An argument could be made that the main character, or protagonist, and hero of the Tragedy of Julius Caesar is Caesar himself. After all, the play's title is eponymous and normally, when Shakespeare named the play after the main character, for example Macbeth, Hamlet, Henry V, to name a few, the character is also the hero. This is not the case in Julius Caesar. Even though the play is named after Caesar, the tragic hero of the play is Brutus.
The definition of the tragic hero as outlined by Aristotle can be paraphrased thus:
1. A person of high birth or rank
2. The character has a tragic flaw that causes his/her downfall
3. The character recognizes that his/her downfall is caused by his/her tragic flaw
4. The audience experiences a catharsis, meaning pity or fear felt because of the hero's fate.
Brutus is a person of high rank because he is a senator, but also because he is considered Caesar's best friend.
In Act I, Scene ii, Cassius explains Caesar's feelings for Brutus and him:
"Caesar doth bear me hard; but he loves Brutus:" (I.ii)
Brutus's tragic flaw has been described in a number of different ways. Often it is explained that Brutus's flaw is his loyalty to Rome, but, on some level, Brutus's flaw is one of pride. He knows that Caesar means to become a dictator and even a king and that he will take the power away from the senators, thereby causing Rome to become a monarchy rather than a democracy. Brutus firmly believes in the will of the Roman people and that he is their servant, not Caesar's. But his pride is in the fact that he, Brutus, feels he knows what is best for the people of Rome and allows himself to be convinced by Cassius's hamfisted efforts to get him to join the conspiracy against Caesar. Cassius's dislike of Caesar is more personal than political and he manipulates Brutus to help him achieve his aims out of a sense of revenge, not sacrifice. While there is a small minority of Romans who resent Caesar's grab for power, indicated by the tribunes Flavius and Marullus and by the other conspirators, the bulk of the Roman people, the commoners, love Caesar greatly and seem to welcome the idea of Caesar becoming king. On some level, the conspirators are upset because they themselves will lose power when Caesar gains all control; so, it is merely a power struggle.
At Caesar's funeral, Brutus describes his motivation:
"If then that friend demand
why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer:
--Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved
Rome more. Had you rather Caesar were living and
die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead, to live
all free men? As Caesar loved me, I weep for him;
as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was
valiant, I honour him: but, as he was ambitious, I
slew him." (III.ii)
After Mark Antony turns the fickle Roman people against Brutus and the other conspirators, Brutus begins to suffer his downfall. The mob attacks the conspirators’ houses. Many senators die and Brutus and Cassius barely escape Rome with their lives. Brutus and Cassius gather together an army, though Antony's forces greatly outnumber them. While on the battlefield, Brutus receives word that his wife, Portia, has committed suicide. He explains how to his friend and brother-in-law Cassius (Portia's brother):
BRUTUS
Impatient of my absence,
And grief that young Octavius with Mark Antony
Have made themselves so strong:--for with her death
That tidings came;--with this she fell distract,
And, her attendants absent, swallow'd fire.
CASSIUS
And died so?
BRUTUS
Even so. (IV. iii)
Finally, as the war begins to turn, and Brutus's and Cassius's soldiers begin to abandon their posts and join Antony and Octavius's forces, Cassius commits suicide, wrongly believing that Brutus has been captured and killed. Upon finding out the news that his last friend and ally is dead, Brutus himself decides to end his life. But before this, Brutus acknowledges that he has caused his own downfall and regrets killing Caesar. His last words are:
"Caesar, now be still:
I kill'd not thee with half so good a will." (V. v)
The audience experiences pity for Brutus because he among all the conspirators believed that he was killing Caesar for the good of Rome. But because he allowed himself to be convinced by Cassius's lies, he has lost his best friend, his wife, and now has paid the final price for his pride. Antony articulates this pity in his final speech:
ANTONY
This was the noblest Roman of them all:
All the conspirators save only he
Did that they did in envy of great Caesar;
He only, in a general honest thought
And common good to all, made one of them.
His life was gentle, and the elements
So mix'd in him that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world 'This was a man!' (v. v)
Brutus fits all the characteristics of the archetype of the tragic hero.
All quotations from Julius Caesar were taken from The Literature Network at:
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