I am going to be writing firstly about Julius Caesar, secondly about Cassius and lastly about Brutus and the way of their downfalls.

A tale based on false complements, greed and manipulation, which leads to the destruction of three high status men of Rome. Flaws in personality results to tragedy- pride and ambition invites murder, greed, envy and a fiery nature leads to self destruction; and a weak hold on making judgments results to another suicide. This play was written by William Shakespear, in which he based it around 400B.C., which showed us how three significant people of Rome had died because of mistakes, they had made. Shakespear uses flaws and error of judgments among three main characters who are Caesar, Cassius and to a lesser extent Brutus to bring about their downfalls.

In this part I am going to be writing firstly about Julius Caesar, secondly about Cassius and lastly about Brutus and the way of their downfalls.

Julius Caesar met his downfall because of two things, which are his flaws and he making some error in judgment. His flaws, which led to his downfall, are pride and ambition. His flaws led to his downfall in a number of ways. Firstly, Caesar knew Cassius had a fiery nature- therefore he should of not have trusted him, and saying such men as him (Cassius) are never content when they see better people than them. This means that people like Cassius are never happy when they see someone that is better than themselves. He also showed this when he knew he shouldn’t have trusted Cassius but did trust him because of his pride in lack of fear and thought that he was not scared of him. He also showed this when he said he cannot be flattered but was, before Decius flattered Caesar through his pride. He also shows this when he sent his servant to the priest to fortune tell Caesar’s future through cutting a bird to see if it has a heart which it did not. But he interprets this through his pride saying the Gods do this in Macory of Cowardice. He also says that he is the only person on the world that is stable and is not flattered by people meaning that no one is better than him and showing how much he thinks of himself. Caesar makes an error of judgment when he does not take the Soothsayers warning about the middle of March and also when Artemidorus says he has a warning and that it is really important to Caesar, but Caesar refuses to take Artemidorus’ warning saying that anything that has got to do with Caesar it will be served last, “O Caesar, read mine first, for mine’s a suit that touches Caesar nearer. Read it great Caesar.” “What touches us our self shall be last served” (Act 3, Scene 1, Line 6 to 7 and Line 8). He also makes another error in judgment when he ignores the signs Calpurnia tells him, but he interprets them by saying they are for people in general and not him after Decius interprets them. Caesar shows his ambition when Decius says Caesar would be crowned that day if he came to the court, which is what he did, which shows that Caesar’s ambition was to be crowned like a king. Finally Caesar shows how much pride he has, when Decius flattered him and took him to the court where he says he cannot be flattered before moments he is killed by saying he is constant as the Northern star. This tells you that Caesar had a lot of pride but little ambition even though the conspirators said he had a sufficient amount of ambition for which was the reason they had killed him.

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Cassius had met his downfall because of two flaws, which are envy and greed. He also was hot tempered, which led to his death at the end. Some of Cassius’ flaws are: When Cassius says that all the people in Rome except Caesar would like Brutus to be leader just like Caesar, which is showing his bad temper about Caesar. He also used to complain about Caesar being raised above him and getting all the attention in Rome and tells a story about Caesar getting a fever and how he used to ask for help from him and how Caesar is not better than him showing Cassius’ envy. Shakespear indicated through Brutus that many of the conspirators were killing for envy, “Our course will seem too bloody, Caius Cassius, to cut the head then hack the limbs – like wrath in death and envy afterwards – For Antony is a limb of Caesar” (Act 2, Scene 1, Line 162 to 165) after suggesting they should kill Mark Antony as well. In the tent scene with Cassius and Brutus, Cassius yells and reveals himself to be hot tempered. Then Brutus accuses him of taking bribes and being greedy. He accuses Cassius of greed saying you denied my request for funding an army. Cassius admits of having informative but Brutus calls these faults and says that they are high as Mount Olympus (Mount Olympus is a mountain in Rome and the Romans used to believe that, that is where the Gods used to live). Cassius killed himself at the end by making an error in judgment when he thought they had lost the battle, when it was turning in their favor, and also when he found out that his best friend had been caught showing that he had made his decision promptly, hastily and to be the last one left. This shows that Cassius was the malevolent, greedy, and hot-tempered and was full of envy of Julius Caesar having more power than him.

Brutus was by far the noblest and dignified character but met his downfall because he had made two errors in judgment. His first error in judgment was when he started to trust Cassius and believing in him, and when Cassius suggested him to be leader he said he rather not be leader now (which is good) but also when he said he would listen to everything Cassius says which is bad because now Brutus will consider anything Cassias says and Cassius now has an advantage over Brutus when he wants something to be done. With a couple of fake letters, which Cassius wrote he convinced Brutus to be leader, who thought they were from the people of Rome, showing that Brutus was easily persuadable and that he had made a big mistake and the fact that Cassius’ first plan worked. He also made an error in judgment when he said he would explain the reason why they had killed Caesar and then let Mark Antony speak of Caesar’s death after them at the pulpits, before Cassius spoke to him, “Brutus a word with you. You know not what to do. Do not consent that Antony speaks in his funeral. Know you how much the people may be moved by that he may utter?” And Brutus replied “By your pardon, I will myself into the pulpit first and show the reason of our Caesar’s death”(Act 3, Scene 1, Line 232 to 234 & Line 235 to 237) and after Brutus spoke to the people at the pulpits and persuaded the people that Caesar was bad because he was full of pride and ambition, Antony spoke and persuaded the people that Caesar was good and the fact that Brutus, Cassius and the conspirators were bad and that they should be killed. At the end of the play Brutus commits suicide when he realizes his mistakes. This shows that Brutus had made a stupid mistake in trusting and listening to Cassius and the fact that if he didn’t then he would not have been involved in the murder of Julius Caesar and the people of Rome would of liked him.

In this essay I have written about how three people who met their downfalls from their flaws or an error in judgment, which they made. I wrote of how three heroes - Julius Caesar, Cassius and Brutus would meet their downfalls for something they believed in or a mistake they made, in brief. I explained how the three heroes met their downfalls in by summarizing their flaws or the error in judgments they made.

Abdul Thahir 10A

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