Arogance

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Recommended: An analyesis the character of Brutus and Antony

Caesar is dead, Brutus’ army is marching to certain death, and Antony is ready take over all of Rome with an iron fist. Around 2 months ago, normally completely unacceptable idea was about to become a reality. Cassius convinces Brutus that Julius Caesar, his best friend, needs to be killed for the better of Rome. One decision, strewn by ego and arrogance, led to the total destruction of Rome and the death of so many people. Although, there were many signs that predicted this calamity, but to none was any attention given because of the receiver’s arrogance. Despite many seemingly unmistakable forewarnings of impending disaster, the inconceivable arrogance, displayed by key conspirators, Julius Caesar, and his supporters, hindered their ability to perceive and respond to those signs in Julius Caesar.
Brutus’s arrogance, aided by Cassius’s equally prevalent arrogance, caused them to make the murder of Julius Caesar an acceptable idea. It took only a few weeks for Brutus to be completely convinced that there was nothing wrong with the murder of an innocent man. “Let’s be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius” (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar II, i, 166) This quote is Brutus explaining to Cassius that killing Caesar is fine, but killing Antony would be too much; that, if they were to kill anyone other than Caesar, they would become murders in the public eye. This quote, in order to completely connect, needs more corroborating information. At first, Brutus was skeptical, unsure of the decision to kill Caesar. However, Cassius had a greed for Caesar’s power and his greed began to toy with Brutus’ arrogance. “Why is Julius in power? Why is he so special? Why aren’t you in power” are questions Cassius began to plant on Brutus. After weeks of t...

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...sisted by his immense ego, could not realize he was being manipulated, but only worry about his image.
Arrogance was a common flaw that plagued the thoughts and decisions of many characters, conspirators and supporters alike. Warnings were ignored, signs were dismissed and the death of hundreds was a result. Such consequences like Caesar being assassinated, Brutus’ army being destroyed, and Antony becoming the all-powerful leader of Rome seem as though an extremely large and influential flaw would have caused them. But, Shakespeare only introduced the small flaw of arrogance that occasionally went unnoticed. However, arrogance existed everywhere and was extrapolated by other flaws, such as anger and greed. The arrogance in characters fed off of other flaws and ultimately led to impaired thought processes, perverted decision making, and the destruction of a country.

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