The Tragedy of Julius Caesar was one of my favorite plays we read this semester. Having never read the play before, I was surprised at how quickly Caesar is murdered in Act 3.1. As we said in class, it’s not Caesar himself who is a tragic character–it’s the event of his death. By the end of the play, I felt like the play should have been called The Tragedy of Brutus because the play richly illustrates his own demise.
All of the tragedy is foreshadowed by the Soothsayer, who warns “Beware the ides of March (1.2 19). Of course, Caesar ignores this: “He is a dreamer. Let us leave him. Pass” (1.2 26). That he ignores the repeated warnings of the Soothsayer coincides with Cassius’ description of Caesar as “bestrid[ing] the narrow world/Like a Colossus”, and that he and Brutus are “petty men”, “the underlings” (1.2 136-137, 142). It’s as if Caesar is this larger than life figure that Cassius cannot bear to approve of; he will not be the little guy while Caesar is the Colossus.
While it’s easy to chalk Cassius’ villainy up to jealousy and power plays, Brutus’ motives are more complex. “Remember March, the ides of March, remember./Did not great Julius bleed for justice’ sake?/What villain touched his body, that did stab/And not for justice” (4.2 70-73). Clearly, Brutus sees the act of murdering Caesar not as a crime but as an act of justice. He didn’t want Caesar’s ambitions to corrupt Rome and thought he was doing the right thing for the Roman people.
However, I found it odd that Brutus repeatedly calls Caesar one of his dearest friends; after all, what kind of friend stabs you to death? Following Caesar’s violent death, Brutus explains that he will tell his fellow Romans “Why I, that did love Caesar when I struck him,/Have thus proceeded” (3.1 183-184). His confidence in doing the right thing is terrifying. Brutus also rationalizes his crime by saying he’s done Caesar a favor by having “abridged/His time of fearing death” (3.1 105-106). It’s the ultimate betrayal of friendship and perhaps that is why Shakespeare decided to have Brutus be the last one to stab Caesar, “the most unkindest cut of all” (3.2 177). That last stab is so horribly tragic and disgusting that Caesar must ask “Et tu, Brute?” (3.1 77) before he falls and dies.
As a reader, I found redemption in Mark Antony’s speech. By using Caesar’s body as a prop, he appeals to the plebians in a way that won’t mark him as an outright traitor. He is also careful to repeatedly call Brutus “an honourable man”(3.2 91, 96, 121) but in a way that both subverts and supports that claim. Perhaps Brutus wanted to help his fellow Romans, but he was persuaded by Cassius and his fellow conspirator’s tongues. I think it’s his shame and loyalty to Rome that drives him to kill himself: “Caesar, now be still. I killed not thee with half so good a will” (5.5 50-51). I interpreted those lines to mean that he knows he was corrupted by the powers of persuasion; he has more faith that he is doing the right thing by killing himself than he did when he stabbed Caesar. It’s the real tragedy of Brutus because he has lost everything, his life included, at the end of the play.
Great incites on The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, and I like how you integrated our class discussions into your analysis. Brutus is definitely a complicated character, like you mentioned, because he considers Caesar his friend, yet kills him anyway for the good of Rome. Moreover, it’s interesting that Cassius is the main conspirator that instigates Brutus’s murderous motives, but he’s also the one that commits suicide after his friend, Titinius, supposedly dies. It’s such an interesting contrast between Cassius’s value of friendship and Brutus’s friendship with Caesar. Furthermore, Brutus is such an intriguing and tragic character because he tells the roman people, “With this I depart: that as I slew my best lover for the / good of Rome, I have the same dagger for myself when it shall / please my country to need my death,” (3.2.41-43) and he does in fact kill himself with the same weapon in the end. Again, great analysis, Alyssa!
Alyssa, I definitely agree with your point that this is the tragedy of Brutus, rather than of Caesar (as a person). Brutus is tortured throughout the entire play, and while he is persuaded by Cassius’ claim that killing Caesar will solve the country’s problems, he still has glimmers of doubt before he does it, unlike many of the other conspirators. Brutus also certainly suffers the most out of all of the characters. He is plagued by guilt, and on top of that he is haunted by Caesar’s ghost. He is singled out by Mark Antony and is forced to flee the city with Cassius. His wife kills herself, and shortly after that, he loses Cassius as well. Even Mark Antony’s declaration that Brutus was “the noblest Roman of them all” (5.5.68) hints to the idea that this story is Brutus’ tragedy.
I also agree that shame and loyalty to Rome drove him to kill himself, in addition to the loneliness he must feel after he loses some of the closest people to him.