Julius Caesar Essay Example

Betrayal is a thought no one should have in their head. Well in the play Julius Caesar the author William Shakespeare writes about betrayal and how your closest friends could turn on you. The play focuses on brutus and the conspirators and the build up of killing the late emperor julius caesar and the downfall of the conspirators. Shakespeare uses his character brutus to show that betrayal makes someone into a mischievous backstabber this proves that when there's betrayal going on destruction and death follow right after.

Brutus shows that any amount of betrayal will lead to bad things . When it was the time for the killing all the conspirators met up with Caesar. Then Casca takes the first stab then the rest of the conspirators stab him and then the stab that mattered the most. "Et [he] Brute?" (Julius Caesar 3.1.78). As Caesar was dying he saw brutus stab him which must've been a real low blow considering how close brutus was with Caesar and brutus does this misdeed because he thinks doing this will help rome. But at the end of the day he just betrayed and killed his best friend. After the killing of Caesar he betrays Caesar once again by talking badly about him and calling him ambitous how we would have made everyone in rome slaves." had[he] rather caesar were living and die all slaves than that caesar were dead to live all free men?¨(Julius Caesar 3.2.23-24). Brutus says this to the plebians because he wants to justify his actions and the only way to appeal to these plebeians he had to lie about the type of man Caesar is and bad mouth him to get them to them to agree with him which just shows how betrayal will lead you to a path of evil and chaos.

Another way Brutus shows betrayal is at the battle of philippi when he finally realizes there's no winning the fight he makes the decision to kill himself. When he made this decision he says his goodbyes to his fellow soldiers.`` goodbye good strato–caesar now be still; [he] killed not thee with half so good a will.¨ (Julius Caesar 5.5.49-50). Brutus says this because he knows there's no chance of this fight turning in his favor he decides to kill himself but on his own terms. He does this in a way where it doesn't seem cowardly so he asks his good friend Strato to hold out his sword and he will run on the blade. As he is impaled he says this should make up for what he did to Caesar which just shows how betrayal will lead to chaos and death. Another way Brutus showed betrayal is when he switched sides and wanted Caesar dead for the better of rome. Cassius finally convinces Brutus that killing Caesar is the best thing for rome. But in reality Cassius only wants to get rid of Caesar for his own selfish reasons. ¨no not an oath. If not the face of men the sufferance of our souls¨(Julius Caesar 2.1.114-115). Brutus says this because he doesn't want to take an oath because he thinks this murder shouldnt be discussed in private he doesnt want to make it seem like what there doing is bad. He wants to be honorable and respectable but in reality what there  doing is bad even if Brutus is doing it for the good of rome.

Brutus shows betrayal when he lies to the plebians about why he killed Caesar. Although Brutus doesn't know that he killed Caesar with bad intentions because Brutus thinks he is killing Caesar for the good of rome. But in actuality he was manipulated into thinking that way  ¨Not that [He] loved Caesar less, but that [He] loved rome more.¨(Julius Caesar 3.2.22-23). Brutus says this Because he truly thinks that killing Caesar is the best thing for Rome but what he doesn't know is that the conspirators just wanted Caesar dead for their own gain. Brutus shows more betrayal when he refuses to tell his wife Portia that he is going to kill Caesar. He kept avoiding questions and acting strangely around her and Brutus did mention that he was not in good health but failed to mention that later in the week He was gonna kill Caesar. ¨[He] is not well in health, and that is all¨(Julius Caesar 2.1.258). Brutus downplays feelings to his wife to make sure she doesn't get too suspicious and when she tries getting anything out of him Brutus just avoids Portia's questions . This just goes to show how betrayal could lead to marital problems, death and destruction.

Altogether Brutus showed betrayal multiple times in this play which led him to fail many times like when he killed Caesar. That led to the big fight at philippi which ultimately led to him betraying himself again by killing himself. Shakspeare uses his character of brutus to show that betrayal is really bad and what comes around goes around. Like when Brutus lied to the plebians on why Caesar was actually killed even if Brutus did not mean it with ill intent. Another way Brutus proves that betrayal leads to bad things is when brutus bad mouthed Caesar to the plebians to make himself look good. The play Julius Caesar shows that when there is betrayal happening bad stuff is to come of the betrayal like death, self hatred and destruction.