Emilie Miranda

February 27, 2008

Turner

1st Period

English H

Caesar

Essay

Page 7

The Tragedy of Noble Brutus

Brutus believed Caesar to be trouble for Rome, since he killed Pompeii for the crown. He decided to join the conspirators to end Caesar's reign. Antony found out about them, and he declared he would avenge Caesar. The people turn against Brutus, and his situation became dire. Brutus and Cassius prepare for battle in Philippi, gathering their armies against Antony and Octavius. When the ghost of Caesar visits Brutus, he is lead to believe that his hour of death has come, and he kills himself instead of being killed by his enemies. In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Brutus's foolish idealism eventually leads to his destruction.

Brutus was given the title of the noblest man in Rome by the people, for his motivation was for the people, not himself. This had him plot against Caesar in order to protect the public, even though he loved and admired Caesar personally. Brutus believed ridding Caesar of the throne would be the good of Rome, whereas the other conspirators did it out of greed and envy. His honor became his weakness, however, since Cassius was able to take advantage of him and use him as an excuse for the death of Caesar. He also was naïve to Antony's true intentions, and refused to listen to Cassius to kill Antony after Caesar. Again, he didn't take Cassius's advice when he tells him not to let Antony make his speech, so when he did, he forfeited the last word to defend himself of the murder, and therefore gave Antony the power to persuade the people of the conspirator's wrong doing. These mistakes Brutus did not see would be the foreshadow of his demise. The tragic hero seemed to doom the very cause of what he was trying to serve and promote, not helping anything or anyone one at all.

In the beginning, Brutus believes Caesar is not fit to rule Rome, and therefore should be taken out of office. He doesn't want to kill Caesar at first, but after listening to Cassius preach about how Caesar killed Pompeii, and the people rejoiced, he reconsiders the act. He comes to believe that what he's planned to do will be for the good of Rome. He also believes people will be okay with this, since he's a noble man, and what he does will be an honorable deed. It becomes apparent that he is naïve for thinking no one would resent his actions.

Brutus's naïve state leads to his awareness being impaired to the fact that Antony's true intentions are to expose him and the other conspirators for their wrong doing. Due to him being unaware, he gives Antony permission to speak to the people. The speech reveals Brutus's dishonorable decision in a sarcastic, indirect way by disclaiming his nobility. The people of Rome become furious and turn against Brutus and his men. Brutus finally realizes that Antony is truly deceitful when the man claimed to be their friend.

After learning of Antony's trickery, Brutus and Cassius meet to discuss their armies against Antony to fight in Philippi. Cassius, however, believes Brutus has betrayed him, claiming Brutus thinks Cassius is taking bribes from peasants to bring them into high offices. The slight quarrel leads to their understanding of their friendship, which is they will still help each other in times of needs. They settle the petty fight with drinking, knowing little of Antony's plot to cheat the people out of their money.

Now that all of Rome is against Brutus, his allies greatly reduce in size. Brutus's conscious is revealed when the ghost of Caesar surfaces and tells of the man's guilt. His presence also foreshadows Brutus's demise when he says, "…thou shalt see me at Philippi." (Caesar 194) During the battle at Philippi, Caesar does, once again, appear, and Brutus believes that Caesar's "spirit walks abroad and turns our swords in our own proper entrails," (Caesar 232) which also means that he believes the end for him is near. After much contemplation over the battle, he decides to kill himself, which he believes "it is more worthy to leap in ourselves than tarry till they push us." (Caesar 232) He runs into the sword that he has Strato hold, and his life ends.

Brutus's naïve thoughts of honor and nobility become his downfall and his death warrant. Taking the life of Caesar, who has the greatest power, for killing Pompeii is noble to him, but to Caesar and his followers, which are the people of Rome, will have some devastating consequences. His defense was not well thought out, and so Antony took advantage of Brutus's mistake to make him a dishonorable man. Brutus knew that what he did was wrong when his conscious spoke to him, so it became evident his fate would be marked by such a vague foreshadow.

In my opinion, I really like Brutus as a character. He was looking out for Rome, and what he did was truly noble. Every other male character in the play, except for Caesar, were so full of greed and envy. Caesar was so careless, stubborn, and ambitious; I'm glad he met his fate. He had several warnings telling him to not go to the meeting, and to just ignore the people like that says his leadership was not very reliable, and his ambition gets the better of him, since accepting the crown was too glorious for him to resist. Brutus was easily taken advantage of, of course, which tells how corrupt society is for using innocent people to do the worst in life. Antony, as noble to Caesar as he sounded, was also not a good man, for he wanted to cheat the plebeians out of their wealth from Caesar's will. It was unfortunate that Brutus was oblivious to the enemies around him, for he could have had a chance to prove to the fickle audience that his act was not of envy or rivalry, but of honor. He could have also spoken of his love for Caesar personally, and this would probably have given the plebeians knowledge of his nobility better, and Antony's speech would have meant nothing.

Works Cited

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