Consequences Of Honor In Julius Caesar

The Consequences of Honor Being an honorable person requires one to follow a code of ethics for the greater good, even at the cost of his own life. If one breaks his code of ethics, he believes that living with the shame of breaking it for the rest of his life would be a “fate worse than death”. These selfless individuals care more about the needs of others than their own personal desires. However, there are people who take advantage of one’s honorable nature and use it for their own gain. This concern of acting honorably is shown in Brutus, the main character in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Brutus is too trusting of others because he assumes others have the same honorable ideals as he does in trying to do what is best for Rome. People such

Brutus blindly believes Antony’s loyalty towards Rome and the conspirators, which gives Antony the chance to foil their plans. After Caesar’s death, Antony immediately sends his servant to deliver a message to Brutus saying, “If Brutus will vouchsafe that Antony / May safely come to him” and give the reason why “Caesar hath deserved to lie in death” (Shakespeare III.i.145-147), then Antony “will follow / the fortunes and affairs of noble Brutus” (III.i.149-150). Knowing that Brutus is the least likely person to kill him out of the conspirators, as he is an honorable person, Antony takes advantage of Brutus’ overly trusting nature. In his message to Brutus, Antony acts sincere by pledging his loyalty to him in order to save himself and to be in an advantaged

During the meeting with the Conspirators at his home, Brutus says to them, “No, not an oath” (II.i.125) because “what other oath” is better “than honesty to honesty engaged” (II.i.137-138). Brutus believes they do not need to pledge an oath because he already thinks they are loyal to Rome and that none of them will “palter”. Even before getting to know the rest of the conspirators, he already assumes that they are all there to plan the assassination of Caesar in order to make Rome a better place. All the conspirators, excluding Brutus, have a personal reason on why they want to kill Caesar, whether it is out of envy or pure hatred, but Brutus does not see that they harbor strong resentment towards Caesar. When the conspirators were talking about killing Caesar, Cassius brings up that they should kill Antony too, but Brutus dismisses that notion by claiming that “Antony is but a limb of Caesar” (II.i.179). He later describes his view of Antony, calling him a person of only “sports, to wildness, and much company” (II.i.203). Brutus greatly underestimates Antony by thinking he is just a reveler who cannot do anything for himself, and is only interested in pleasurable activities. He does not think Antony cares much about politics to be involved.. Later on in the story, after Brutus finishes his speech at the funeral, the plebeians