trouble. Brutus was a patriot to Rome since he did what was best for the country and even took his own life instead of running away. He put his own feelings aside to do what was right.
“Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.” (3.2.24) This quote reflects the motive of Brutus for the assassination of his friend, Caesar. I believe Brutus killed him not out of disrespect, but in a selfless act to protect Rome from the decree of Caesar yet to come. I also believe that he did this out of force from the manipulation from his “friend” Cassius. In Shakespeare's “Julius Caesar”, Brutus’ two most significant characteristics are virtue and unconscious hypocrisy. In order to fully understand these characteristics, it is necessary to analyze all other contributing characteristics, the manipulation of friendship that Cassius uses against him, and the motivations for
In Cicero 's argument, he believes that because your friend had the audacity to ask a good friend a favor that is wicked, makes the person who asked an unvirtuous man. If a friend were to accept the favor, the whole virtue of the friendship would be questions, but if a friend denies another friend a favor he would be breaking the laws of friendship, “we must not ask wrongful things, nor do them, if we are asked to. For if a man should declare that he has done a thing of this kind for a friend’s sake, the excuse in ordinary affairs, and especially so if the act was treasonable” (Cicero, 95). Besides virtue, which plays a large role in his argument, a minor quality is the trust within the relationship. I discovered that it is not only about asking the proper questions and favors, but always have faith in your friend that they will see the good in your acts.
Cassius and one of the other conspirators discuss the plan on getting people to turn against Caesar. As Cassius is talking to Cinna he says, “Three parts of him is ours already, and the man entire upon the next encounter yields him ours” (I.iii). Cassius is trying to write fake letters to people turning against Caesar that Brutus will believe. Brutus decides the best thing to do is kill Caesar because of the letters and the convincing of Cassius. When Brutus and Cassius first meet, Cassius is already acting as a mirror for Brutus. When Brutus thinks Cassius is leading him to danger Cassius says, “So well as by reflection, I your glass will modestly discover to yourself that of yourself which you yet know not of” (I.ii). Cassius believes he could be the conscious of Brutus and lead him in the path of killing Caesar. Brutus and a conspirator finally get ready for the death of Caesar. As Brutus draws near the final moment of Caesar’s death he says, “Since Cassius first did whet me against Caesar I have not slept” (II.i). In the beginning of the story Brutus was said to be one of Caesar’s closest friends. Cassius turned it all around and then made Brutus suspicious of Caesar. Brutus admits that the planning of Caesar’s death has brought a nightmare upon him. Cassius was a shadow that Brutus followed which resulted in the death of
In the play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare shows how friends often betray each other. Julius Caesar is about to be crowned king of Rome, when some well-known Romans decide that it is not a good idea for this to happen. They form a conspiracy and kill Caesar. Brutus, an honorable Roman and a very good friend of Caesar’s, betrays Caesar by killing him for the good of Rome. Antony, Caesar’s best friend and another honorable Roman, betrays Brutus by turning against the conspirators. Cassius, a respected Roman, and Brutus betray each other by arguing and destroying their friendship. All this betraying lead to many deaths in the play.
Brutus has several tragic flaws. One of these tragic flaws is how he trusts people a lot. Brutus says that he “know[s] that we shall have [Antony] well to a friend” (1140). He trusts Antony will be a friend of the conspirators, yet he seems to not realize that Antony is obliviously against them, because they killed his friend. Brutus trusts Antony so much, that he lets Antony speak to the public alone. Antony turns the people against Brutus and the conspirators, leading to the wars where Brutus takes his own life. Brutus also receives letters, supposedly from the people of Rome. As he reads the letter out loud, Brutus remarks “‘Speak, strike, redress!’ Am I entreated to speak and strike? O Rome, I make thee promise, if thy redress will follow, thy receivest thy full petition at the hand of Brutus” (1118).
In addition to this characteristic of Cassius, he also has a devious nature. This attribute allows him to invent informed manipulative plans to eliminate his opponents. For instance, after saying his farewells to Brutus, he gives a soliloquy that reveals his idea of throwing writings of different handwritings in Brutus’ windows “as if they came from several citizens” all of which “tending to the great opinion that Rome holds of his name, wherein obscurely Caesar’s ambition shall be glancéd at” (Shakespeare I. ii. 306-309). Since Brutus and Cassius have been friends for a long period of time, Cassius holds an abundance of knowledge pertaining to his values--in this case being his honor and desire to please Rome’s citizens. This undermining plot Cassius has devised is based on an informed opinion of the most effective way to subvert Caesar’s authority, and because of the valid observations made of Brutus by Cassius, the likelihood that this clever scheme will be carried out successfully should make Caesar concerned about the intentions of his judicial
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.
Friendship is a wonderful part of life, but it can unfortunately be used to deceive, for it is easy to manipulate with it, but only true friendship cannot be defeated, even after death. This element could well likely be the very thing that had sealed the fate of Julius Caesar, and Brutus, Cassius, and all the other conspirators knew that they could use this to their advantage, and to Caesar’s disadvantage. Friendship, was what the conspirators used as a cover to blind Caesar from the truth, just as a hunter uses camouflage to keep the animals from seeing what he is up to. The conspirators also used camouflage, but they used flattery along with manipulation as a way to soothe any feelings of doubt that Caesar may have had about their sincerity. These essentials would gain trust, which is the key to all friendships.
The ambition possessed by each character, leads Caesar, Brutus, and Cassius to power. It will be the same ambition, that quest for power, that makes each one susceptible to their own weakness. For Caesar, it will be his ego and inability to heed warnings, Brutus his love of Rome, and Cassius his dedication to power. These qualities prove that although intentions may be noble, ambition can make a person ruthless and blind them to their original goals. Ambition kills those who lose sight of their conscience and although it may prove beneficial in many instances, in this case, it leads the characters to lose all that they
Friends are important people to have in your life because without them life would get boring. This play is a good example of the quote “Keep your friends close but your enemy’s closer.” The reason behind that is that you never know whom you can really trust. Caesar trusted Brutus and thought they were friends and look how Brutus thought of their friendship. Trust is one of the main factors you need to have a true friendship and obviously, they did not have any real trust. Caesar and Brutus had a fake friendship. Brutus used the excuse that he did it for the roman republic but Caesar was a good leader and most of the roman people loved him. Because of Brutus people turned on Caesar after his death. Brutus was a loyal friend until he was
Throughout, William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, the theme of friendship would prove to be a very delicate and manipulative element. This element would be the very entity that would seal Julius Caesar's fate. Brutus, Decius, and all the other conspirators would use this to their power, and to Julius's weakness. Friendship was used as a cover to blind Julius from the truth, from the plots against him. Flattery along with manipulation was used as a way of persuasion to soothe any feelings of doubt or weariness. These essentials would gain trust, the key to all friendships. This trust would be lost and transform into betrayal. Even though Caesar was plotted against and murdered by the likes of Brutus and Cassius, friendship still proved a strong theme because it would cloke the conspirators intentions. Julius was vulnerable to the power of friendship and was blinded by the shrewd ways of Decius, Brutus, and all the other conspirators.