Brutus Tragic Flaw

A detailed Summary of Brutus Tragic Flaw


A tragic hero often has three important characteristics; his superiority which makes his destruction seem more tragic, his goodness which arouses pity, and his tragic flaws. In the Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Brutus is an excellent example of a hero with tragic flaws. Brutus is superior because of his close friendship with powerful Caesar and because of his popularity with the people. The conspirators need Brutus to join the conspiracy because of his friendship with Caesar and his popularity among the people. Brutus' idealism and goodness are evident throughout the play; he sees only the goodness in people and naively believes others are as honorable as he. Even his enemy, Mark Antony, comments on these traits at the end of the play: "This was the noblest Roman of them all." Brutus' tragic flaws are idealism, honor, and poor judgment which are taken advantage of at first by Cassius and later by Mark Antony.


The turning point of the play and Brutus' major tragic flaw concerns his judgment of Mark Antony. Brutus perceives Antony as "gamesome" and harmless without Caesar while Cassius sees Antony as a "shrewd contriver." When the other conspirators want to kill Antony along with Caesar, Brutus declares, "For Antony is but a limb of Caesar. Let's be sacrificers, but not butchers." Brutus wants to be honorable which leads to the conspiracy's destruction. Another one of his mistakes is allowing Antony to speak at Caesar's funeral. Brutus sees no harm in allowing Antony to speak after he has already spoken. Antony effectively arouses the crowd's emotions with Caesar's body and will. His final fatal errors are meeting Antony's and Octavius' army at Philippi and the mistiming of his army's attack, an event which jeopardizes his armies.

Brutus continues his misjudgment when he reads the bogus letters and believes that these express the true feelings of all of Rome. T

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Approximate Word count = 654
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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