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Bulette Stevens

Brown

SHLA 2nd

23 March 2010

Brutus Strikes Out

In the time of 1599, William Shakespeare, a playwrighter, wrote a tragedy,

a series play with an unhappy ending, called The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. In

the drama, in 44 B.C, Julius Caesar, dictator of Rome, acted ambitiously;

consequently, Rome polarized into his supporters and his enemies, who do

not support his ambitious actions. Brutus, a senator of Rome and friend of

Caesar, wants the best for Rome; however, he later partakes and leads the

conspiracy by making the decisions. As the tragic hero, Brutus makes three

fatal mistakes.

As the tragic hero, Brutus constructs the error of not making an oath

because of his idealism. Brutus assumed that the rest the conspirators

planned to kill Caesar for the same reason. Brutus addressed the

conspirators “If these be motives weak, break off bedtimes; And every man

hence to his idle bed.” (2, 1, 11) Brutus wanted to kill Caesar for the good of

Rome, whereas the rest of the conspirators were doing it out of

possessiveness and hatred. Consequently, six of the conspirators fled during

the riot and the six died, while the riot killed an innocent poet. Soon after the

conspirators agreed to not make an oath, Antony enters. Instead

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of killing Antony, Brutus convinces the conspirators to do the opposite, which

leads to Brutus’ second mistake.

As the protagonist, Brutus creates the mishap of not killing Antony because

of his idealism. Brutus underestimated Antony; therefore, he assumed he

would take no action. He thinks Antony, young and athletic, would not

threaten the conspirators whatsoever. Despite Cassius’ warning that Antony

should die because of his loyalty to Caesar and Antony’s reaction to the

corpse of Caesar; nevertheless, Brutus comes up with a false conclusion

about Antony. Brutus shares “For Antony is but a limb of Caesar.” (2, 1, 165)

Antony, young and powerless, does not have any control, despite the fact he

took the place of Caesar’s right-hand man. Unfortunately, due to the

underestimation of Antony, Antony mentally listed all the conspirators in his

head and plotted his revenge against the conspirators, in regards to Caesar.

As the play continued, obviously Brutus has not seen through Antony’s

exterior and allows Antony to speak at the funeral of Caesar, which leads to

his third mistake.

As the conspirator, Brutus forms the choice of letting Antony speak

because of his idealism. Brutus is unable to see Antony’s true mission: to

avenge Caesars’ death. Cassius warned “Know you how much the people

may be moved; by which he will utter.” (3, 1, 235-236) Cassius warned

Brutus if Antony spoke at the funeral he may sway the crowd on his side.

Brutus’ choice ultimately sealed the fate of the comparators, as Antony

persuaded the crowd using charismatic factors, bringing out the body of

Caesar and naming the conspirators, while

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pointing at every wound; subsequently, this resulted in angry crowd killing

six conspirators and starting a battle in which Cassius and Brutus die in.

As the tragic hero, Brutus makes three defect mistakes because of his

idealism. The first mistake, Brutus should have made an oath. The second

mistake, Brutus did not kill Antony and underestimated him. The third

mistake, Brutus let Antony speak at the funeral. Because of these three

mistakes Brutus made, many people died, some innocent and some guilty.