Japanese Aristocrat

In the play, “Julius Caesar';, by William Shakespeare, Brutus was portrayed as a man of high principles and virtue. He joins the conspirators with their plan to kill Caesar for the good of Rome. On the other hand Cassius is moved by jealousy. He wants to Caesar dead out of revenge of a man who does not like him. He is jealous of Caesar’s glory and power. Therefore Brutus is portrayed as the noblest Roman.

Brutus believes in his morals and ideals and they run his life to an extent. He is perhaps the only man in the story who is not moved by personal gain. “For let the gods so speed me, as I love the name of honor more than I fear death.'; Brutus acts with the conspirators only for what he considers the best interests of Rome. Brutus weighs every decision he makes according to his morals and standards. He believes that reason and logic rule the world in which people can be affected by sound reasoning. He is very honorable but he still is not prepared for the corruption in the world. He can’t believe that anyone would take action without reasoning the effects that could take place. Brutus can’t see motives that are less noble then is own, “Well, Brutus, though art noble; yet I see thy honorable mettle may be wrought from that it is disposed; therefore it is meet tat noble minds keep ever with their likes; for who so from that cannot be seduced?'; Brutus makes two very grave mistakes because of his high principles, he lets Antony live and worse yet he lets him speak at the funeral of Caesar. He doesn’t stir up the emotion that the people were looking for when Antony did. But even though Brutus joined the conspirators he felt so much remorse for what he had done that he had dreams of Caesar’s ghost coming to him. In the end he falls on his sword, which goes against most of his standards which says that men should take whatever fate is handed to them. However, in his last moments he had the satisfaction of knowing that he stood by his principles to the end and he died by them.

However, completely opposite the nobleness of Brutus’ character is Cassius. He hates Caesar and is part of the conspiracy out of jealousy. Cassius was friends with Caesar as a child and now Caesar was powerful and popular, Cassius was jealous of this.