Examples Of Delusions In Julius Caesar

Brutus’s earlier promise of defending the general public persuades him to join the conspiracy as he believes he does the right thing, but the audience knows the letter was forged by Cassius to trick Brutus. This bad decision is based on good intent and later reveals itself as Brutus’s hamartia in the play initiating his downfall as a tragic hero in the play due to his high belief in honor he sides with the conspiracy to kill his beloved

While the reader has been led to believe in Brutus' strength of nobility, there is a touch of weakness in the self-delusion he must create before he can join the conspirators: Brutus feels that murder is wrong and so must find a way to justify his actions. It's not for personal reasons that he will do it, but for the general; that is, for the good of the people of Rome. He generalizes about the effects of power and ambition and anticipates the damage that Caesar will do when he gains the crown. He has to admit, however, that Caesar has not yet committed any of these wrongs.

" Cassius is now trying to flatter Brutus into betraying Caesar. He has now gone to the point where he will now turn friend against friend. Cassius's corruption knows no

During a fiery dispute at the tents, Brutus is infuriated and accuses Cassius of corrupting his army: “Let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself are much condemned to have an itching palm to sell and mart your offices for gold to undeservers.” Brutus is accusing Cassius of selling important positions in his army to unqualified people. With unqualified army officials, Cassius’s army has a likely chance to fail. Brutus now realizes that Cassius had manipulated him and only cared for money and political power. Brutus is deeply angered because he killed Caesar to combat corruption: “Did not great Julius bleed for justice' sake?

Because of his assumptions that everything honorable is either related to or caused by himself, Brutus possesses a lack of self-awareness and is never able to achieve it until he kills himself. Because he is obsessed with being honorable and performing honorable deeds, Brutus fails to recognize that he does not have self-awareness. When Cassius, Metellus, Trebonius, and Brutus are discussing how to murder Caesar, he asks them “be sacrificers, but not butchers, … [and] kill him boldly, but not wrathfully” (II. i. 166, 172). Brutus is really trying to make one of the worst actions in the world and something that results in a permanent exile in Rome be honorable.

Surely we cannot admire the cold pride of [Brutus]” (Hartsock 60). Throughout Shakespeare’s play, Brutus

Through his hubris, the pleasurable shaming of the victim in one's overconfidence, Brutus meets the criteria for a tragic hero when he claims himself above Caesar in terms of leadership ability. During a conversation with his close friend Cassius, one of the initial conspirators who convinces him to join their cause, Brutus reveals he “had rather be a villager then to repute himself as a son of Rome under these hard conditions as this time is like to lay upon us”, showing his questioning of a man of higher status and skill than his own (add citation). After the conspiracy he allowed himself to fall into fails, his display of arrogance leads to his tragic downfall, directing the loss of not only the empire he hoped to claim and his friends,

Brutus is a complex character, he has strict moral and ethical beliefs. He also has a reputation for being honorable and noble. But Brutus is easily persuaded, gullible, and naive. As a result, he loses his views of morality and is convinced that his actions are for his love of Rome.

Here Cassius is trying to show Brutus that Caesar is just like him and Caesar shouldn’t be king. Brutus thinks about this and they fear about Caesar being king. Just by the words of Cassius, Brutus can be manipulated so easily, making him pretty gullible. Another thing Cassius told Brutus says, “The torrent soar’d …

When Cassius is trying to persuade Brutus, he makes a good point about how, “Th’ abuse of greatness is when it disjoins Remorse from Power. (Shakespeare 2.1.18-19). Cassius explains to Brutus about how a tyrant abuses his power, and finds happiness from that. He makes this point and connects this to Caesar. Eventually, Brutus agrees because he takes an oath to “bring justice for Rome.”

For Brutus to align himself with a conspiracy is a necessary part of keeping Rome an ideal republic. Whether or not Cassius is the ideal conspirator is another story. Bloodshed is an inevitable part of life. When dictators try and change an ideal republic to a dictatorship, something drastic has to be done to keep the republic ideal. Brutus did what he had to do.

While the other conspirators the audience has been presented (most notably, Cassius and Casca) have been worried about personal matters, their own power, or money, Brutus convinces us that this is for the better good, even if it means the active killing of another person (II: i: 33-36). The fact that he can continue to be level-headed in a matter such as this is incredibly telling to his character. In direct contrast, the audience witnesses a huge change when Act IV Scene III occurs. For multiple pages of dialogue, Brutus is insulting Cassius in a fit of what seems to be pure rage (e.g. IV: iii: 21-29). It even gets to a point in which Cassius admits that he is nearly angry enough to kill Brutus, and yet this man who we’ve only seen to be sensible and level-headed for the entire play, continues to taunt Cassius.

Brutus and Cassius have conflicting values, Brutus wanted the best for the Roman people, and Cassius did it of what seemed to be envy. Brutus also tosses around the idea in his head that killing Caesar could have been the wrong choice to make to try to help the Roman people. Brutus and Cassius display a limited number of traits, but they are unquestionable. Brutus is a reputable man, and his known for being the most noble of all the Romans according to Octavius in the end of the play. Brutus also bears the fatal flaw of being naive to his actions.

Over the course of less than an act, Brutus morphs from a concerned Roman, vehemently opposed to excessive violence, to a barabarous proponent of murder on a biblical scale. In the final act of the play, upon the completion of his quest for revenge, Antony reacts to the discovery of the treacherous Brutus’s body by claiming, “All the conspirators save only he did that they did in envy of great Caesar”(V. v. 75-76). Antony speaks these words with a great amount of respect for Brutus. This open display of esteem for a criminal emphasizes Brutus’s love for Rome. Every other conspirator killed to fulfill personal gain, but not Brutus.

Cassius is able to persuade Brutus to join his cause, using the right words, but with the wrong motivations,