In William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Julius Caesar there are many characters, but few of them can be considered as tragic heroes. What makes a tragic hero? For a tragic character to be a tragic hero, they must have fallen from a high standing in society by their own hands. In other words, they must be self-destructive. This is not the sole requirement though. They must also at the end, when they can’t fall anymore, have a moment of enlightenment in which they have clarity or they realize that their fall is their own fault. They should also get a sympathetic or regretful response from the audience. The character that most would think of as a tragic hero in this play is Brutus, the backstabbing friend of Caesar, but what of Caesar himself? He, too, falls from high-standing. He, too, has himself to blame.
Caesar starts out in high-standing and high-esteem with society. “Here was a Caesar! when comes such another?” (600) He is loved by everyone except certain senators. Select people who knew of the plans against their beloved Caesar tried, in vain, to warn him. “Beware the Ides of March!” (583) cries the Soothsayer. His wife also tries to persuade him to stay home as she fears for him as well. “What mean you, Caesar? think you to walk forth?/ You shall not stir out of your house to-day” (591). So many warning, yet he turns his deaf ear to them, blatantly ignoring them, scorning them. “How foolish do your fears seem now, Calphurnia!/ I am ashamed I did yield to them.—/ Give me my robe, for I will go:— (593)” He does not accede that good counsel is the best preventative. He simply disregards his loved ones’ cares.
Yet another of Caesar’s fatal flaws is his arrogance. This one is the one which brings about his ult...
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...th cried, Caesar hath wept:” (598) In return he is worthy of being loved by his people, “You all did love him once,— not without cause:”(598) Antony describes Caesar in the round, rather than the previous concept of who Caesar was. Caesar is both effective and meaningful. He brings about a certain tone and forces the audience or reader to think about their own faults. He evokes a certain reaction due to Brutus’ cowardly betrayal, and the audience will always react to this subject.
Caesar is both a tragic hero and a lamb lead to slaughter. He is the quintessence of a leader and, yet, equally ignorant of his subjects. His fatal flaw puts an end to both himself and his Rome, a free Rome, a just Rome. His death marks the end of an era.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. (1994). The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: Julius Caesar . China: Barnes and Noble.
A tragic hero must be a person of importance at the opening of any story. The story must then ultimately end in their demise. Brutus is a mighty man of Rome who is used to living in opulence at the opening of the play. He is not only well beloved by the Roman people, but he is also well loved by Julius Caesar himself. The Brutus is portrayed as an honorable man who is held in highly extolled among the people of Rome. He is even compared to the greatness of Caesar. “Brutus and Caesar—what should be in that “Caesar”? Why should that name be sounded more than yours? Write them together, yo...
In this scene, Caesar shows no eagerness to gain power or fame as the citizens have assumed therefore showing no ambition whatsoever. The imagery and logical reasoning persuade the audience into rethinking if Caesar was ambitious and believe that Caesar was
First of all, Caesar always felt entitled to himself and always had the audacity to see everyone as beneath him. A great example of Caesar’s bravery and fearlessness is when he was eighteen and was escape the punishment from the dictator Sulla, so in the process he was captured by pirates, who decided to be help for ransom. “When they demanded twenty talents for his ransom, he laughed at them for not knowing who he was, and spontaneously promised to give them fifty talents instead, Next after he had dispatched friends to various cites to gather the money…he felt so superior to them that whenever he wanted to sleep, he would order them to be quiet” . Even being surrounded by murderous pirates clearly out numbered, he refused to let them think that they were in charge while he was in their captivity for thirty-eight days.
More powerful than Brutus, Caesar is a tyrant that talks in third person, which shows his arrogant and egocentric personality. To be a tragic hero, a character must show traits of being...
Julius Caesar, even though he is considered great, turns out to contain many flaws. He believes himself to be untouchable, and has a confidence that he cannot be harmed, even though that is not the case. He says so when he says, “Caesar shall forth. The things that threatened me ne’er looked but on ...
The tragic hero is one of literatures most used (and sometimes abused) characters. The classical definition of a tragic hero is, “a person with heroic or potentially heroic qualities”. The person is doomed by the Gods or some other supernatural force to destruction or suffering. The hero struggles against the fate, but due to a personal flaw, ultimately fails in the battle against fate. It is my personal opinion that Brutus, as he is portrayed in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, is a tragic hero by this definition.
Julius Caesar is a moral, ethical man. He is a selfless man who puts others before himself. When Artemidorus gets word of the conspirator’s plans, he writes a letter to Caesar to warn him of his impending fate and rushes to the Capitol to give him word. Upon telling Caesar the letter is concerning him, Caesar simply brushes it off and responds, “What touches oneself shall be served last”(III,I, 8). Caesar altruistically puts aside an urgent manner concerning him to accept the offer of becoming King of Rome, which is the reason he went to the Capitol in the first place, which shows he is a benevolent, thoughtful person. In
Caesar is all about conquering power and he is afraid of nothing. Before he is murdered, he says “The things that threatened me ne’er looked but on my back. When they shall see the face of Caesar, they shall vanish” (II, ii, 575). This shows how his mind is only set on killing others to get rid of a problem.
In the play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, I saw two main characters as tragic heroes. First, I saw Julius Caesar as a tragic hero because his will to gain power was so strong that he ended up losing his life for it. The fact that he could have been such a strong leader was destroyed when he was killed by conspirators. I saw Marcus Brutus as a second tragic hero in this play. Brutus was such a noble character that did not deserve to die. The main reason why he did die, however, was because he had led a conspiracy against Caesar and eventually killed him. These two characters were the tragic heroes of the play in my opinion.
In the play the Life and Death of Julius Caesar (just as in all of Shakespeare’s tragedies) there is much death, much tragedy, and of course, a tragic hero. However unlike most of Shakespeare’s plays this time the tragic hero is not particularly obvious. Throughout the play a few main characters present themselves as possibilities for being the tragic hero. But as being a tragic hero is not only having a tragic flaw but also entails much more, there really is only one person to fit the mold. The character Brutus is born into power and is higher/better then we are. He has a tragic flaw that causes his downfall and at the end he realizes his mistake (a trait none of the other characters can really claim).
... too late to do anything about it. So, he kills himself. He did this because he realized what he had done and felt he needed to take accountability. Before he died, he says “Caesar, now be still, I killed not thee with half so good a will.” He is now realizing that he really didn’t have as good a reason as he thought to kill Caesar.
... Antony also mixes Logos and Pathos when he says that “when the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept” (873) to show that Caesar was a noble and caring leader of the public and would never try to hurt or harm their liberties. Unlike Brutus, Antony’s logo requires the people to think on what he says, which only helps in winning his argument. He continues this mix when he says that “[they] all did love him once, not without cause” (873) in order to put guilt on the crowd for switching sides on the man they loved and admired so dearly. Antony, with full support of the crowd, uses his sense of loss and anger to guilt the public says that “[his] heart is in there with Caesar”(873) and after reading the contents of Caesar will to the public which gives each citizen 70 drachmas and various other gifts he asks “when comes another [as great as Caesar]?”
A tragic hero is defined as a person of high social rank, who has a tragic flaw or flaws that lead to their downfall. These heroes’ downfalls are usually either complete ruin or death. Tragic heroes face their downfall with courage and dignity. While many characters in Julius Caesar could fit these conditions, the person who fits the role of a tragic hero the best is Marcus Brutus. Brutus develops into a tragic hero throughout the play, and this is shown though his qualifications of a tragic hero, his high status, his tragic flaws, and his courage in the face of his death.
Caesar, a famous military general, had great hopes. one day becoming sole ruler of Rome, but was prevented from doing so. by his own death. Caesar was a great man,- brave and noble,- having all the virtues of a hero, but most terrible in his ambitiousness. Ultimately it is his great ambition that leads to his downfall.
The play Julius Caesar depicts Brutus to be an extremely noble being who is well respected and honored by all Romans, even his enemies. Brutus was a loving friend of Julius Caesar and wished anything but death on his comrade, but his love and dedication to the majestic city of Rome would force him to commit anything. He fights a war to defend Rome from a king or emperor's tyrannical rule. When the war was finished, even his enemies saw that he was the most respectable Roman of them all.