Essay Sample about Caesar: The True Tragic Hero
📌Category: | Julius Caesar, Plays, William Shakespeare, Writers |
📌Words: | 952 |
📌Pages: | 4 |
📌Published: | 22 April 2022 |
A tragic hero is a character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to their own destruction. Authors use tragic heroes to create fear in an audience through the protagonist's consequential downfall. Shakespeare often used tragic heroes to show how a character’s normal human emotion or characteristic, taken to its extreme, can eventually lead to their downfall. A great example of this is the play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar written by William Shakespeare. It tells of the brutal assassination of Caesar, a famous Roman general, and dictator of the Roman Republic. Caesar was an excellent ruler and politician, but his arrogance, ambition, and pride eventually led to his downfall.
Caesar was a great ruler but his arrogance ultimately led to his destruction. Oftentimes in the play he tests nature, because he believes he is invincible. When his wife, Calpurnia warns him not to go out, he immediately begins to ignore her warnings by saying “the gods are testing his capabilities, and even goes as far as saying that “‘Danger knows full well that Caesar is more dangerous than he” (Shakespeare Act. 2, Scene 2). This shows just how fearless and conceited Caesar has become, due to his excessive successful endeavors. Oftentimes, successful people get a little too confident and it can lead to problems, such as the possibility of being assassinated. Therefore, if Caesar was not as arrogant he may have been an even better leader.
Another problem Caesar had was that he was very self centered and he felt he was immortal. He did not seem to fear anyone, instead he was very cautious of certain people. For example, he was very wary of Cassius due to the fact he is such a keen observer, but that does not mean Caesar necessarily fears Cassius. Caesar just wants to prove he is fearless and does that by saying “‘I’m telling you what should be feared, not what I fear—because after all, I am Caesar” (Shakespeare Act 1, Scene 2). He believes that it is understandable for men to fear Cassius, but he is too strong to fear foolish men like Cassius. A man who is embarrassed of his fears and refuses to show his vulnerability creates the interpretation that they are too “godly” to have human emotions. This image is unnatural and just conceals Caesar’s weaknesses, and Cassius certainly does not buy it. Caesar being so self centered and conceited may have led to Cassius to target him, which therefore led to his assassination.
Another problem Caesar had was he was very ambitious, which often led to large problems. For instance, The main reason Brutus to joined the conspiracy was simply because he was afraid of Caesar’s ambition. He hesitated trusting Caesar with ultimate power because he believes “‘that an ambitious young man uses humility to advance himself, but when he reaches the top, he turns his back on his supporters” (Shakespeare Act 2, Scene 1). Brutus does not want to become a slave to Caesar and he is afraid if Caesar becomes any more powerful, he will turn on him. Oftentimes when people become powerful their values such as honesty, loyalty, and compassion begin to change. People often forget about those who helped them reach success, and this is the exact reason Brutus is worried about Caesar’s ambition. If Caesar was not so ambitious he may not have “threatened” Brutus, and Brutus may not have joined the conspiracy.
Caesar may have had a few personal issues but we can not deny the fact that he was a very skilled general and excellent leader. It is clear that Caesar’s talents and excellence certainly worried many people, which therefore caused several people to rebel against him. An interesting situation where this proves true is when Brutus, Caesar’s close friend, even agreed he does not wanna be a follower of Caesar because “‘I’d [he’d] rather be a poor villager than call myself [himself] a citizen of Rome under the hard conditions that this time [Caesar] is likely to put us [Roman Citizens] through (Shakespeare Act 1, Scene 2). Brutus is terrified of Caesar’s power and he knows Caesar is capable of immense things. In 44 B.C. Julius Caesar ordered the Senate to make him dictator for life, which certainly threatened to end the Republic once and for all. One man in charge of an entire republic is certainly scary, and he could certainly cause a lot of conflict. If Caesar was not so powerful and shared his power with other senators, he may not have been feared as much.
Lastly, the major reason Caesar caused his own destruction was because of his power and arrogance which caused people to be insanely jealous of him. For example, another powerful Roman general, Cassius, became very upset and felt that Caesar was just a coward who got insanely lucky. He believes that Caesar should not be so arrogant because he is not better than anyone else. He is upset and says that “‘It astounds me [him] that such a weak man [Caesar] could beat the whole world and carry the trophy of victory alone” (Shakespeare Act 1, Scene 2). Caesar’s arrogance has upset several senators like Cassius, because Caesar has not given them any credit or shared any power with him. This jealousy of Caesar certainly gave Cassius a motive to assassinate Caesar. If Caesar shared even the slightest amount of power with some of the senators, and if he was less prideful he may not have been such a “target.”
Overall, Caesar was an excellent military leader and an exceptional politician, but his bad character flaws got the best of him. His power made several people very envious of his success, and he was too self centered. Caesar had too much pride and too much ambition to meet his ultimate glory. If Caesar was more humble he could have been great, but Caesar was only as good as his accomplishments, which ultimately led to his death. Therefore, it is very clear that Julius Caesar was the tragic hero in the Tragedy of Julius Caesar, because his arrogance, ambition, and pride ultimately led to his downfall.