The ambition for more power for a corrupt leader is similar to the reaction of an addict to drugs and expecting him to stop their wrong doing. Multiple cases throughout history have shown great leaders and horrible leaders and many of them started with a sort of vaulting ambition. Even as far back as Julius Caesar we have seen examples of this since he expanded Rome to the superpower it was until his death in 44 B.C.. Even more recently we have examples like Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Bennito Mussolini where they used authoritarian powers to try and hold complete power. Some of these leaders had no conscience and could not understand or feel guilt, while some could this made them eventually go crazy when they realized what had happened. …show more content…
Throughout the play Macbeth has the vaulting ambition to gain power and to gain it through any means necessary. Macbeth first got the ambition to become king when he heard the prophecy told by the witches. This ambition was then used when he was king to hold his power as securely as he could by having Banquo killed. “To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus”(Shakespeare III.i 49-50). The quote shows how Macbeth is using the ambition he has to keep his power by having others murdered and spied upon for his own good. In history we have seen many cases where ambition blinds the person or completely takes the person over and causes them to commit heinous acts or lose responsibility. Julius Caesar is one of the first to come to mind when thinking of ambitious leaders because he had created one of the largest and longest lasting empires in history. He later had rebellions on his hands while was out trying to conquer other lands. This later caused many of the people he was close to in politics to become more popular and they had eventually turned on him leading to his death by conspirators. “An important feature of the plan was to win people over with promises of more extensive debt reform, and so to undermine Caesar's popularity”(Welch). This was Caelius’ attempt at trying to undermine Ceasar and this meant that his popularity was on the decline where others see his office as theirs now. Caesar’s quest for expansion had left many people in question and they looked at other leaders in Rome to see who would be their next Consul. Not as similar to Caesar, but Macbeth had lost popularity from when he went from Thane of Glamis and Cawdor to being the king of Scotland. When he became king he focused on making sure his office was secure and not how the people of his country felt, and it did not help when he had spies and murderers sent to anyone he
This makes Brutus and his speech seem weak and not as important, or reliable. Since Mark Antony has made the people of Rome feel bad about Ceasar’s death, they also begin to feel resentment towards Brutus and the
Many people debate who the tragic hero is in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Is it Brutus or is it Julius? There are certain attributes that make a person a hero. What are they though is the question. Is it there bravery, leadership skills, or their "perfect" qualities?
To what extent does pride elicit exploitation? Greed, deception, glory, and a lust for power, all qualities portrayed by Roman generals, senators, nobles and even the aspiring soldiers. When thinking of a scenario where all these qualities are evoked, scholars tend to think of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, moreover; when thinking of deceit and betrayal the coup initialised by Caius Cassius and pitched to Marcus Brutus is a prime example. Like the two sides of a coin, pride and exploitation are indispensable to one another.
Through the play Caesar is a liked person and the people of the town wanted him to be crowned king. He is a person who is trusts his friends and that ends up back firing. In William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Caesar portrays a tragic flaw, a realization, and moral ambiguity, which makes him the most tragic character. A tragic flaw that Caesar has is that he is very easily manipulated.
1. Introduction In William Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar, Gaius Julius Caesar is described by the character of Mark Antony as being, “…the noblest Roman of them all…” (Shakespeare Julius Caesar 5.5.67.231). Julius Caesar has been represented in history as a multi-faceted Roman leader, excelling in the military, social and political spheres of Roman life.
In Julius Caesar written by, William Shakespeare, we can see the different ways that Brutus is the tragic hero. A tragic hero is someone, who is usually noble, that makes an error in their judgement which ultimately comes back to haunt them. We can see that this is the case from Brutus because he makes a bad judgment decision. Brutus was a noble man that was well-respected and spoke very well. His great friend Julius Caesar was getting too tyrannical and he had to do something about it.
5. This quote connects back to Julius Caesar in many ways, in particular when referring to the conspirators and Brutus. Brutus is persuaded to go over to the side of the conspirators, both by Cassius’s words and the planted letters. Cassius convinces Brutus that the people want him to lead, while he himself has never seen any evidence of that. Brutus trusts that Cassius is telling him the truth, and doesn’t take the initiative to ask the people himself.
In many tragic stories throughout history there always seems to be a definitive answer on which character has the tragic ending, but in some instances, it's hard to decipher which character it is. ” Julius Caesar” by Shakespeare is one of the playwright's many tragedies in which two characters seem to have a tragic ending, yet only one really does. Brutus should be called the tragic hero of the tragedy because Caesar had the ability to prevent his downfall countless times. The character Brutus throughout “Julius Caesar” by Shakespeare had been tricked and manipulated into thinking that what he was doing was right for his country.
Confidence is a killer and it shows in William ShakeSpeare's play Julius Caesar, which in Julius Caesar is murder by his close companions because he is supposedly ambitious and this points out a flaw in Caesar which is his confidence, his close companions were so close to caesar that he had confidence in them and never suspected a thing thus it ended up being the cause of his death. Confidence also shows up in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, which happened to be that when Macbeth was told he couldn’t be killed by man of women born he was overconfident about being invincible to those he faced until one day when the woods surrounding the castle marched on it and he engaged an enemy he did not know was not women born he died because of his overconfidence.
Samantha Durand 27 October 2015 Dunipace 4th Julius Caesar Essay Brutus is the Tragic Hero William Shakespeare wrote “The Tragedy of Julius Caesar” to tell the story of the tragedy that happened to him. When Caesar was going to become king, his own friends turned into conspirators against him. Since the conspirators said that Caesar would abuse the power of being king, they decided to murder him for the sake of the Roman people.
CHARACTERS & QUOTES: Casca: Casca tells Brutus and Cassius about how Antony had offered Caesar the crown three times, but Caesar refused to accept it all three times. As the crowd cheered and celebrated the regeneration of Caesar's power, he suddenly fainted. ”The rabblement hooted and clapped their chapped hands and threw up their sweaty nightcaps, and uttered such a deal of stinking breath because Caesar refused the crown that it had almost choked Caesar, for he swooned and fell down at it.” Before he had fallen he noticed that the crowd had cheered as he rejected the crown causing him to open up his shirt and offer the commoners to cut his throat. Casca is in disbelief at what happened, even though it happened right in front of him.
In the play, ''ambition'' really has more to do with a lust for power and success. https://prezi.com/0pxbawusza71/julius-caesar-ambition-tyranny-quotes/ http://www.shmoop.com/julius-caesar/power-quotes.html CASSIUS And why should Caesar be a tyrant then? Poor man! I know he would not be a wolf
When somebody receives incredible power, they also receive a large burden of responsibility. Some people, such as Napoleon, disregard these responsibilities and become corrupt. In reality, we have seen this in leaders such as Stalin, who became corrupt once into power. In “Animal Farm”, Napoleon, a totalitarian pig, is a great example of how too much power is equal to corruption.
After achieving the title of the King of Scotland, Macbeth wants to secure his position as the king and desires to inherit the Scottish throne to his ancestors. His aim was showed in “To be thus is nothing, /But to be safely thus” (III, i, 52-3). This quote reveals that Macbeth not only wanted to become the king but also wants to secure his position as the King of Scotland for the welfare of his upcoming generation. This reveals Macbeth’s is implying the witches’ prophecies; as long Banquo’s sons live, Macbeth’s throne would not be able to inherit down to his ancestors. As the play progresses, Macbeth’s hires murderers to kill Banquo and his son, Fleance, as represented through, “Banquo, thy soul’s flight, /If
Sin’s Perpetrator and Victim Human desire knows no bounds; everyone thirsts for something. Some thirst for power, some for wealth, and others for truth. This thirst is a driving factor for most actions, but it is not always for the best. Nowhere else are the dangers of wanting more prevalent than in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. The underlying premise of the play is that one’s own ambition can end up destroying him/her and creating unintended chaos.