Brutus as the Tragic Hero in The Tragedy of Julius Caesar
...ople do choose Caesar for their king...yet I love him well.” (Shakespeare) Brutus is saying to Cassius that although he loves Caesar he does not want Caesar to be in a place of power as Brutus believes he will turn his back on Rome. As a result Brutus killed Caesar because at the time he believed it was the right thing to do. Brutus believes this because of his tragic flaw. Brutus’ tragic flaw is his honor and his belief that people are basically good. Brutus’ flaws are taken advantage of by Cassius and the other conspirators to try to influence Brutus to join them and kill Caesar for without Brutus the plan would not work. Brutus is the honorable man that the conspirators need to get the rest of Rome to believe in their cause and also because he was a good friend of Caesars as well as a good speaker. Another instance of Brutus’ tragic flaw is when after killing Caesar he convinces Cassius and the other conspirators not to kill Marc Antony saying that “For Antony is but a limb of Caesar. Let’s be sacrificers, but not butchers.” (Shakespeare) Brutus wants to be honorable and does not believe that Antony will act without Caesar beside him. This ultimately leads to the Conspirator’s downfall because it allows Antony to speak at Caesar’s funeral; which again happens because of Brutus’ flaw by allowing Antony to speak at the funeral after he does. And the last error that Brutus commits which ultimately led to his death was the bad timing of his attack on Antony and Octavius’ army which led to Cassius killing himself as well as to Brutus killing himself. Through Brutus’ strong sense of pride and honor he was unable to make the rights decisions and see the consequences of his actions which led to many peoples deaths including his own. Before killing himself Brutus realized that killing Caesar may not have been the right thing to do, and although he was partially tricked into believing it was what the people to do it is unknown whether or not killing Caesar was a good thing or not. Brutus has lost his life over it. At the funeral Brutus said “If then that friend demand why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer: not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.” (Shakespeare) After saying that Brutus has won the hearts of the people and they were willing to follow him anywhere, but as a ...