Other aspects of Brutus’s character are also brought to light in the above quote. His love for Rome is emphasized; although Brutus is close to Caesar as a friend, he is also open to the idea of assassinating him for the sake of his country. From another point of view, his true nobility as a human is questioned, as he is willing to kill a friend for the sake of politics and Rome.
Cassius’s character is also brought to light in this last stanza. Cassius compares himself to Brutus in lines 312-313 (“If I were Brutus now and he were Cassius, He should not humour me.”), and shows a stark contrast between the two characters. Cassius indicates that he would not be so easily convinced if he were in Brutus’ position, illustrating that Cassius is not a man to be easily persuaded and has a great deal of respect for Pompey, which cannot be easily deterred.
However, these lines also illustrate how Cassius would act in his own self-interest. Brutus is noble and will sacrifice his self-interest for the general good if persuaded well enough that Caesar will oppress the Roman Empire. Contrastingly, Cassius considers Caesar his enemy, but wants to stay on his good side. Thus for the sake of his own interests, he draws Brutus into a conspiracy against Caesar. When Cassius says, “Caesar doth bear me hard, but he loves Brutus” (line 11), he shows that he knows Caesar has doubts about him, but that Caesar trusts Brutus completely because Brutus is so noble and respectable. This is extremely important to the play because if Brutus is to be involved in the conspiracy, it is less likely that Caesar would be doubtful and suspicious of any ideas involving Cassius and the senators because Brutus is alongside them as well.
Cassius’s cunningness and desperation are displayed with his idea of writing letters and throwing them towards Brutus’s window to influence his decision. This is an excellent idea because Cassius believes that because Brutus has a noble mind and wants to act for the common good he will not respond to obvious flattery, or obviously envious and self-interested attacks on Caesar. Everything has to be done by hints, which will make Brutus believe that he is drawing his own conclusions. Any by sending these letters, it is foreshadowed that Brutus will accept Cassius on his offer because the ‘citizens of Rome’ are asking him to take the place of Caesar.
This idea also displays Brutus’s open-mind towards the conspiracy because Cassius is a smart man (as demonstrated in how he was able to derive Brutus’s opinion on Caesar earlier on in the scene) and he would not try such a ploy if he knew that Brutus had a completely closed mind to the entire idea.
However this idea also implies Cassius’s desperation for overthrowing Caesar. He is willing to commit forgery to Brutus to his side. This displays his hunger for power and wealth in politics.
Line 320 is a foreshadow of the events to come (Caesar’s death) because “for we will shake him, or worse days endure,” indicate that Cassius will go to all lengths to get rid of Caesar as a leader because Caesar’s ambitions for Rome are the is the largest of the problems in the Empire in Cassius’s opinion, and they must get rid of him or all hell will break loose. Because Caesar is such a powerful man who is currently greatly loved by the general public, the only way Caesar can be conquered and removed from power at the moment is by assassination and it is clear that Cassius is content to get rid of Caesar, so a murder must take place.
This last stanza of Act 2 also solidifies the greatness of Brutus in the public and senators eyes because words such as “great opinion” (line 316; in reference to Brutus’s opinion) and “thou are noble” (line 306; referring to Brutus) are always used whenever Cassius is speaking of Brutus. This signifies the importance Brutus has towards the success of the assassination of the Roman leader.
