Julius Caesar Essay: The Tragic Hero

The Tragic Hero in Julius Caesar The drama Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare is a tragedy. A tragedy is a drama that ends in the downfall of the main character. In Julius Caesar, Brutus, who is an honorable figure in ancient Rome, the setting of the play, betrays and kills his friend Caesar for the good of Rome. This event leads people to seek revenge and eventually ends with brutus’s death. I believe that Brutus is the tragic hero in Julius Caesar because his character follows the following attributes of a tragic hero; he is a person of high honor, he makes mistakes/misinterpretations, and he dies in the end. One of the main attributes that a tragic hero must be a person of some stature or high position. This means that the hero must …show more content…
For example, a tragic hero may trust someone who is scheming against them, leading to there certain downfall. For Brutus, this first happened in act 2, scene 1, where Cassius, brutus’s step brother, convinced Brutus into joining the conspiracy, a group of noblemen who believed Julius Caesar wasn’t fit to rule and would abuse his power. Cassius did so by delivering Brutus letters that he wrote, but made them appear to be from random citizens of Rome. Another example of this can be seen in act_, scene _, when Brutus convinces the conspiracy that they shouldn’t kill Antony, one of Caesar’s most loyal friends, along with Caesar. Antony later goes on to turn Rome against the conspiracy, and eventually leads an army of his own to defeat Brutus and his army in scene 5. One of the most defining attributes of a tragic hero is their downfall. In other words the hero, despite their greatest efforts, dies in the end. Brutus’s death is foreshadowed in act_, scene _, as he spoke to a crowd of Romans demanding a reason for Caesar’s death. Brutus explained that he had done the deed for the good of Rome and, if for the situation arose, he would give his very own life for the good of Rome, just as he had taken