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Examples Of Brutus As A Tragic Hero

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Brutus’s Depiction as a Tragic Hero
According to Aristotle, a tragic hero is “a person who must evoke in the audience a sense of pity and fear” (Wikipedia, “Tragic Hero”). Aristotle gives strict rules regarding the characteristics that are essential to a tragic hero. This is why Brutus, the protagonist from Julius Caesar published, is given traits of a tragic hero by the illustrious playwright Shakespeare. Julius Caesar is a tragic Shakespearean play that is published in the 16th century Julius Caesar tells about how Brutus joins a conspiracy to kill his best friend, precipitates a civil war, and commits suicide. This essay will examine, explain, and justify Brutus’s depiction as a tragic hero.
One of the characteristics of a tragic hero is hamartia: a fatal flaw that will lead to the character’s downfall. Brutus’s hamartia is hard to spot out, but is proven to be fatal once further examined. For instance, Brutus’s main hamartia is his love towards Rome. Brutus tells Cassius that he “had rather be a villager [t]han to repute himself a son of Rome [u]nder these hard conditions” (Shakespeare I.ii:172-174) when Cassius persuades him to join the conspiracy and murder Caesar. Further along in the play, Brutus then states that he knows “no personal cause to spurn at [Caesar] [b]ut for the general” (II.i:11-12). Brutus’s love towards Rome leads him to join the conspiracy, murder Caesar, and trigger a civil war which then results to his suicide. This results in his other hamartia,
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Does his sense of patriotism really justify killing a friend and a major political leader? You may notice that Brutus isn't very sympathetic as he is defending what he did.     The dramatic character has a flaw. That flaw maybe one single word, but there can be many parts to that word. For Brutus there are many parts of his flaw that make him the dramatic character.

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The tragic flaw in Marcus Brutus was his pride. Brutus was lulled into the conspiracy to assassinate Caesar with Cassius’ flattery and also flattery in the form of letters forged by Cassius to appear that various Romans had lauded Brutus. Brutus would best fit Aristotle’s description of the tragic hero because of his pride—that is, pride in his integrity and pride in his reputation. Brutus’ pride in his integrity is demonstrated when Cassius approaches him because Brutus has “wronged” Cassius (p. 103-105) In a time of battle, Brutus attacked Cassius for defending a man who took bribes from the Sardians (p. 103).

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This could be true, but Brutus would fit more into the tragic hero persona. Some of Brutus’s tragic flaws included trusting people too much, not listening to others that have more experience, and thinking about the people more than himself. All of these flaws ultimately led to Brutus becoming a coward and committing suicide. In act 3 scene 1 Brutus kills Caesar because he thinks he is doing it for the good of Rome. In reality, when he killed Caesar he just signed his death note, and he hurt Rome more than helped.

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Brutus and Cassius are two prominent conspirators in the play Julius Caesar; one of these two fits Aristotle's depiction of a tragic hero. The difference between a normal hero and a tragic hero is that the latter will have a tragic flaw that keeps them from succeeding. These characters are often sympathetic and will cleave to the reader's pity. Firstly, we shall discuss Cassius. He was a man of questionable character.

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In conclusion, Brutus is not a villain. His conscience tells him that what he did was wrong and something had to be done about it, which ends in him killing himself. He shows lots of compassion throughout The Tragedy of Julius Caesar(JC) by William

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After the conspiracy he is considered a murderer and flees his own country, eventually committing suicide. “I would not Cassius, yet I love him well.” (I.II.83), “I killed not thee with half so good a will.” Dies (V.V.51). These two quotes strongly highlight Brutus ' change throughout the play.

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