Marcus Brutus: The Tragic Hero

Brutus: The Tragic Hero of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar

The Tragedy of Julius Caesar is a drama by William Shakespeare that depicts the calamitous downfall and assassination of the well-known roman general, Julius Caesar, by a group of contriving conspirators. If one were to hear of this Shakespearean performance in particular, and then asked who the tragic hero was. More than likely that person would name Julius Caesar as being the tragic hero, but instead the tragic hero of the play is Marcus Brutus. Unlike Caesar, Brutus possesses many of the traits that a tragic hero should have, such as a dire flaw and believe their own desires. Shakespeare focuses on implementing multiple elements into the tragic heroes of his dramatic theatrical pieces.

To begin with, Brutus has multiple traditional aspects of being a tragic hero in dramatized plays

Throughout the play Brutus had his notable heritage hinted to multiple times, such as by Cassius who had stated, “ There was a Brutus once that would have brooked th’ eternal devil to keep his state in Rome.” (Shakespeare 1.2.159-160). Within this remark it reflects that Brutus descends from the noble Junius Brutus, who had overthrown the Tarquin Kings and helped to set up Rome’s democracy which had lasted for hundreds of years up until Caesar’s death. Due to Brutus’s ancestor’s benevolent deeds, he is well-respected by many others and looks to keep up Rome’s well-balanced government, to keep the legacy of his ancestor alive. Moreover, it is characteristic for the tragic hero in many of Shakespeare's dramas to suffer a centralized catastrophe. In the case of Brutus, he had tarnished the name of