As humans, none of us are entirely good or entirely evil. It is the same with the characters in the play Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare. While many are portrayed as good or evil, none really are. This can be more easily explained through the characters Brutus, Marc Antony and Julius Caesar.
Brutus, who is Julius Caesar’s friend, is one of the conspirators against Julius Caesar. Even though he knows that Julius Caesar is a good man, he believes that Julius Caesar needs to be assassinated for the good of Rome. Brutus’ downfall is his idealism and his belief in honour. He cannot see that Julius Caesar would make a good ruler because he refuses to believe that anyone could be as great as Julius Caesar. In the end, Brutus’ idealism leads to his death.
Marc Antony is Julius Caesar’s right-hand man. He is loyal to Julius Caesar and does everything he can to protect him. However, after Julius Caesar is assassinated, Marc Antony takes revenge on the conspirators. He is able to do this because he is a skilled speaker and he is able to manipulate the crowd. In the end, Marc Antony’s desire for revenge leads to his death.
Julius Caesar is a great leader but he is also flawed. He is too trusting and he does not see the danger that Brutus poses. Julius Caesar’s downfall is his hubris. He believes that he is so great that no one could ever harm him. In the end, Julius Caesar’s hubris leads to his death.
Throughout the play, Brutus is continuously praised as the most honorable man in Rome. However, after Cassius manages to convince Brutus to join his plot of killing Caesar, we begin to see a more sinister side of Brutus. In Act II scene 1 line 10 he says “It must be by his death…” which goes against everything an honorable man would do.
The Julius Caesar essay you are about to read is intended to explore the more negative aspects of Brutus’ character. His honor, while still very much in evidence, is now seen as a weakness. By the end of this essay, it should be clear that Brutus is not the hero of the play, but rather its villain.
While it is true that Brutus does have some admirable qualities, such as his loyalty to Rome and his love for his friends and family, these are outweighed by his many flaws. For example, he is easily manipulated by those around him and he is quick to anger. These personality traits lead him down the path to disaster.
It is also important to note that Brutus is a man of action, not words. He is not the type to sit around and contemplate his options. This impulsiveness leads him to make rash decisions, such as joining the conspiracy to kill Caesar. In fact, it is only after he has committed himself to the plot that he begins to have doubts.
The final straw comes when Brutus learns that Julius Caesar’s wife, Calpurnia, has had a dream in which Julius was killed. Brutus dismisses this as nonsense, even though his own wife, Portia, begs him to stay home. This shows how little Brutus values the opinions of those closest to him.
In spite of this, he attempts to make up for it by including in Act II scene 1 line 11-12 “I know no personal cause to spurn at him, but for the general.” Consequently, we are led to believe that “sacrificing” Caesar is an honorable thing done for the Roman people instead of just a well organized murder. This is one example of how nobody is entirely good.
Another example is Brutus’s wife, Portia. She is a very loving and devoted wife but she is not perfect. In Act II scene 1 line 206-207 she says to Brutus “I have none about me.” meaning that she has no weapon with her. This leaves her vulnerable if someone were to attack her and it also means that she cannot protect herself from the mental pain that knowing her husband is conspiring to kill Julius Caesar.
Brutus is one of the main characters in William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar. He is a respected Roman senator who has been friends with Julius Caesar for many years. Even though he loves and respects Julius Caesar, Brutus ultimately decides to join the conspirators in their plot to kill Julius Caesar. Brutus is a complex character who is torn between his loyalty to Julius Caesar and his sense of duty to the Roman people. Shakespeare uses Brutus to explore the theme of betrayal in Julius Caesar.
When Brutus first appears in Julius Caesar, he is portrayed as a noble and honorable man. In Act I scene 2, Brutus refuses to join Cassius in his plot against Julius Caesar. Brutus says that he loves Julius Caesar and does not want to see him harmed. However, Brutus eventually decides to join the conspirators because he believes that Julius Caesar is becoming too powerful and might become a tyrant.
Throughout the play, Brutus makes several speeches to try to justify his actions to the Roman people. In Act III scene 2, Brutus makes a speech to the citizens of Rome in which he tries to explain why Julius Caesar must be killed. Brutus says that Julius Caesar was a good man, but he was too ambitious and his power was starting to corrupt him. Brutus argues that Julius Caesar’s death is necessary for the good of the Roman people.
However, many people do not believe Brutus’s justification for killing Julius Caesar. In Act III scene 1, Julius Caesar’s wife Calpurnia pleads with Brutus not to go to the Senate House because she has had a bad dream about Julius Caesar being assassinated. Calpurnia says that Julius Caesar’s death will bring grief and pain to the Roman people. However, Brutus does not listen to Calpurnia and he goes to the Senate House anyway.
Julius Caesar is assassinated in Act III scene 1. After Julius Caesar’s death, Brutus makes another speech to the citizens of Rome in which he tries to justify his actions once again. However, this time the people do not believe Brutus and they start to turn against him.
In conclusion, it is clear that Brutus is not the honorable man he appears to be at the beginning of Julius Caesar. He is impulsive, easily manipulated, and quick to anger. These flaws lead him down a path of destruction from which there is no return.