Brutus, the Tragic Hero of "The Tragedy of Julius Caesar"
Summary:
The role of Brutus as tragic hero in "The Tragedy of Julius Caesar," a play by William Shakespeare.
Marcus Brutus qualifies as a tragic hero in the play The Tragedy of Julius Ceaser by William Shakespeare. A tragic hero displays hamartia. Hamartia is the heroes reversal of fortune in classical tragedies. A tragic hero comes into a situation from which there is no escape because of the choices that he/she makes. A tragic hero is a noble character who dies because of the fact that he/she falls into forces beyond his/her control; these forces lead to the death of the tragic hero. These elements make Brutus the tragic hero.
Brutus is the tragic hero of The Tragedy of Julius Ceaser because he displays hamartia, which is the heroes reversal of fortune in classical tragedies (hamartia usually results from mistaken judgment, or weakness of character or incident). Brutus surely had a reverse of fortune, one of the may examples is shown when he and his wife, Portia, were having a discussion after the conspirators left their household. Portia wanted to know why the conspirators were at her house and what they were up to. Portia shows this by saying "(No, my Brutus:) you have some sick offense within your mind. Which by the right and virtue of my place I ought to know of" 1. Brutus, being the caring, loving, noble Roman that he is, decided that it was best for Portia not to know about the conspiracy and their doings because he thought that Portia had too much stress going on in her life. Brutus said " O ye gods, Render me worthy of this noble wife! ... Portia, go in a while, and by and by thy bosom shall partake Thee secrets of my heart. All my engagements I will construe to thee, all the charactery of my sad brows. Leave me with haste" 2. Then later on, in Act 4, Scene 3 Brutus says "No man bears sorrow. Portia is dead" 3. Brutus also says "for with her death that tidings came-with this she fell distract, and swallowed fire " 4. Portia died by swallowing hot coals. This is hamartia because Brutus made a mistake in judgment by not telling Portia about the conspiracy when she wanted to know and this was a reversal of the heroes (Marcus Brutus) fortune (his wife, Portia, died). When Portia died, Brutus thought it was best to not speak of her anymore, and to drown his sorrows in wine.
Brutus was in a situation from which there was no escape because of the choices that he made. Brutus indeed was in a situation from which there was no escape because of the choices that he made in Act 2, Scene 1, when he wasn't able to sleep in the dead of night. Not being able to sleep at night time then meant that one was up to no good because that was when the evil things were being done, and it was a bad omen. That night was the night when Cassius, Casca, Decius Brutus, Cinna, Metellus, Cimber and Trebonius came to the house of Marcus Brutus to try to get him to join their conspiracy. Ceaser was going to be crowned king of Rome the next day and the reason why Brutus decided to join the conspiracy was because he thought Ceaser being king would make life harder for the Roman people, so he did it for the good of Rome. Brutus proves this when he says "To prick us to redress? What other bond then secret Romans, that have spoke the word, And will not palter? And that other oath then honesty to honesty engaged that this shall be, or we will fall for it"" 5.This was a very noble deed because the rest of the conspirators wanted to kill Ceaser out of greed and spite. But Brutus was the only conspirator that had a good, noble motive to kill Ceaser. But Brutus decided to join to conspiracy and once he killed Ceaser, and though it was a good choice to kill Ceaser for the good of Rome, it was not a good thing to kill a good friend, especially a good a friend as Ceaser was to him.
Brutus is a noble character who dies because of the fact that he falls into forces beyond his control. These forces lead to the death of Brutus. Brutus definitely did die because of the fact that he fell into forces beyond his control. This happened at the battle of Philippi. The Battle of Philippi was a very important battle in this play because the future of Rome was at stake. This is the act that Brutus dies in because things weren't going the way he wanted, so he jumped on a sword and killed himself. Brutus was not able to control the enemy and his troops were losing. Brutus says "farewell good Strato-Ceaser, now be still; I killed not thee with half so good a will" 6. And later on, Mark Antony calls Ceaser the "noblest Roman of them all": "This was the noblest Roman of them all. All the conspirators save only he Did that they in envy of great Ceaser; He, only in 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"" 7. What mark Antony said is that Brutus is the only conspirator that didn't kill Ceaser out o jealousy and that he was a real man.
Through careful analysis, it is understandable why Marcus Brutus is thought of as the tragic hero/character of the tragedy of Julius Ceaser. Brutus displays hamartia when he chooses not to tell Portia about the conspiracy and what they were up to when she wanted to know, because she later killed herself, so Brutus made a mistake in judgment [(by not telling her what she wanted when she wanted) (he judged her as sane enough as to not kill herself)] This was also a weakness of incident (Brutus did not take her serious like she wanted). Brutus put himself in a situation from which there was no escape because of the choices that he made by killing Ceaser. He found it was okay to kill him for the good of Rome, but did not find it okay to kill a friend. Brutus also died because he fell into forces that were beyond his control because his army had no control of the enemy army at the battle of Philippi and the enemies were winning. Brutus fit's the definition of the (most in not the only) tragic hero in the play The Tragedy of Julius Ceaser by William Shakespeare.
This is the complete article, containing 1,115 words
(approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page).
