In the tragedy of Shakespeare, there are a number of different virtues or traits depicted by various characters in the story. Some of these virtues include honor, courage, betrayal integrity, honesty intelligence, stoicism, manipulation among others. However, honesty is the most important used and reoccurring virtue throughout the play as shown by a number of characters. In the play, betrayal is highly evident as most of the characters betray one another. Therefore, this essay will mainly focus on discussing the issues of betrayal as shown by a major character by the name Julius Caesar. In the play, betrayal is considered as the act of breaking trust among the people in a relationship and hence deceiving the other person. In the Shakespeare play, Julius Caesar is mainly seen to have passed through a series of various betrayals throughout the entire story as compared to the other characters. Caesar says, “ Well, Brutus, thou art noble. Yet I see / Thy honorable mettle may be wrought / From that it is disposed. Therefore it is meet / That noble minds keep ever with their likes, / For who is firm that cannot …show more content…
Meaning “even you, Brutus”. His best friend by the name Mark Anthony pretends by acting as if he is betraying Julius Caesar in order to take revenge later on. On arriving at the scene where Caesar was murdered, he shakes hands with the killers without caring whether their hand fully covered fully with blood. “Shall it not grieve thee dearer than thy death / to see thy Anthony making his piece, / shaking the bloody fingers of thy foes, /most noble! In the presence of thy corse?” (III.I.207-210). Here Anthony was speaking Caesar’s spirit. By doing this, Anthony fakes betrayal to Julius Caesar and even goes ahead telling Brutus that he won’t talk bad of him for engaging in the killing of
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.
The play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare showcases many characters and events that go through many significant changes. One particular character that went through unique changes was Julius Caesar. The 16th century work is a lengthy tragedy about the antagonists Brutus and Cassius fighting with the protagonists Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus over the murder of Julius Caesar. Although the play’s main pushing conflict was the murder of Julius Caesar, he is considered a secondary character, but a protagonist. Throughout the theatrical work Julius Caesar’s actions, alliances, character developments, and internal and external conflicts display his diverse changes.
Caesar’s friendship shall soon be lost to dishonesty and decisiveness. Brutus, Cassius, and the conspirators develop a fake friendship with Caesar that eventu...
Honor: “Honesty fairness, or integrity in one 's beliefs and actions.” Honesty can be a good and bad trait to have, being too honest can affect a person greatly. In William shakespeare 's play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Caesar returns to Rome having defeated Pompey. The Romans wanted to crown him king. later caesar is killed by conspirators due to his ambition. After his murder common people are enraged and a civil war breaks out across Rome. Many characters die along the way. Throughout the historical play Shakespeare points out many personality traits as characters struggle to gain or remain in power. A closer examination of two main characters reveals the results of human nature. Two main leaders, Caesar and Brutus share similar and
Brutus turned on his best friend and stabbed him in the back. In Julius Caesar’s final moments he noticed his best friend as a traitor. “Et tu, Brute! Then fall, Caesar”, these are Caesars last words as he is stabbed in the back by his friend. Since Brutus thought what he did was for Rome, he did not kill his best friend out of spite or hate he killed his best friend Julius Caesar so that Rome could live. Brutus was tricked into believing that Caesar would not be fit to be king, and would destroy the place Brutus loves, Brutus killed Caesar to protect Rome. Despite what Brutus did, he did only what he thought was the only thing he could do to save Rome. He thought not about his position he thought about the people. Yet he killed Caesar off
The Senate of the Roman Republic are the ruling power over most of the known world. Yet this powerful and influential senate is easily threatened by one man; Julius Caesar. To the senators Caesar is the catalyst for the downfall of a Republic they had worked so hard to create and protect. The playwright William Shakespeare dives into this world of betrayal and ambition with his play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. Using his voice as a writer he takes the audience into Rome and lets them experience each riveting moment of Caesar’s fall. The play shows that Caesar is not the cause of Rome’s eventual downfall, but the senators who conspire against him and ultimately kill him are the ones reprehensible. Shakespeare introduces the characters of Brutus and Cassius: two men, both of high standing, that spearhead the conspiracy against Caesar’s life. The actions of their scheme are met with chaotic consequences, consequences so dangerous that both Brutus and Cassius flee to Asia Minor. After the Battle of Phillippi, once Octavius and Marc Antony seem to have one, the two men take their lives. This final action sends them back to a world with Caesar, a world they tried so hard to escape. At the end of both Caesar and Brutus’ lives become enlightened to a truth they had so eagerly avoided. For Caesar that truth is his over confidence in his ideals and his ignorance to the warning signs so often shown to him. Caesar’s downfall and untimely understanding makes him a tragic hero.
The infamous line from William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, ”Et tu, Brute?” is seen to be the anthem of betrayal since it’s first appearance in 1599. Every way you look at it, Brutus killed Caesar, period. From an outsider’s perspective, this is seen as betrayal. But this quote from the play proves more so that Brutus wasn’t a traitor. Although the line is said with the sorrow of one being betrayer, it proves as well the love Brutus and Caesar shared. As he died, Caesar didn’t sa...
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 was a devious man, even though what he thought he was doing was right. Brutus told his fellow conspirators to kill Caesar “boldly, but not angerly.”(3.1.256-257) Brutus was one of Caesars right hand men, and yet Brutus kills his own friend. When Antony asks to speak at Caesars funeral, Cassius says no, but Brutus tell him that Antony will speak, but only what Brutus tells him to say. Brutus also embraces the fact that he just killed his friend, and also tells the senators who had just witnessed it to not be afraid, but to stay because ambition has paid its debt.
In plays, every hero has a tragic flaw which eventually leads to their demise. The tragic flaw Caesar possesses is the quality of arrogance. For example, “I shall remember. /When Caesar says ‘Do this,’ it is performed” (I.ii.12-13). This quote demonstrates Caesar’s arrogance because he expects his “friends” to put his priorities before any else’s
William Shakespeare’s play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar is a story full of manipulation and jealousy that changes the way people think. Ancient Rome had umpteen different ways of handling situations that, in today’s world, would be considered unethical; such as battles that were very much horrifying and vivid. However, these battles were not important with the development of the plot. Shakespeare uses various ways of the idea of manipulation and betrayal to lead readers into the rest of the narrative.
William Shakespeare’s tragic drama Othello presents to the audience a picture of many different shades of morality and immorality. It is the purpose of this essay to elaborate in detail on this thesis.
Greed, ambition, and the possibility of self-gain are always constant in their efforts to influence people’s actions. In Julius Caesar, Marcus Brutus, a venerable politician, becomes a victim of the perpetual conflict between power-hungry politicians and ignorant commoners. He is a man of honor and good intentions who sacrifices his own happiness for the benefit of others. Unfortunately, his honor is strung into a fine balance between oblivion and belief and it is ultimately the cause of his downfall. His apparent obliviousness leads him to his grave as his merciful sparing of Mark Antony’s life, much like Julius Caesar’s ghost, comes back to haunt him. Overall, Brutus is an honest, sincere man who holds the lives of others in high regard while he himself acts as a servant to Rome.
Two powerful leaders, one power hungry whose ambitious ideas lead to his downfall, the other mindful of people who deserve their higher positions. A true leader is someone who has a vision, a drive and commitment to achieve what's best. In the play written by William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Brutus and Caesar are one of the main characters. They demonstrate leadership qualities that are still relevant to today. They are both very ambitious characters; however, they do so for different reasons and differ in their openness to others. There are many similarities and differences that lie between them. Both are noble and great men with loyal followers and neither man questions the rightness of his own path. Both made crucial mistakes that resulted in their death. However, Caesar acts out of love for for himself, his country, and to retain his power as ruler of Rome. Brutus on the other hand acts out of love for freedom of Rome. This essay will discuss and compare their qualities as leaders as well as their styles and how they are effective/ineffective in the play.
According to Niccolo Machiavelli’s, The Prince, there are five traits that make up a successful leader. The five traits that are necessary in determining a leader’s success involve being feared, being virtuous, having the support of the people, having intelligence and the use of arms. In this paper, I will argue that the Duke Vincentio of William Shakespeare’s, Measure for Measure, is an ineffective leader because he loses virtue acting deceitful and spying on his subjects as a friar. Also, when he realizes that his people do not fear him, he allows for Angelo to come so that he can win their respect by becoming the better option of the two. It is portrayed by his constant presence in the play as the friar, that instead of earning the support of his people, he treats them as puppets and himself as the master puppeteer.