Summary:
Brutus participates in the murder of Caesar in William Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar." While Brutus's motives are honorable, his actions lead to his downfall of himself and Rome. Brutus kills Caesar because he fears Julius Caesar will become king.
In the play, Julius Caesar, written by William Shakespeare, the character of Brutus is important in drawing my interest as a reader. I believe Brutus's ideals are honourable; however in reality his actions are not correct as they lead to his downfall. What interests me about Brutus is the reason he kills Caesar, and finally how he justifies the murder, the impact of his decision on Rome and himself. Julius Caesar is still relevant in the reason in the present political turmoil.
The reason Brutus participates in the killing of Caesar fascinates me because his perspective is different from the men around him. Brutus is a friend of Caesar and believes in democracy. He fears that Caesar will be crowned king but has no concrete evidence. All he knows is that Caesar refused the crown thrice, which is a fact. However, Casca informs Brutus that Caesar was reluctant to lay his fingers of the crown, this is an opinion which can be misleading, and also Casca is known for his sour nature. Brutus continues with the killing, not knowing the truth behind Caesar. This is an interesting mistake as it is similar to the mistake George Bush made when he accused Iraq of having weapons of mass destruction. We don't know for sure that Caesar would not have become king, but we do know that the one who replaces Caesar, Octavious, is the one that becomes a tyrant. Brutus is among the men who kill Caesar because he believes it is in the best interest of Rome, whereas the other conspirators participate due to person hatred and jealousy. We can see this when Brutus says, "I know no personal cause to spurn at him, but for the general he would be crowned." This shows that Brutus loves Rome more than his friend Caesar, therefore he is rightfully considered to be an honourable man. However, that does not make murder an honourable deed. This is what draws my interest to the play as it is a complicated situation. Brutus's honourable intentions are naïve and results in the fate that he would have wanted to avoid, mainly an autocratic ruler taking control.
The fashion in which Brutus justifies the murder is very interesting and clever. To mystify the horrible deed, Brutus removes the human suffering and replaces it with political ideals. Brutus juxtaposes emotive words in a couplet when he says, "Let's carve him as dish fit for the gods, not hue him as a carcass fit for hounds." The dish carved for the Gods implies that Caesar is sacrificed to the Gods of Rome, and it is done delicately be civilised people. However, the words 'hue', 'carcass' and 'hounds' build an image of savage people committing a heinous crime. Brutus also tries to rationalise Caesar's death by saying Caesar is not a man but a spirit, suggesting the spirit is tyranny. The way in which Brutus justifies the evil deed is very compelling. The justification is important in my understanding as it helps blind the public from the truth. The denial of the evil deeds and Brutus's metaphors mask the brutal reality of the bloodbath that Caesar's murder will unleash.
The impact of Brutus's decision on Rome is that battle breaks out between Brutus's and Antony's armies. Many innocent people are killed including Cinna the poet who is mistake for Cinna the conspirator. More importantly because Caesar is removed there is a power vacuum, which causes a reason to battle. Recently there is a possibility of a power vacuum among the Palestinians since Yaseer Arafat has died. To prevent a situation where a power vacuum occurs we need to follow the steps of Nelson Mandela. Mandela always took Thabo Mbeko with him to show the public that he will become the next leader and therefore there would be no power struggle. The situation in Rome could have been avoided had Brutus waited for hard evidence that Caesar would become a dictator. However, Brutus was probably too concerned about Rome and forgot about the current situation. Shakespeare highlights the folly of premature judgements throughout the play.
From this evidence we can clearly see that the character of Brutus is important in drawing my interest as a viewer. It helped my understanding of the play by studying the decision he made. Shakespeare shows us the outcome when a leader is removed. We as viewers learn that Shakespeare's theory is true because in Iraq, after America removed Saddam Hussein, there has been an increase in violence and terrorist acts
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