Honor And Brutus In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

Honour is arguably one of the most important themes in many of the readings done this year, and Shakespeare’s stunning piece of work, Julius Caesar is no exception. Brutus is at war with himself; trying to decide whether to stand firm beside his friend, or to kill Caesar for the betterment of Rome; while Brutus isn’t looking to be honoured for himself, and only towards the common good of Rome, he believes the people will still think him honourable for ridding the city of a potential tyrant. The complication Brutus faces with honour is that he has to rely on others, namely Cassius and the people of Rome, to give it to him since only they can decide if he was honourable. However while there are men like Caesar who have the best reputations and are on top, men beneath them are fueled by envy and willing to conspire against them for selfish reasons and individual gain. For many characters, honour is considered the …show more content…
He describes how their names sound similar enough, proclaiming a deeper meaning of Brutus’s greatness as equal to Caesars: “’Brutus’ will start a spirit as soon as ‘Caesar’./ Now in the names of all the gods at once,/ Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed/ That he is grown so great?” (1.2. 147-150). Though this doesn’t change Brutus’s mind about Caesar right away, it creates an opportunity for doubt and fear to delve deeper into his thoughts, which later returns to persuade Brutus completely about conspiring. To further convince Brutus, Cassius plants a fake letter by his window, claiming to be from Rome in a time of distress. At this point, Brutus is already deeply conflicted as he goes through the phases of attempting to come to a conclusion for what he feels he must do. After reading the fake letter from Cassius Brutus officially decides on his actions against