In the tragedy of Caesar, William Shakespeare shows us how positive traits aren't always good. In the play, two people named Cassius and Brutus tries to save Rome from the tyrant leader Caesar. They successfully gets rid of him but by being a bit nonchalant and too trusting in people who aren't really their friends it backfires and suddenly the people of Rome are after them instead. Now, was Caesar really the tragic character in the tragedy of Caesar by William Shakespeare? In my opinion Brutus was the tragic character with his trust to everyone when he tried to save the people of Rome from Caesar.
Brutus is very trusting and believes in everything everybody says, he doesn't question anything. He thinks that everyone is honest to him, even his enemies like Antony.
“Mark Antony, here, take you Caesar’s body./ You shall not in your funeral speech blame us, But speak all good you can devise of Caesar,/ And say you do’t by our permission/ Else shall you not have any hand at all/ About his funeral. And you shall speak/ In the same pulpit whereto I am going,/ After my speech is ended./ I do desire no more./ Prepare the body then, and follow us;” (III. I. 244-253).
Brutus tells Antony that he shall not blame the conspirators in his speech on Caesar’s funeral. Antony says that he won’t and Brutus believes in Antony’s words.
This reveals that Brutus is too trusting and a bit stupid, because he trusts Antony right after he killed Caesar. He doesn't understand that Antony wants revenge and is only faking his emotions. This leads to Antony being able encourage the people of Rome to go against the conspirators in his speech which later leads to his downfall, but even then he thinks that Antony was honest to him.
“My heart doth joy that yet all in my life/ I found no man but he was true to me./ I shall have glory by this losing day;” (IV.V.34-36).
Brutus is saying that everyone he has met in his life were honest to him and he was honest to them. He trusted everyone he met no matter what. He trusted his enemies and people he didn't even know. Brutus said that all the people he met were nice and honest to him so he felt like he should have glory by losing and dying.
His downfall wasn't only caused by his trust to his
He tells them that he did it because Caesar was ambitious and for the good of Rome. The crowd is into what he says. They call him “noble Brutus” (III, ii, 11) and even say on the next page “let Brutus be Caesar” (III, ii, 47) just like they had said about Marc Antony. In the end there was something different with Marc Antony's speech that put him over the top, and it was that he lead the crowd towards rioting. As stated earlier in the paper the crowd wanted to kill Brutus and burn his house and all this bad stuff to do to him and the conspirators but, none of that was said about Marc Antony during Brutus’s
Once Cassius gets what he wants, Brutus to be on his side, they and some others begin to plan how they will get to Caesar and kill him. Then when Brutus agrees to join the conspiracy to annihilate Caesar, it is the beginning of him becoming the villain. He is still the hero though; he only joined the conspiracy for the good of Rome. "This was the noblest Roman of them all. All the conspirators save only he / Did that they did in envy of great Caesar. He only in a general honest thought / And common good to all, made one of them".. This quote is said by Antony at the end of the play. In that scene, he and Caesar's adopted son, Octavius have seen Brutus's dead body. They have seen the good in Brutus and have noticed that he has acted out of his love for Rome." ...not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more" . That was part of the speech Brutus gave to the citizens after he and the other conspirators killed Caesar. This was the last act Brutus did before he started becoming more of a villain. This quote and the quote Antony says at the end of the play are the same. They both are saying how Brutus didn't really want to kill Caesar. He just felt like he had no choice, he saw that what Caesar was doing was changing Rome.
Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar is a tragic play, where the renowned Julius Caesar is on the brink of achieving total control and power by becoming emperor of the Roman Empire. Ironically enough, when he thinks he is one step away from pulling it off, his "friends" (most from the senate) decide to overthrow him, with Caesar's most trusted friend, Marcus Brutus, acting as leader of the conspirators. Though the fall of Caesar from the most powerful man in the world to a man who's been betrayed and stabbed 30 times is a great downfall, he is not the tragic hero. Shakespeare's main focus is Marcus Brutus, a noble man who brings upon himself a great misfortune by his own actions,
Once Cassius gets what he wants, Brutus to be on his side, they and some others begin to plan how they will get to Caesar and kill him. Then when Brutus agrees to join the conspiracy to annihilate Caesar, it is the beginning of him becoming the villain. He is still the hero though; he only joined the conspiracy for the good of Rome. "This was the noblest Roman of them all. / All the conspirators save only he / Did that they did in envy of great Caesar. / He only in a general honest thought / And common good to all, made one of them" (V.v.68-72). This quote is said by Antony at the end of the play. In that scene, he and Caesar's adopted son, Octavius have seen Brutus's dead body. They have seen the good in Brutus and have noticed that he has acted out of his love for Rome." ...not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more" (III.ii.21). That was part of the speech Brutus gave to the citizens after he and the other conspirators killed Caesar. This was the last act Brutus did before he started becoming more of a villain. This quote and the quote Antony says at the end of the play are the same. They both are saying how Brutus didn't really want to kill Caesar. He just felt like he had no choice, he saw that what Caesar was doing was changing Rome.
Similarly, by not destroying Mark Antony along with Caesar, let alone allowing him to speak in Caesar’s funeral, Brutus engineers his future’s demise. “‘. . . Antony is but a limb of Caesar. Let’s be sacrificers, but not butchers . . . let’s kill him boldly, but not wrathfully . . . and for Mark Antony, think not of him; for he can do no more than Caesar’s arm when Caesar’s head is off’”(916). This is an even greater fallacy than the first. Antony’s rage and passion is enough force alone to drive him and the Roman army to kill every last conspirator, gossiper, and senator who was set against his great Caesar. The fiery drive behind Antony was an imminent threat to Brutus and the conspirators, yet because of Brutus’s flawed logic, Antony lived and they died. Another illustration of this is when Brutus makes the decision to allow the silver tongued Antony to speak in Caesar’s funeral. After a weak, unconvincing speech given by Brutus to the public, Antony takes center stage, capturing the hearts, minds, and attention of the people, essentially turning them on their former leader. “‘Oh most bloody sight!’ ‘We will be revenged.’ ‘Revenge! About! Seek! Burn! Fire! Kill! Slay! Let not a traitor live!’”(954). Brutus’s most prominent, fatal flaw is his lack of sound judgment.
Brutus believes he must put his own personal self and relationships behind for the betterment of Rome, leading to the people turning against him. One of the first examples is when he was brought the concept of killing Caesar, after much thought and deliberation he decides he must put away his own relationships for the betterment of his country. “O conspiracy, Sham'st thou to show thy dangerous brow by night, When evils are most free? O, then, by day Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough To mask thy monstrous visage? Seek none, conspiracy. Hide it in smiles and affability; For if thou path, thy native semblance on, Not Erebus itself were dim enough To hide thee from prevention.” (2.1.84-93) He knows that by doing this act he will inflict consequences of a great degree upon himself, but he knows he must do it for the betterment of Rome. He then
Brutus's speech was ineffective in giving them reasons for Caesar's ambition. This gave Antony a large gap to turn the people against Brutus. Brutus told the people to believe him for his honor , and to respect him for his honor, so that they may believe. He is telling them to believe him for his honor and not for the reasons he gives. Brutus repeated many times that Caesar was ambitious but never once said how or why. This left the people with a question in their mind.
Brutus was a wise and intelligent Roman citizen, who claimed that he was Caesar’s friend. Yet, he was quickly swayed to the conspirators side by some anonymous letters and a bit of flattering.
This displays that Brutus has no personal resentment towards Caesar, but is doing what is best for the Roman people. Therefore, Marcus Brutus’s moral integrity shows in his decisions, which makes him a tragic hero.
In truth, Antony only wants to gain the conspirator’s trust to be able to defeat them through the citizens of Rome. We can easily see how Brutus was manipulated in this part of the story by the conspirators and Mark Antony. Brutus has great sense of honour and he thinks that others think the same way. It is this weakness in Brutus that makes him so easy to be manipulated.
Marc Antony is highlighting themes of revenge as justice when he vows to murder all the conspirators. After the murder of Julius Caesar, mark antony talks to Caesar’s dead body and tells him that the conspirators will pay for what they had done: “Cry ‘Havoc!’ and let slip the dogs of war, That this foul deed shall smell above the
Antony's small speech depicts Brutus as a noble being and the ideal image of a man. Stating that nature would `stand and say to all the world', that Brutus was a man illustrates Brutus as being the idyllic man to become. Brutus is the only conspirator to maintain an honorable reason to assassinate Julius Caesar. Antony believes this, and states how only Brutus `in general honest thought and common good to all made one of them', implying that Brutus is the only one who possessed moral reasons for assassinating Caesar. Both Antony and Octavius, who were two of Brutus' most critical adversaries, state how Brutus is a dignified Roman.
In the play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, an honorable man, Brutus, is planning to overthrow the soon to be king, Julius Caesar. Brutus is persuaded by Cassius that Caesar is a liar, too ambitious, weak, and not fit to be Rome’s king. Brutus soon believed Cassius, and they and the conspirators made a plan to kill Caesar. After Caesar’s death, Brutus planned to justify his actions of killing Caesar at his funeral in his speech to the people. After Brutus’s speech, the citizens of Rome were all in agreement that Brutus did the right thing for Rome. Brutus then decides to allow Caesar’s best friend, Antony, to speak in honor of Caesar. Antony speaks, and he convinces the citizens that Brutus’s actions were unjust and turned the people against Brutus.
Brutus was unloyal, gullible, and dishonorable. In the beginning of the play, Brutus was one of Caesar’s closest friends. Caesar trusted Brutus for most of his life until
Brutus is an important character in the play ‘Julius Caesar’ as he is portrayed as a tragic hero where he possessed heroic traits such as being noble and honourable that earn the sympathy of the audience. However, he also has flaws and made many mistakes and hamartias that ultimately lead to his downfall.