Julius Caesar is a great tragedy written by one of, if not the greatest, writer from the 15th century, William Shakespeare. To write the play Shakespeare based the events in the play on historical events that happened to Julius Caesar in reality. The only source for the play in that time would most likely to have been The Life Of Julius Ceasar by Plutarch. The main point of the play is the conspiracy against and the assassination of Caesar. The main part I can relate to today’s world is that the government of the time betrayed everyone and did all they could do to cover their mistakes instead of fixing the problem. Another big tactic that those in charge use that is also cohesive with today’s world is the “fear factor” used to manipulate people. In the play the officials made Caesar out to be a tyrant that was bent on destroying the world as they knew it. That is much like the tactics of our current political leaders. They play down the important issues while putting dire consequences on frivolous matters that only increase the severity of the state of things. Going further, this creates political turmoil that is not good for either the people on the lower end of the chain or those at the top swinging from it. Things rarely ever go according to plan and the leaders simply do not care. They turn love into hate with a lot of pandering and butt kissing. They make the most trivial and insane problems seem like everyday occurrences. They make average people believe that what the citizens want is not what they need if it gets in the way of what is best for the empire. The best method behind this is to get the people’s passion stirred up. Whoever gives the best speech wins them over. Brutus makes Caesar out to be the devil himself and... ... middle of paper ... ... and killed on the spot. The irony makes you either want to laugh at him or be sad for him. Some may even want to kill him for being so stupid and for calling everyone else beneath him on the great ladder of life. This play can be summed up by looking at one character in particular. Brutus is a prime representation of how our government is. He started out wanting to do what was best for the people of Rome and ends up being corrupted by hid and others greed. He not only loses the sanctity of Romans, he loses himself in every action he takes in becoming a traitor. No longer is he a caring member of society, he has blackened his soul to the point of no return. Brutus was only out for number one, he became the person he tried to prevent coming into power. Ironically, he ends up dead as well, so his mission was accomplished in the end. No one who was greedy took charge.
Julius Caesar is the leader of Rome and is seeking to become king in a matter of time. Though he is a good military strategist, he lacks knowledge in running government and is too greedy to have any concern for the peasants when he is alive. Caesar is all about conquering and 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 are vanished” (II, ii, 575). Th...
William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Julius Caesar is the illustration of the demise of many respectable men. Typical of a tragedy, one character of high social standing experiences numerous downfalls brought on by a character flaw. This character is eventually brought to his or her knees by the misery and sorrow brought upon by these mistakes. It is at this point that the character realizes their flaws and changes their outlook. In Shakespeare’s tragedy, the tragic hero is Julius Caesar. In the play, Shakespeare molds Caesar’s character into an ambiguous personality. While Caesar is depicted as an ignorant and deserving tragedy, he is an often-overlooked hero as well. The omnipotent ruler appears to be quite respectable socially in the play’s exposition. However, as the story unravels several of his imperfections are introduced. The blemishes of Caesar’s personality soon lead to his untimely death. At his fall, Caesar realizes his faults and wrongdoings. Thus Caesar is overall an effective and sympathetic tragic hero.
Throughout the play many characters are not who they turn out to be. Julius Caesar is a very good judge of character, he does not ruts Cassius, he says “ He thinks too much man, such men are dangerous”( shakespeare,1.2.195). Caesar foreshadows now dangerous Cassius is, Cassius is one person who stabs Caesar. Unlike Caesar, Brutus trusts people too much to see who they are. After Caesar 's death, Brutus trusts Marc Antony to give his speech, but Cassius says “ You know not what you do. Do not consent./ that Antony speak in his funeral. I know you how much the people may be moved/ by that which he will utter.” (shakespeare,3.2.333-335). Caesar was an amazing military leader, Brutus was not. Before Caesar becomes king, he gained land back to Rome “ Julius Caesar has just returned to Rome after a long civil war in which he defeated the forces of pompey” (applebee) Caesar led his military to victory and has the chance to take full control of Rome. brutus is a humble military leader company to Caesar. After Brutus won his battle over Octavius’ army, he left his men begin looting. Instead of helping Cassius’ army “ O Cassius, Brutus gave the word too early,/ who, having some advantages on Octavius/ took it too eagerly. His soldiers fell to spoil/ whilst we by Antony are all enclosed .(Shakespeare,5.3.5-8) Brutus had a bad call when he did not send his army to help Cassius. With Caesars flaw being
In the play Julius Caesar by Shakespeare, Brutus and Antony both display their sides of Caesar in hopes of getting the Plebeians to support them. Mark Antony, a friend of Caesars, effectively persuades the crowd that the conspirators are traitors rather than heroes while technically keeping his promise to avoid saying anything negative about them. Antony convinced the mob that Caesar cared for the common people by manipulating the definition of the words “honorable” and “ambitious,” and using props, thereby delivering the more effective speech in the end.
Throughout Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, readers are constantly thrown in the middle of a battle between Roman and Egyptian values. Antony, a noble warrior for the Romans, is the character that seems to have the most trouble between this dichotomy. He is constantly caught between reason (Rome) and passion (Egypt) and has a difficult time making the transitions. Cleopatra is the character that stays most true to her roots, but begins adopting the other side’s values toward the end of the story. She makes a smoother transition than Antony, which can be attributed to her self-confidence and open-minded spirit. Antony is a constant source of back-and-forth commotion while Cleopatra seems to posses Egyptian qualities until the end of the book when the reader’s eyes are opened to her new, Roman ways.
William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra While Mark Antony is a great general, one of the three triumvant, it
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
William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar How could this have happened? More to the point, why did it happen? Caesar's dead and I didn't even get to say goodbye. So what the soothsayer said must have had some truth in it, when he said "Beware the days of March".
shakespeare was one of the most famous writer in the western literary world. his works shine like the morning stars in the sky. julius caesar is one of his masterpiece. it is a script described julius caesar’s assassination and people around him. in julius caesar shakespeare exposes the disadvantages of leadership through the actions, conflicts and failure of brutus. there are many place in the play show that brutus is not a good leader. brutus is a tragic hero in this play, he is a noble man, he want to kill caesar not for himself but for rome. under his leading, the people who followed him to kill caesar going to fail step by step.
In today’s society, people’s wills are corrupt by the power and politics of the government. This is also evident in William Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. Shakespeare was born in 1564, about one hundred miles from London, in a market town called Stratford-Upon-Avon. By 1585, Shakespeare had begun his career as an actor and playwright, in London. Shakespeare joined a play company, Lord Chamberlain’s Men, in 1594. Because Shakespeare had a share in the theater company and the theaters where they preformed, he became a wealthy man and bought a house in Stratford for his family. However, he lived in London for most of the year due to his job. Shakespeare’s acting company had built the globe, an open-air playhouse, in 1599. The Globe held 3,000 people in its circular space. The costumes used in plays at the globe were very realistic, which helped make up for the loss of scenery. Women were not allowed to perform, so the boys used their high voices, and girl-like costumes to create an illusion that women were performing. Shakespeare’s play is based on the transition of the Roman Empire during the time of Julius Caesar. Shakespeare opens his play in 44 BC, a time in Roman society when it looked as though, if Caesar took over, the republic could fall. Caesar took over after the wealthy politician, Crassius, died in 53 BC. Caesar also had to defeat Pompey, another Roman military general, in Egypt. At this point, Caesar was crowned dictator for life, which is where the play starts. In the play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, by Shakespeare, the wills of characters clash between power and politics due to surprises, will instead of reason, and spirit.
Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare In Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, the presentation and development of the relationships among the triumvirs, Caesar, Antony and Lepidus becomes a pivotal concern. As the play progresses, the dynamics of the triumvirate changes and becomes more complicated, providing the audience with the main political conflict that sometimes overshadows the romance of the title characters in the play. Shakespeare provides the audience with several different images of the triumvirate through different characters. The play’s first mentioning of the triumvirate is, in essence, a masculine Roman perspective of a soldier.
I believe Brutus is a villain. The fine line that distinguishes a person as either a hero or a villain, or even a good and a bad person, is unclear. That makes the play so very unique. You, the reader, have to figure it out for yourself. Since I believe he is a villain, I have to have clear reasons to think so: he killed a man. What happened to innocent until proven guilty? Brutus’s claim was that Caesar’s flaw was his ambition, and he also said that his
In The Tragedy of Julius Caesar , he reveals his historical influences by incorporating aspects of Roman Society, such as the plebeians struggle against Roman hierarchy. Additionally, Shakespeare formulated the play’s main conflict around Caesar and his ambition, which can be attributed to the cause of man’s demise, and he based Caesar’s character after the actual Caesar motivations and conquests. He also reflects English society by including parallels between Queen Elizabeth I and Julius Caesar. Lastly, through the play’s conflict, he conveys his political views on civil war and expresses his concern for the fate of England’s government. Most importantly, Shakespeare demonstrates how age-old stories, such as the betrayal of Julius Caesar, can be applied to current society. By understanding Shakespeare's motivations and influences, readers are not only able to glimpse into the age of Roman Empire, but also, they are able to understand the political turmoil in England during Shakespeare's
Two powerful leaders, one power hungry whose ambitious ideas lead to his downfall, the other mindful of people who deserve their higher positions. A true leader is someone who has a vision, a drive and commitment to achieve what's best. In the play written by William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Brutus and Caesar are one of the main characters. They demonstrate leadership qualities that are still relevant to today. They are both very ambitious characters; however, they do so for different reasons and differ in their openness to others. There are many similarities and differences that lie between them. Both are noble and great men with loyal followers and neither man questions the rightness of his own path. Both made crucial mistakes that resulted in their death. However, Caesar acts out of love for for himself, his country, and to retain his power as ruler of Rome. Brutus on the other hand acts out of love for freedom of Rome. This essay will discuss and compare their qualities as leaders as well as their styles and how they are effective/ineffective in the play.
In the play Julius Caesar, written and preformed by William Shakespeare, there are many characters, but two, Brutus and Cassius, stood out. The play begins in Rome where a celebration of Julius Caesar's victory over the former ruler of Rome, Pompeii. The victory leads to Caesar's betrayal by his jealous companions. Senators and other high status figures are jealous of Caesar's new and growing power, while others, like Brutus, fear the tyrannical rule Caesar could enforce. The conspirators, Brutus and Cassius being the most important, assassinate Julius Caesar and Marcus Antonius, better known as Antony, and Octavius Caesar, Caesar's heir to the thrown, revenge Caesar's death. Antony convinces the Roman populous to destroy the conspirators and eventually begins a war with Cassius and Brutus' armies. Both Cassius and Brutus commit suicide to save their honor and Antony and Octavius win the war. The characterizations of Brutus and Cassius show a distinct contrast in their character traits and motives for the assassination of Julius Caesar.