Julius Caesar

Drawing Brutus as an Honorable Hero in Julius Caesar 10th Grade

In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Caesar is a soon-to-be monarch who is murdered by a group called the Conspirators whose justification for their actions may be debated. Throughout the story, Brutus switches sides several times, starting as Caesar's best friend, then going on to kill Caesar, yet ultimately ending his own life with an apology to Caesar. The conversation between Antony, Octavius, Massala, Lucilius, and Stratus in Act 5, Scene 5, lines (50-81) portrays Brutus as a distinguished man whom everyone feels positively towards because he did not kill Caesar out of envy of power like the other conspirators and instead did all things for the common good, demonstrating his honorable and kind nature. In order to convey these ideas, Shakespeare uses assonance, logos, and foreshadowing respectively.

Shakespeare utilizes assonance to draw attention to Brutus’s selfless motives for killing Caesar. By acting for the good of the majority, Brutus is demonstrated to be a respectable man. Later when Brutus realizes that he had done wrong by murdering Caesar, Brutus takes an additional action deserving of repute by killing himself while stating “Caesar, now be still; I killed not thee with half so good a will”...

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