Why Did Julius Caesar Join The Conspiracy Essay

After Cassius tries to persuade Brutus to join the conspiracy, Brutus is left with his thoughts and his conscience battling to agree on right and wrong. Once Brutus reaches a decision, he is left to justify it in his mind to make him confident in what he is about to do. Even though he comes up with many reasons that may seem logical in his mind, they are still made-up reasons that Brutus is using to make himself feel better about the terrible thing he has decided to commit to. The reasons, as shown in Brutus’s soliloquy in Act II, when picked apart, have many flaws in logic and have very little sound evidence. One of the first reasons Brutus gives for joining the conspiracy is “it is the bright day that brings forth the adder, And that craves

Although Brutus thinks this is solid evidence for joining the conspiracy, it is a persuasive tactic called logos. Brutus is using false logic to justify killing Caesar just like you would a poisonous snake. This logic is not sound because a comparison is not a fact, it is Brutus predicting that Caesar will become evil and using an intimidating animal to make his tough decision sound like an easy one: killing a dangerous animal before it can hurt you. In addition to using false logic, Brutus uses another rhetorical appeal called ethos to rationalize his verdict. Brutus says “I know no personal cause to spurn at him, but for the general. (II, i,11-12).” When Brutus says this to himself it makes him seem honest and trustworthy because it begs the question, “How could killing Caesar be for the wrong reasons if Brutus has no personal stake in this?” Even though Brutus may not have personal reasons for wanting Caesar dead, this is ironic because he is still committing a serious crime that is in most cases seen as unforgivable and

Pathos plays with emotions and is a very strong way to persuade. Brutus utilizes pathos when he says “He then unto the ladder turns his back, Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees, By which he did ascend. So Caesar may; (II,i,25-27).” The interpretation of this quote is that Caesar will become extremely ambitious and he will not stop until he is powerful and the sole leader of Rome. Once he is, he will not care about all the people who have gotten him to where he is and will not be compassionate and loyal to his friends. Brutus may not know this for a fact, so he is generalizing all powerful leaders as greedy, cold-hearted people that only care about success to make killing Caesar sound like it is necessary. Despite all these reasons Brutus gives that are incredibly flawed, many may believe that he was just being creative with his use of metaphors, or that his reasons actually were logical, even if they were predications and not facts. Brutus does make some good points about Caesar being dangerous and stopping him before he becomes unstoppable, but when someone’s life is on the line, without solid reasoning, it can be easy to call Brutus a