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Julius caesar an analysis of the character of brutus and antony
Julius caesar an analysis of the character of brutus and antony
A transformational analysis of leadership in shakespeare henry v
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Danion Fields March 29, 2016 Bielfelt English ep Imminent Ending The play “Julius Caesar,” is a tragedy and most of the characters have a fatal flaw that will lead to a tragic ending. In Shakespeare's play “Julius Caesar,” Brutus and Julius Caesar both have fatal flaws, such as their honor and pride, that lead to their demise. Brutus values honor more than anything, he would do anything to be honorable. Brutus values his honor more than his life, “as he love the name of honor more than he fear death” (1.2.90-91). Brutus’s love for his honor sets him up for a tragic ending. It allows him to be easily manipulated into doing something that is not wise, if he thinks it is an honorable thing to do. Cassius plans to do exactly that by …show more content…
Even though his army needs money, he does not take bribes and even believes Cassius, “To have an itching palm, to sell and mart his offices for gold, to undeservers” (4.3.10-12). Brutus is angry at Cassius for taking bribes for money to put unworthy men in high-ranked positions. Brutus sees Cassius’ actions as dishonorable. With honor being everything to Brutus, these actions enrage him. Taking bribes is not the only action pushing Brutus away from Cassius. Cassius’s attitude towards Brutus is like, “A hot friend cooling” (4.2.20). Brutus can tell Cassius is changing. At one point Brutus and Cassius were great friends, but now Cassius is becoming more of a neutral friend. They do not trust each other as much, and there are many miscommunications. Miscommunication, and misinterpretations between leaders can cause a tragedy during a battle. Misinterpretation causes Cassius to kill himself, because he thinks his best friend,Titinius, has been captured by the enemy. The death of Cassius causes Titinius great grief. Titinius then has the same downfall as Cassius, he ends his own life with the same sword as Cassius. Brutus’s list of allies is growing thin. He is …show more content…
Caesars pride was the fatal flaw that lead to his downfall. Caesar thinks he is too good to listen. He does not believe the soothsayer. He believes “he is a dreamer” (1.2.26), and that Caesar and his supporters should not listen to him. The soothsayer tried to warn him that something bad would happen on the Ides of March. Caesar refuses to listen, and only when his wife warns him does he take the danger into account. Even after his wife warns him, he still allows his pride to get the best of him. He allows Decius to flatter him into going to the capitol. Decius offers his own interpretation of what Caesar's wife said. Caesar believes, “he well expounded it” (2.2.91). Caesar decides to go to the capitol ignoring all the warnings he was given. Caesars pride leads him into danger and allows him to be brought to the capitol where the conspirators await him. They plan on proposing an idea to Caesar that then know he will refuse, and when he refuses they plan to kill him, using his refusal as the excuse. Caesar does exactly what they predicted he would do. He refuses “He is constant as the northern star” (3.1.65). He seals his fate by not accepting their offer. The conspirators turn and stab Caesar, Brutus being the last to stab him. Caesars pride lured him right into danger and death. Caesars pride caused him to ignore the signs of danger and lead him straight into
In addition to this characteristic of Cassius, he also has a devious nature. This attribute allows him to invent informed manipulative plans to eliminate his opponents. For instance, after saying his farewells to Brutus, he gives a soliloquy that reveals his idea of throwing writings of different handwritings in Brutus’ windows “as if they came from several citizens” all of which “tending to the great opinion that Rome holds of his name, wherein obscurely Caesar’s ambition shall be glancéd at” (Shakespeare I. ii. 306-309). Since Brutus and Cassius have been friends for a long period of time, Cassius holds an abundance of knowledge pertaining to his values--in this case being his honor and desire to please Rome’s citizens. This undermining plot Cassius has devised is based on an informed opinion of the most effective way to subvert Caesar’s authority, and because of the valid observations made of Brutus by Cassius, the likelihood that this clever scheme will be carried out successfully should make Caesar concerned about the intentions of his judicial
Although Brutus attempts to act with honor, and despite the fact that he places all of his trust into the honor of others, there are times when Brutus fails to see the most simple and obvious things, such as clear manipulation by Cassius, and this simple flaw leads him to betray his friend and his honor.
In Act 1 Scene 2 we see that Cassius is trying to persuade and manipulate Brutus into thinking that Julius Caesar is becoming too powerful and that he needs to be stopped before it is too late. He does this using many different techniques. Cassius is able to make Brutus ... ... middle of paper ... ...
Cassius needed a reason to motivate Brutus to join the conspiracy so that the plan would develop. “Brutus, I do observe you now of late: I have not from your eyes that gentleness…” (1.2.34) Cassius is saying that Brutus hasn’t been as affectionate toward him as he typically is. Maybe he suspects something is wrong with Brutus and he thinks it has something to do with Caesar. But I think he didn’t really care about how Brutus was treating him, he was just “buttering him up” so to say. Brutus thinks that Cassius is just being his friend and trying to help, when in reality Cassius is manipulating him. This manipulation of friendship is what drives the rest of the play. Brutus has a hard time seeing through this manipulation of Cassius and it ends up driving him to assassinating his friend, Caesar. Cassius fabricated letters to make them seen like they were from the people of Rome saying that they wanted Brutus as their leader. These letters were really the controlling factor of the assassination because they gave Brutus another reason to assassinate Caesar. Cassius then realized how easy it was to manipulate Brutus. “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 so firm that cannot be seduced?” (1.2.320-324) Cassius is saying that even
Brutus is a very cautious man. “Into what dangers are you leading me, Cassius, that you would have me look into myself for things that are not there?”(1.2.68-70) This quote is referring to act 1 where Cassius brings Brutus into the room and starts to talk about Caesar. When Cassius suggests to kill Mark Antony alone with Caesar, Brutus says, “Our plan will seem too bloody, Caius Cassius. We cut off the head and then hack the limbs, seem to kill Caesar in anger and then vent malice on his friends, for Antony is only a branch of Caesar.”(2.1.169-172) Brutus doesn’t want to just kill everyone, and be know as a killer, he just wants to do what he thinks is right for the people of Rome. Brutus was cautious, even near the end of the play when he was in his tent talking to Cassius,he told Lucilius and Titinius to go guard the door, until he had finished he conference.
This flaw eventually leads to his downfall because of all the bad decisions it causes him to make. The first mistake pride causes him to make is to kill Caesar and the next mistake follows right after. “ Mark Antony, here, take you Caesar’s body. You shall not in your funeral speech blame us, but speak all good you can devise of Caesar, and say you do’t by our permission; Else shall you not have any hang at all about his funeral; and you shall speak in the same pulpit wherto I am going, after my speech is done.” (24) This was said by Brutus to Antony right after Caesar’s death. Brutus not only allows Antony to live but then allows him to speak at Caesar’s funeral after Brutus speaks, completely unsupervised. This choice of Brutus’ is brought about by his pride (and maybe a little bit of shortsighted stupidity).
In the beginning of the Book Cassius uses anecdotes of Caesar’s weakness and faults, argumentum ad antiquatum, and ethos on Brutus to persuade him to join the conspiracy to kill Caesar, this works on Brutus and shows that anyone, even people as stoic as Brutus, can be persuaded by appealing to their motivations. Cassius, a very suspicious character thru ought the play tells Brutus to “be not jealous on me” (827), in the quote he tells Brutus to not be suspicious of him because he is just a friend who genuinely cares. Cassius does this to put himself on Brutus’ side and not seem like a distant person, this allows him to criticize Caesar and suggest that he is a bad influence on Rome which appeals to Brutus’ desire to keeping Rome safe. After setting himself up as a friend to Brutus, Cassius uses harsh anecdotes on the weakness of Caesar to show that he isn’t fit to rule Rome. Cassius recollects on a time when he and Caesar went swimming in the river Tiber and Caesar screamed “Help me, Cassius or I sink” (828) to de...
Brutus’ final flaw is his idealism. His idealism leads him to believe everything that everybody tells him. His idealism causes him to believe in Antony and Cassius. Cassius uses Brutus’ idealism by getting him to believe that they are killing Caesar for the betterment of Rome. Antony uses the idealism to get to talk to the com Brutus’ tragic flaws are part of what makes him a tragic hero. In Julius Caesar, Brutus is a great example of a tragic hero. His tragic flaws are honor, poor judgement, and idealism (Bedell). In Shakespeare’s plays, the tragic hero and his flaws cause the downfall of the play (Tragic Flaws).
Brutus’ ignorance creates an expectation that develops a path which leads him awry. When Brutus mentions,“ I would not Cassius; yet I love him well” (1.2.81-88 ), he portrays his internal conflict. Brutus depicts the rendering struggle between Cassius’ acquisitions and Caesar’s actions. His oblivion toward the truth and goodwill concerning the greater health of Rome prompt him astray. He acts with the innocence of a child, deceive and swindle by Cassius, Brutus is an
His intentions were not motivated by his own ambition rather he acted to ensure that Rome would not be taken over by a dictatorship. When the other conspirators wanted to go after Marc Antony as well, Brutus stood up to the others stating that their cause would be lost if they went after Antony. "Our course will seem too bloody, Caius Cassius to cut the head off then hack the limbs. Like wrath in death and envy afterward. For Anthony is but a limb of Caesar. Let us be sacrifiers, but not butchers, Caius." Brutus could have just run off and hid when the townspeople turned against him, however fought The Battle of Philippi because he believed so strongly in his cause. Before the battle he begins to realize that he had put too much trust in Cassius as he disagrees with Cassius methods. Brutus refuses to bully the peasants into supporting him as Cassius has. “You have done that you should be sorry for. There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats, for I am armed so strong in honesty that they pass by me as the idle wind, which I respect not. I did send to you for certain sums of gold, which you denied me, for I can raise no money by vile means. By heaven, I had rather coin my heart And drop my blood for drachmas than to wring From the hard hands of peasants” Although he regrets having killed Caesar and can now see that Cassius did not have the same honorable
A character from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Cassius, exhibits Machiavellian attributes by manipulation and a drive to accomplish his goal of assassinating Julius Caesar by any means. Cassius was able to successfully manipulate both Brutus and the fellow conspirators. Cassius was able to influence Brutus enough to make Brutus believe that killing Julius Caesar, Brutus’ best friend, was the right action. Initially, Brutus was wary of Cassius when Brutus said, “Into what dangers would you lead me, Cassius?” (1.2.69) Subsequently, Brutus is persuaded as he states, “...what you have said / I will consider” (1.2.176-177). Cassius is willing to control any person who stands in his way. Cassius successfully turned Brutus against his best friend in order to achieve what Cassius believes to be best for Rome. When Brutus says, “Let me not hinder, Cassius, your desires” (1.2.35) it is clear that Cassius has swayed Brutus to believe in his cause. In Julius Caesar, we do not see Cassius as the main leader of the cons...
It is shown that Caesar is a tragic hero when he is wronged by the people nearest and dearest to his heart. One reason Caesar died an unhappy death is because of the way he was killed. For example, Octavius says, “Never, till Caesar’s three and thirty wounds/ be well aveng’d; or till another Caesar/ Have added slaughter to the sword of traitors” (V.i.53-55). A happy death would be accidental or of natural causes. Caesar’s death was unhappy because he was murdered by his friends. They purposefully stabbed him, which made his death so much more unhappy. The number of times he was stabbed shows how angry the conspirators were and how much they wanted him dead. Being stabbed to death is a very painful way to die because it is not a sudden death. Caesar had to suffer through thirty-three stabs until he died! Caesar’s death was so tragic because it was done by his best friends. Brutus said, “Grant that, and then is death a benefit:/ So are we friends, that have abrig’d/ His time of fearing death…”(III.i.103-110). One source states, “The conspirators kill Caesar because of his egotism: as republicans, they fear he will become a dictator”(“Shakespeare’s World of Death”p. 76). Brutus, Cassius, Casca, Cimber, Decius, Metallus, Lagarious, and many others were involved in the stabbing. His death is so tragic because he never would have thought that his best friends would betray him. They were jealous of his power and the
Both Cassius and Brutus conspire against Caesar, yet Shakespeare depicts Brutus as doing a noble job compared to Cassius as doing a greedy and envious task. Cassius believes that he is stronger than Caesar. Therefore, Cassius does not understand why Caesar is in power and he is not. Cassius is also envious of Caesar. In Act I Scene II, Cassius describes to Brutus the time he had to save Caesar in a swimming race. Since then, Cassius feels superior to Caesar. In Cassius’ mind, kings’ right to rule should be based off of strength, not intelligence or virtue. On the other hand, Brutus knows that although a king should be strong, he must also be virtuous. Brutus always elaborates on the topic of honor. In fact, his first priority is to keep his own honor intact and Brutus fears that Caesar will change when he is crowned. Brutus says, “He would be crowned: How that might change his nature, there’s the question.” (Act II, Scene I, Page 49, lines 12-14) He senses Caesar’s greed for power, and ...
Even though Brutus loves Caesar and knows that Caesar is a good man, he lets Cassius talk him into looking deeper and see that Rome can't have a tyrant as a leader. He tells Cassius "Into what dangers would you lead me, Cassius, That you would have me seek into myself, for that which is not in me?" 1.2.65-67. The 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary Brutus knows that killing his best friend is not something he wants to do, but he's ready to commit such crime because it's for the good of the Rome and the people of Rome.
The ambition possessed by each character, leads Caesar, Brutus, and Cassius to power. It will be the same ambition, that quest for power, that makes each one susceptible to their own weakness. For Caesar, it will be his ego and inability to heed warnings, Brutus his love of Rome, and Cassius his dedication to power. These qualities prove that although intentions may be noble, ambition can make a person ruthless and blind them to their original goals. Ambition kills those who lose sight of their conscience and although it may prove beneficial in many instances, in this case, it leads the characters to lose all that they