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Examples Of Brutus As A Tragic Hero

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Brutus’s Depiction as a Tragic Hero According to Aristotle, a tragic hero is “a person who must evoke in the audience a sense of pity and fear” (Wikipedia, “Tragic Hero”). Aristotle gives strict rules regarding the characteristics that are essential to a tragic hero. This is why Brutus, the protagonist from Julius Caesar published, is given traits of a tragic hero by the illustrious playwright Shakespeare. Julius Caesar is a tragic Shakespearean play that is published in the 16th century Julius Caesar tells about how Brutus joins a conspiracy to kill his best friend, precipitates a civil war, and commits suicide. This essay will examine, explain, and justify Brutus’s depiction as a tragic hero. One of the characteristics of a tragic hero is hamartia: a fatal flaw that will lead to the character’s downfall. Brutus’s hamartia is hard to spot out, but is proven to be fatal once further examined. For instance, Brutus’s main hamartia is his love towards Rome. Brutus tells Cassius that he “had rather be a villager [t]han to repute himself a son of Rome [u]nder these hard conditions” (Shakespeare I.ii:172-174) when Cassius persuades him to join the conspiracy and murder Caesar. Further along in the play, Brutus then states that he knows “no personal cause to spurn at [Caesar] [b]ut for the general” (II.i:11-12). Brutus’s love towards Rome leads him to join the conspiracy, murder Caesar, and trigger a civil war which then results to his suicide. This results in his other hamartia,

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