Julius Caesar Flaws

There is no perfect person in existence. Everyone has flaws and flaws are what makes us human. Something else that makes us human is our essential need for a hero, and more often than not we attribute a certain “perfection” quality to heroes. In a bitter reality, even our heroes have flaws. The nearest thing to the ideal person, or hero, is the Shakespearean tragic hero. In Julius Caesar, our tragic hero is coincidentally our most complex character. Marcus Junius Brutus, a senator who ultimately spearheads the conspiracy to murder Caesar, reveals himself throughout the play as a hero who brings about his own destruction through a terminal flaw. Marcus Brutus is a tragic hero because he is someone of high standing in the Roman community, he …show more content…
He valued the good of Rome above all else, a dear friend to his nation. Brutus’s reasoning for assassinating Caesar was not out of detest, but out of fondness for his country, because he was fearful of what Caesar might become if he was given absolute power. Not only was Brutus a companion to Rome, he also appeared throughout the play as a husband, a kind master, a distinguished military leader, and a loving friend. Throughout the play following the slaughter of Caesar, Brutus is tormented with internal conflict as to if the murder was a noble, selfless act or the result of truly evil and jealous intentions. At one point he is confronted by a spirit which resembles Caesar, no doubt a manifestation of his …show more content…
He joins the conspiracy not because he “loved Caesar less but loved Rome more.” This means that while he was a friend to Caesar, he cared for the welfare of Rome more. Brutus joins the conspiracy under the premonition that he is preventing the possible despotism by Caesar and becoming the future savior of Rome. He also trusts the intentions of the other conspirators, believing they kill for the same reasons as he. Brutus makes a blunder thinking that they are as noble and trustworthy as he is. He also makes some fatal miscalculations. Wanting to lessen violence, he ignores Cassius when he suggests that they also kill Mark Antony as well as Caesar and again with childlike trusting, when he again ignores Cassius’s advice and allows Mark Antony to speak at the funeral of Caesar. As a result, Brutus allows Antony to incite the Roman people to riot against the conspirators, which in turn directly causes a civil war that ultimately brings about his own