Reflection Essay Example: Would You Consider Brutus To Be An Honorable Man?

An honorable person is someone who is honest and does the right thing; they are good and deserve to be respected and admired. Does Brutus fit into that category? Brutus, a character from the famous story of Julius Caesar, is not an honorable man. The reason Brutus isn't an honorable man is that in everything he believes he does right for Rome, he allows his beliefs and actions to hurt him but benefit others. He also never sees himself as better than anyone else. His beliefs and actions could cause problems if he became a leader in Rome by killing an innocent man since he allowed the conspirators and himself to plot the plan to kill Caesar.

Brutus was good friends with Caesar. It broke Caesar's heart in such a way as to know that he would betray him and that he was trustworthy. In Act 2, Brutus joins the conspirators when he is convinced by them that Caesar must be killed, and only he can free Rome from tyranny. “It must be by his death; and, for my part, I know no personal cause to spurn at him, But for the general… Crown him that, And then, I grant, we put a sting in him That at his will he may do danger with. The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins Remorse from power… Then, lest he may, prevent… And therefore think him as a serpent's egg — Which, hatched, would, as his kind, grow mischievous — And kill him in the shell.” (2. 2. 10-34) While Brutus agrees that Caesar must die, he convinces the others that killing Antony would only prove them to be bloodthirsty savages. “Our course will seem too bloody, Caius Cassius, To cut the head off and then hack the limbs, Like wrath in death and envy afterwards; For Antony is but a limb of Caesar. Let us be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius.” (2. 1. 163-167)

Brutus never sees himself as better than anyone else, because his duty is, he says, “not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.” (3. 2. 21-22) In Act 3, he explains his sacrifice of Caesar's life as doing what's best for Rome. He insists that Caesar was great but ambitious, and also feared that the Romans would live as slaves under his leadership. When Antony gives out his speech to the crowd, he sarcastically persuades them by saying, “They are wise and honorable” repetitively to the conspirators that they killed an innocent man. Antony points out the wounds that Brutus and Cassius inflicted, reminding the crowd how Caesar loved Brutus, and yet Brutus stabbed him viciously. This turned the people against Brutus; although they were with him before, they weren't sure what to believe; infants followed anyone in charge, not knowing what was right. 

From Antony’s point of view, this shows us that Brutus was not a trustworthy leader to rule Rome. His people turned against him because if he would rule, they would not know what to believe in him. He and the conspirators would discuss anything to believe, like if someone was planning to kill Brutus, Brutus would rely on the conspirators to decide what he would do. Through the actions and beliefs he took from the conspirators, Brutus would abuse his power in order to protect Rome. The Roman people would not consider Brutus to be an honorable character after he led the conspirators in the killing of an innocent man, just because he believed in them and believed that Caesar would be corrupted by being king.