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.
Julius Caesar is shown to have many reprehensible character flaws over the course of the drama. Namely, he is illustrated as having a belligerent sense of arrogance. Initially, the great majority of the Roman public adores and esteems Caesar. However, this adoration inflates his sense of self-pride and arrogance. For example, in the play’s introduction Caesar is given warning about a plot to extirpate him from the throne. A soothsayer warns him to “beware the ides of March” (890). Rather than to obviate the attempt, Caesar blows off the Soothsayer, stating “he is a dreamer, let us leave him” (890). Later in Act II, Caesar has been informed of dead men walking, a lioness giving birth in the street...
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...ble. Unfortunately, it takes Rome the destruction of their great leader to discern what an admirable man Caesar was.
In conclusion, William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar is the quintessence of a tragic hero. He is highly respected in society and holds a position of authority, yet is corrupted by his pride and arrogance. He ignores warnings of assassination, but once he is attacked by his confidant Brutus he realizes his flaws. Unfortunately, he can never repent of his prideful ways, as his life is extinguished. Because he is murdered by one of his greatest friends and did so much to aid the destitute, he is a sympathetic character. Julius Caesar is a complex and multi-faceted man, but the tragedy of his life strikes a chord of sympathy that resonates throughout not only his subjects, but the readers of his downfall for centuries past, present, and future.
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.
The play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare showcases many characters and events that go through many significant changes. One particular character that went through unique changes was Julius Caesar. The 16th century work is a lengthy tragedy about the antagonists Brutus and Cassius fighting with the protagonists Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus over the murder of Julius Caesar. Although the play’s main pushing conflict was the murder of Julius Caesar, he is considered a secondary character, but a protagonist. Throughout the theatrical work Julius Caesar’s actions, alliances, character developments, and internal and external conflicts display his diverse changes.
Tragic Hero in Julius Caesar A tragic hero is the character whose actions deeply affect the other characters and who creates a series of events that eventually lead to the character’s downfall and the downfall of his loved ones. Such a hero possesses a flaw in character that influences his actions and thinking and especially his judgments. In logically determining who the hero in Julius Caesar is, one simply must find the one character who fits the above guidelines. Marcus Brutus is the only one, and, thus, he is the tragic hero.
Shakespeare, William, Barbara A. Mowat, and Paul Werstine. The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. New York: Washington Square, 1992. Print.
Caesar proved he was the most successful. This was due to careful planning and implementation. It seemed everything he put his mind to accomplish he did so with ease. This was truly a great leader and certainly changed lives both for the better and worst, depending on which side, you were either winners or losers. Of course, all the bribing he did along the way definitely greased the skids. This made him some real serious enemies along the way. Caesar always had an eye out for promising recruits and never failed to single those men out and reward them. This earned him many friends along the path to the temporary dictator. There should be no doubt on Caesar’s importance in the history of the empire as he was that guy who never wanted to rest on his achievements, but someone who always had a plan on just how to get things done. He was never defeated as a general. Caesar rarely failed at any task he chose to undertake. He just somehow knew how to get things done and he never really stopped thinking about how to improve the city and it roads. Caesar was the best as dictators go but were never afraid to be brutal and ruthless if the times called for it. He was never one to show mercy unless it was unavoidable. Love him or hate him, he was one of the best leaders of all time. Politicians today can still learn a thing or two from Caesar. Bribery is definitely frowned upon, but it is still happening all over the world. The more things change, they seem to stay the same and it is because it
In The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar could definitely be thought of as a tragic hero. A tragic hero is a character in a story that is high standing in society, but has a flaw that inevitably leads to their downfall. Julius Caesar definitely fits this description. He is a leader in Rome and has everything he could ever want. However, he does have a weakness which will be devastating to his life. There are many people who would like to kill him but Caesar is not worried. Julius Caesar’s flaw is arrogance and believes he is invulnerable. He also, right before his death discovers a discernment more devastating than the knife wounds, and finally he is and unsympathetic character because of many reasons.
The egotistical, arrogant Julius Caesar is seen to be showing great ignorance which caused his downfall in the form of betrayal. His character innately makes him weak because even though he suspected Cassius at the beginning, he did not take action upon his own suspicion. He also had many people telling him to beware the Ides of March, and to be careful of certain people. He did not listen to any of these warnings even though he had his own suspicion about one person who after all thought of the plan to kill Julius. If he was sensible and not ignorant, he would think that there would be people out there who would want to take him out. If he was not ignorant he would have at least asked someone to spy on Cassius just to make sure he was not up to anything bad. If he was not ignorant he would have heeded the many prophecies given to him by total strangers, because they were all relevant to one another but alas he was ignorant. A right-minded person would have considered all of these freak coincidence into account before going on with his/her plan, which Julius failed to do. In his final speech he said, “I could be well moved, if I were as you; If I could pray to move, prayers would move me; but I am constant as the northern star… Unshaked of motion;...
Julius Caesar is a moral, ethical man. He is a selfless man who puts others before himself. When Artemidorus gets word of the conspirator’s plans, he writes a letter to Caesar to warn him of his impending fate and rushes to the Capitol to give him word. Upon telling Caesar the letter is concerning him, Caesar simply brushes it off and responds, “What touches oneself shall be served last”(III,I, 8). Caesar altruistically puts aside an urgent manner concerning him to accept the offer of becoming King of Rome, which is the reason he went to the Capitol in the first place, which shows he is a benevolent, thoughtful person. In
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...
In the play the Life and Death of Julius Caesar (just as in all of Shakespeare’s tragedies) there is much death, much tragedy, and of course, a tragic hero. However unlike most of Shakespeare’s plays this time the tragic hero is not particularly obvious. Throughout the play a few main characters present themselves as possibilities for being the tragic hero. But as being a tragic hero is not only having a tragic flaw but also entails much more, there really is only one person to fit the mold. The character Brutus is born into power and is higher/better then we are. He has a tragic flaw that causes his downfall and at the end he realizes his mistake (a trait none of the other characters can really claim).
Julius Caesar was the last leader of the Roman Republic. It is debated whether or not Caesar was a successful leader, however his influences on society then and society now are impossible to deny. Caesar is still relevant in modern society due to his tremendous influence on culture, language, military and political tactics, invention of a modern calendar, and his iconic representation of the Roman Empire.
Julius Caesar may have been a noble person, but the people of Rome did not think so. In Julius Caesar, Shakespeare shows the Caesar comes to an unhappy end when he is murdered by the people he loved most. Within this play Julius Caesar is portrayed as a tragic hero. A tragic hero is defined as “the main character of a tragedy [who is] usually dignified, courageous, and high ranking” (Novel Study Guide). Also vital to defining a tragic hero is that, “the hero’s downfall is caused by a tragic flaw” (Novel Study Guide). It is evident that Julius Caesar is William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar is a tragic hero given that he is of noble stature, has a fatal flaw and comes to an unhappy end.
Through a well-developed cast and a complex play about men, politics and power; Shakespeare has once again demonstrated his mastery of the humanity of the characters he creates. The flawed models of leadership we examine in Julius Caesar aptly lend themselves to the theory that "an imperfect world gives power to imperfect men".
	Shakespeare illustrated Caesar as a tragic hero by showing that he was a historical figure with a tragic flaw which lead to his death. Julius Caesar took over most of the Roman Empire and his events are very important to history. First, Julius Caesar is very historical because if he wasn’t then, we would not be talking about him today. As Cassius ironically said, "...How many ages hence /Shall this our lofty scene be acted over in states unborn..." (III,i,112-113). Secondly, Every tragic hero has a tragic flaw that leads them to their death and one of Julius Caesar’s flaw was arrogance. As Caesar himself said, "But I am constant as Northern Star.../There is no fellow in the firmament" (III,i,60-62). Finally, Caesar made a big mistake which lead him to his downfall when he didn’t take the soothsayer’s warning. Again this was the fact that Caesar was arrogant. The soothsayer said warning Caesar, "Beware of ides of March" (I,ii,23) then Caesar replied that the soothsayer was a fake, and to dismiss him.
William Shakespeare wrote many tragedies and Julius Caesar was one of them. Based on history as well as his own interpretation, Shakespeare retold the story of the death of Caesar. In each tragedy he writes there is a tragic hero, or someone who falls from grace. Although the actual character of Julius Caesar didn’t live past Act lll, he showed enough qualities to qualify as the tragic hero of the play. Shakespeare gave Caesar many tragic flaws which eventually led him to a tragic death.