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Julius Caesar Brutus Foil Essay

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In William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, Cassius is a foil to Marcus Brutus, for Brutus is consistently described as honorable and kind, contrasting the always clever and self-centered, Cassius. Cassius acts as a character who goes against the virtues and weaknesses of the main character. Brutus announces, “Why man, he doth bestride the narrow World like a Colossus, and we pretty men Walk under his huge legs and peep about To find ourselves dishonorable graves” (Shakespeare I. 2. 142-145). By appealing to Brutus' feeling of honor and loyalty to Rome, Cassius hopes to persuade him to join the conspiracy against Caesar. When Cassius says this, he is using his cunning ways to exhort Brutus to act against Caesar before he subdues them with …show more content…

Cassius prevails, “Hear me, good brother” (Shakespeare IV. 3. 2223). Cassius is expressing the hope with careful word choice appealing to Brutus’ loyalty, that the reader would understand his love for Brutus and manipulation. He desires that the reader experience his feelings. Cassius makes a telling soliloquy early on in the play after feeling as though he has almost convinced Brutus to serve as the head of the plot against Caesar. People often evaluate others based solely on themselves. When Antony visits the conspirators after Caesar's murder, Brutus greets him kindly and with trust because, erroneously, he believes Antony to be an honest and reliable person. On the other side, Cassius evaluates Antony by himself and surmises that he is equally shrewd and treacherous. Cassius tries to have him slain alongside Caesar, but Brutus overrides him with his customary charity and kindness. Brutus says, “By them shall make a fuller number up, Come on refresh'd, new-added, and encouraged;From which advantage shall we cut him off” (Shakespeare IV. 3. 2218-2221). We can see that Brutus is speaking in terms of logos because he is preparing to travel to Philippi. His strategy relies heavily on

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In Cassius’s speech to his brother he uses the method Ethos and establishes credibility and appeals to ethics or morals. One of the ways he does this is by saying that “[their] fathers say There was a Brutus once who would have brook’d The eternal devil” (Shakespeare 20-21). This shows that wiser people before them said that Brutus was strong and therefore, lends a hand towards Cassius’s argument that he should take action. Also by stating “I, as Aeneas, our great ancestor Did from the flames of troy upon his shoulder… Did I the tired Caesar” (Shakespeare 20-21).

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This is powerful in manipulating Brutus, because Brutus is an honorable man, and he is always concerned with what the most honorable decision is. Moreover, Cassius distorts Brutus' view of Caesar by telling Brutus that, "[Caesar has] become a god," and that Cassius "is a wretched creature," that if, "Caesar... [nods at] him," he, "must bend his

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What— did one of us strike down the most powerful man in the world in order to support robbers? Should we now dirty our fingers with lowly bribes and sell the mighty offices that we hold for whatever gold we can get our hands on? I'd rather be a dog and howl at the moon that be that kind of Roman.” (Shakespeare 169) Brutus is painfully obvious (at least he is from Cassius’ point of view) when he confides to Cassius that he believes that Cassius wasnt as honest about what his intent and motives for killing Caesar were.

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Cassius indirectly states that the reason for him wanting to kill Caesar is so that he can gain power. Brutus on the other hand wants to kill Caesar because he fears that Caesar will be corrupted by the newly founded power and abuse it. Brutus’ goal is to make Rome better for the people. This act by Brutus can be seen throughout the story at several different occasions. Through these interactions between Brutus and Cassius it shows just how noble, respected, kind hearted and unselfish Brutus was.

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In the play “The Tragedy of Julius Caesar” written by Shakespeare, Brutus is portrayed as honorable, this is shown throughout the play with the use of Shakespeare's descriptive language. An example of this is when Shakespeare holds a conversation between his two characters, Cassius and Brutus, he says “I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus, As well as I do know your outward favor. (1.2.92-93)” . With the conversion between Brutus and Cassius. Cassius helps to reveal to the audience that Brutus is loyal, as he sees the virtue within Brutus.

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Most of this play centers around the conspirators in the plot to assassinate Julius Caesar, and the main conspirator was Cassius. During the first half of the play Cassius’ main goal was to convince Brutus to betray his best friend Caesar and join the conspiracy. Cassius’ best skill in speaking skill was manipulation; in order to get Brutus on his side Cassius lies and manipulates Brutus by telling stories about Caesars weaknesses and praising Brutus on his honor. Cassius boosts Brutus’ on many occasions, starting his story about Caesar stating, “I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus,/ As well as I do know your outward favor./ Well, honor is the subject of my story” (1.2.92-94).

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With only a few words exchanged between the two, Cassius was able to use Brutus’ devotion towards the people of Rome and turn it into a weapon through the use of flattery. By telling Brutus that he is

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But let not therefore, my good friends, be grieved Among which number, Cassius, be you one Nor construe any further my neglect Than that poor Brutus, with himself at war, Forgets the shows of love to other men.” (Act I, Scene II, 39-49) From some of the first words from Brutus he describes his internal conflict regarding his love for Caesar and the stability of Rome. He tells Cassius how he believes that Caesar's ambitions may lead to Rome’s demise. “And it is very much lamented, Brutus, that you have no such mirrors as will turn your hidden worthiness into your eye That you might see your shadow.

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While Brutus maintains noble intentions, Cassius goes into this scheme with every intention of leaving everyone else behind to claim the power for himself, as he has been compelled by their society to do. Cassius tells Brutus that Caesar “doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus” while convincing him that Caesar is accumulating too much power for one man, despite harboring the belief that all of that power should be his (JC I.ii.142-143). To further prove his point to Brutus, Cassius gives Brutus fake letters telling him that the common people would rather have Brutus in charge than Caesar. While this is just Cassius himself manipulating Brutus, Cassius is motivated by the pressures of their society and Brutus, motivated by the belief that his society wants him to, joins the conspirators in their plot to kill Caesar and take power for themselves. Caught in a vicious cycle of societal pressure, these men continue to fight for power even after they achieve their original goal as evidenced by the civil war that breaks out following the assassination of Julius

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He is known for being a highly honorable man, so much so that Cassius persuades Brutus to join the conspirators to bring honor to the cause. He tells about his reasons for killing Caesar at his funeral and says, “Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.” Although the other conspirators had different motives and much more hate towards Caesar, Brutus truly did not have a problem with him. Brutus believed that he would become a tyrant and be corrupted by his power. While Brutus is in his garden, deciding whether or not to join Cassius, he says to himself, “It must be by his death; and for my part, I know no personal cause to spurn at him, But for the general.

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753 Words | 4 Pages

Cassius is good at using things that Brutus would talk about to manipulate him into thinking he is better than Caesar. Over the period of the play, Brutus is manipulated and one of the first things that happened is that Cassius boosted Brutus’s confidence a

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528 Words | 3 Pages

Cassius wants Brutus to think that if Throughout the play Julius Caesar, written by William shakespeare, Cassius uses manipulation to form his group of conspirators and make them perform his biddings. Most importantly, Cassius turns Brutus, one of Caesar’s greatest friends, to his side through various creative tactics. Body 1: During the Feast of Lupercal, Cassius pulls Brutus aside to begin his manipulative plan. Cassius explains to Brutus that “Men are sometimes masters of their fates”. They have the potential to change their future.

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Cassius uses manipulation in order to get Brutus to join the conspiracy and turn him against Caesar. First off, Cassius tells a story about Caesar and how he cried “Help me, Cassius or I sink!” (1.2.118). In this story, Caesar and Cassius challenge each other by trying to swim across rough waters. Cassius tries to convince Brutus that Caesar is not worthy of a crown by telling this story because the story shows how Caesar is weak and undeserving to be the ruler of Rome.

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Brutus is without a doubt the most noble character in this play. Nonetheless, his impeccable sense of morality also blindfolds him to other people’s sordid motives and makes him easy to be manipulated. Indeed, Brutus is easily manipulated by Cassius in Act 1, Scene 2. In hope to convince Brutus to join the conspirators, Cassius says “Men at some time are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings” (1.2.150-152). As a result, Brutus starts to believes that it is his job to murder Caesar, as he says in Act 2, Scene 1: “It must be by his death: and for my part, I know no personal cause to spurn at him, but for the general” (2.1.14-16).

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1409 Words | 6 Pages

Unfortunately, Cassius uses Brutus’ altruistic characteristic and devout loyalty against him by sending fake letters with concerns regarding the crowning of Caesar for Brutus to read and be persuaded to join the conspirators. Cassius’ manipulation of Brutus serves as an example of how Shakespeare

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