Examples Of Tragic Hero In Julius Caesar

The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle once stated that, “A tragic hero is a character who is not eminently good and just, yet whose misfortune is brought about not by vice and depravity, but by some error or frailty…” . Tragic heros typically have flaws or a flaw that causes them to struggle, causing them to have a serious error in judgement, ultimately leading to the characters own demise. In the play Julius Caesar, created by William Shakespeare, the politician Brutus displays the traits of a tragic hero. His tragic flaw is being too naive, this causes him to make a major mistake in judgement, and when this mistake occurred it causes his own downfall. Marcus Brutus was an extremely noble man which is the main reason why he deserves the title as the tragic hero of the play. First of all, throughout the whole play, Brutus never deceives anyone. Although he did stab and murder Caesar, he truly believed that it was for the better of Rome, and therefore did not deceive him. Every action that Brutus took was to benefit someone other than himself. Even though Brutus killed Antony’s best friend, Antony still refers to Brutus as the, “the noblest Roman of them all.”(Shakespeare 5.5.72-73) He says this after Brutus’ death because Brutus was the only one out of all the conspirators who killed Caesar because he, “ loved Caesar less but loved Rome more." (Shakespeare 3.2.21-22) He cared more about others than himself. For example, when planning to kill Caesar, Brutus could