Julius Caesar
Essay by 24 • March 3, 2011 • 568 Words (3 Pages) • 1,270 Views
Julius Caesar is about a tragic end of Caesar and most of the senate. The main character, Brutus, is a troubled man who doesn't know what to do. The other senators though want to assassinate Caesar for becoming to power hungry. They lead Brutus into their group and carry out their plan one day at a senate meet. Unfortunately after they do the deed Octavian and Mark Antony chase them throughout Rome. The two most complex characters are Brutus and Cassius and they are very different and in some ways very similar.
Brutus emerges as the most complex character in Julius Caesar and is also the play's tragic hero. In his soliloquies, the audience gains insight into the complexities of his motives. He is a powerful public figure, but he appears also as a husband, a master to his servants, a dignified military leader, and a loving friend. The conflicting value systems that battle with each other in the play as a whole are enacted on a microcosmic level in Brutus's mind. Even after Brutus has committed the assassination with the other members of the conspiracy, questions remain as to whether, in light of his friendship with Caesar, the murder was a noble, decidedly selfless act or proof of a truly evil callousness, a gross indifference to the ties of friendship and a failure to be moved by the power of a truly great man.
Cassius is a talented general and longtime acquaintance of Caesar. Cassius dislikes the fact that Caesar has become godlike in the eyes of the Romans. He slyly leads Brutus to believe that Caesar has become too powerful and must die, finally converting Brutus to his cause by sending him forged letters claiming that the Roman people support the death of Caesar. Impulsive, Cassius harbors no illusions about the way the political world works. A shrewd opportunist, he proves successful but lacks integrity. Cassius is a very sly person and is able to seduce anyone basically into his plot and make him or her see it in his perspective.
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