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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
Character analysis of marcus brutus
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The theme of the Shakespearean play Julius Caesar is the ultimate demise of inflexible individuals. Throughout the play, specifically portrayed in the characters Brutus and Caesar, individuals who have inflexible morals end up being blinded by their beliefs and do not try to compromise with others, causing a downwards spiral to happen. Julius Caesar was so completely adamant on becoming the king of Rome, just as Brutus was completely adamant on maintaining his honor, that he began to ignore everything around him and refused to compromise or conform in any way because of his personality. With this, we see how Julius ultimately fell, as he was oblivious to the fickle people around him, due to his inflated ego, refused to pay attention to
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.
Shortly before his death Caesar was given several warnings throughout ActsⅡand Ⅲ , however he still went to meet with the Senate due to the fact he thought he was needed. He had an alliance with his adopted sons and valued soldiers Octavius and Antony. The play is about the events that follow his death making him an important secondary character that also portrays a protagonist. Caesar faced many conflicts throughout his lifetime, some internal and some external. He fought a war against Pompey ,which lead to conspirators plotting his death, and he was troubled by the fact that his wife could not provide him with a child. He showcased this by publicly asking Antony to touch her as he passed her, hoping that this would bring healing to her barren womb. He also went through several character changes. When he returned from war, he returned believing that the people would be ecstatic to have him as an emperor. Nonetheless when the people of Rome did not respond the way he expected he knew he had to play on their emotions. He did this by refusing the crown three times and by offering to kill himself to prove his honesty and trustworthiness. This gave him the desired effect, so he returned to knowing that the crowd wanted him as a king. The driving force of the play was the unfortunate murder of Caesar or what happened afterwards. Throughout this play many of the characters go through many unique changes, although Julius Caesar experienced some very significant character changes. The theatrical work exhibits Julius Caesar’s actions, alliances, character developments, and internal and external conflicts which in turn showcase his various changes. The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare is a brilliant piece of work that thoroughly covers the story of Julius Caesar, a protagonistic secondary character. Julius Caesar was the unofficial emperor of Rome. He was a war General and he fought
Throughout the play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, the audience constantly sees Brutus, an honorable man, go against his own beliefs because of men filled with hatred and jealousy. Brutus
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
Honor and power is what drives the conspirators to assassinate Julius Caesar in William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar. Caesar is now the single leader of Rome, and members of the Senate have concerns that he will abuse his sole power. Therefore, they plot and accomplish the assassination of Caesar in an attempt to rebuild the balance of Rome. Rome falls into chaos with an unknown future with no central leader for the people to follow. In Act I, Scene 2, Cassius, a member of the Senate, explains to his friend, Brutus, that Caesar is not the god he makes himself out to be. Instead, he argues both he and Brutus are equal to Caesar and are just as deserving of the throne. Cassius’ speech to Brutus diminishes Caesar’s godly demeanor through
Phillip Pullman, a British author, once wrote, “I stopped believing there was a power of good and a power of evil that were outside us. And I came to believe that good and evil are names for what people do, not for what they are”(goodreads.com). Pullman’s quotation on the actions of man being the source of good and evil closely relate to morality, principles regarding the distinction of right and wrong or a person’s values. The question of what human morality truly is has been pondered by philosophers, common folk, and writers for thousands of years. However, sometimes a person’s ethics are unclear; he or she are not wholly good or bad but, rather, morally ambiguous. William Shakespeare, an English playwrite, heavily presses the topic moral ambiguity in his play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. The titular character, Julius Caesar, is a morally equivocal character who serves a major purpose in the play.
The Julius Caesar play’s plot entails of Caesar returned to Rome and assuming absolute power (leadership) over the Roman Empire after defeating Pompey the Great and Crassus which transformed rule of three to the rule of one to govern the Roman Empire. Caesar stated he did want the crown of the Empire. Although the Caesar represented most of the people there were a group of people who did not trust him and who he did not trust because they were loyal to others. He was not believed by the group of people. As leader you have to represent and bring all parties together to unite the groups. Caesar failed at uniting the people. Caesar did not listen to disapprovals and dissatisfactions from the ruling society. He also castaway the cautions of the
First of all, Marcus Brutus has the character flaw of poor judge of character. He cannot discern a person’s character or true motivation. He, however, acts on his judgments, regardless of whether they are true or not. Brutus feels that Caesar is too ambitious for power, and that he, along with the other eight men plotting the demise of Caesar, must prevent it, “And therefore think him as a serpent’s egg— / Which, hatched, would as his kind grow mischievous— / And kill him in the shell” (911). Brutus decides that Caesar must die because he ambitious. Ambition is not necessarily an evil and virulent thing. Ambition causes men and women to strive towards reaching an attainment. Brutus assumes that Caesar will turn his back on his supporters due to this ambition. One of the most famous lines in Julius Caesar is the dying words of Caesar: “Et tu, Bruté?—Then fall, Caesar” (938). If Caesar had truly turned h...
Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar follows the fall of the famous Roman emperor of the same name. Caesar as a character himself is very corrupt. He wants all the power he can get, but he does so with
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.
Shakespeare shows Caesar to be, what you could say, a contradiction. The audience see how Caesar respects Antony's soldier-ship yet still fights him; they see how he clearly loves his sister, but uses her unscrupulously as a political device; and they are shown how he is very rational and dull, yet he surprisingly tells his soldiers, as well as some Egyptians about how he would parade the defeated Cleopatra. He wants to do this because he feels that 'her life in Rome would be eternal in our triumph.' This shows the reader how Caesar has strong emotional outcries, which contrasts his initial characteristics.
The motif of ambition runs continuously throughout Julius Caesar, written by William Shakespeare, which originates in Ancient Rome and highlights the power struggles, politics and deceit of those vying for power. Ambition leads many of the characters such as Caesar, Cassius, and Brutus to a fate different from what they expected. The play revolves around Caesar, his ascent to power and his eventual loss of everything. Although ambition may lead these public officials to power, it is the same ambition that will be their downfall, ultimately resulting in the death of Julius Caesar, Cassius, and Brutus.
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, was a famous play written by William Shakespeare in 1599, and discusses the events before and after the assassination of Julius Caesar. Marcus Brutus, a key character who is highlighted throughout the play, is first introduced to us as a friend of Julius Caesar and Cassius. Brutus seems very shy, introverted, yet very intelligent and always thinking. As the play progresses, Brutus’s character develops as we learn that he is very noble, intelligent, and loyal. Brutus is a man of great integrity, with many hidden sides to him. He may seem like a simple senator in the Roman Republic, but he is more than that. He is an important husband, powerful military leader, and caring friend. Brutus is extremely noble, patriotic and trustworthy, but, has a huge flaw when it comes to judgment.
In Julius Caesar, after the assassination of Caesar, the portrayal of the crowd shows a divided nation where those who loved the Roman emperor grew into a mob mentality because they were viewed as a very indecisive and close-minded group. Following the speeches made by Brutus and Antony, the citizens listening to their speeches finally proclaim, “ We’ll burn the house of Brutus. Away then. Come, seek the conspirators” (III.II. 245-246). Shakespeare conveys an indecisive society during Caesar’s reign since they carelessly switched their opinions from favoring Brutus to Antony. This also shows a divided empire as a few conspirators despised the power of Caesar, while the majority of Roman citizens loved and praised him. As a result, the crowd vows to take revenge on Brutus and the conspirators and avenge the death of their leader. While the conspirators attempted to justify the death by claiming that it was for the good of Rome and that they
In my opinion,i think a moral dilemma is that between the people, between human goodness, two valuable things between a choice of either this or that. The tragedy in Julius Caesar of the protagonist Brutus，this theory is the biggest problem he has ever encountered and make him hesitate. As a friend of Caesar, he was confused about whether to kill Caesar or not.