Argumentative Essay On Julius Caesar

Erin Hoffmann

Mrs. Reed

GATE English 10

20 April 2023

“Julius Caesar” Aptly Named The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, or just Julius Caesar, is one of the single most important and most read plays from the celebrated author William Shakespeare. Translated into over 75 different global languages and with 4 major film adaptations, the play revolves around two essential characters: Julius Caesar and Marcus Brutus. Brutus becomes involved in an elaborate scheme to kill Caesar, which is done halfway through the narrative. This raises the question of “who is more influential to the play?” And thus “is this play even named after the right man?” Despite Marcus Brutus being a prominent character in William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, the play is aptly named

Cassius, the main conspirator, calls attention not to himself but to his victim by calling out as his final dictum “‘Caesar, thou art revenged / Even with the sword that killed thee’” (Shakespeare 193) V.iii. 50-51. In this way, the focus of the moment is not on the newly slain man, but on the fatality from the beginning. The whole point of the play, then, is Caesar - his death, his reappearances as a ghost, and the calls back to him in the deaths of these characters. Soon after the death of Cassius, Brutus too kills himself. It is clear even in Brutus’ final moments that he is remembering Caesar and perhaps even regretting his killing, saying “‘The ghost of Caesar hath appeared to me / Two several times by night—at Sardis once / And this last night here in Philippi fields. / I know my hour is come’” (Shakespeare 205) V.v. 20-24. By bringing up Caesar even now, in the death of Brutus, Shakespeare diverts attention from the dying character to the already assassinated one. It is not Brutus who is celebrated in his death, but Caesar. Even Brutus’ last words reflect how central Caesar is to the tragedy: “‘Caesar, now be still. / I killed not thee with half so good a will’” (Shakespeare 207) V.v. 56-57. This play, then, is not about Brutus at all. It is and has always been about