A Comparison Of Winston Churchill And Julius Caesar

Winston Churchill is one of the most well known and successful leaders of the last century. Churchill had many characteristics that helped him during his rule. Some of these include his charisma, his inspiration, and his decisive actions. These characteristics are analogous to the traits that some characters express in the play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare. These particular attributes assisted Churchill in his rise to power as well as his rule as Prime Minister.

One of the most important characteristics that Winston Churchill expressed was his charisma. Churchill's charisma can be broken down into three elements: hard work, his understanding of military strategy, and his oratory. Churchill was very hard working, even though he was sixty-six years old when he first became Prime Minister in 1940. His time and devotion to detail left his smart, young assistants stranded for help. In the 1930s he had mastered the most elaborate military information, so he could "out-brief the government ministers he harried so mercilessly in the House of Commons" (Winston Churchill - Schama - the Churchilliad). After becoming Prime Minister, he stated that he had nothing to offer but "blood, toil, tears and sweat" (Sir Winston Churchill - The Churchill Centre). His ability to absorb and analyze was an essential skill. It showed that he always got the job done, and did it right. It also instilled respect for him among people of lower status. The second part of his charisma was his impressive understanding of military strategy. Churchill was without a doubt a better commander than a majority of the other war leaders of his time. His grasp of military strategies meant that he could speak to his generals and other officials easily and easily construct with them, at any moment of the war, a careful order of priorities. The final piece of Winston Churchill's charisma was his great oratory skills. Many authors and inspiring individuals cite many of his speeches. Churchill could make up speeches at the spur of the moment, and it is clear that his speeches broke the crust of the British social class system and brought together citizens divided by their accent, manners, education and wealth. One of his listeners thought that "every word was like a transfusion of drops of blood" (Winston Churchill - Schama - the Churchilliad). These characteristics made many people admire Churchill, and this helped him unite his country. A character in the play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar that displays charisma is Brutus. Although Brutus was not the founder of the conspiracy, he brought a sense of nobility to it, and he made its members feel that they were doing to right thing. Even his enemy Antony admired him, and expressed this by making a comment over Brutus' corpse:

This was the noblest Roman of them all. All the conspirators save only he did that they did in envy of great Caesar; he, only in a general honest thought and common good to all, made one of them. His life was gentle, and the elements so mixed in him that Nature might stand up and say to all the world, "This was a man!" (Shakespeare 432)

Without this characteristic, Churchill might have never united Great Britain and made it strong.

Another character trait expressed by Churchill was his inspiration. Churchill delivered many powerful speeches to win support of his country and inspire his country to prevail over Hitler. One of the most inspiring speeches of the last century was one in which Churchill made his famous quote, "Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, Ð''This was their finest hour'" (Sir Winston Churchill - The Churchill Centre). Another quote that shows this trait is, "Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently