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What Is Brutus's Downfall

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Leong Jing Yi (11) 4 Truth LIT AA 1 Brutus’ downfall was his own doing. Do you agree? “ Stoicism’s primary tenets state that we should not wish for things to be other than they are. Acceptance of fate and the realization of providence lead to complete freedom from the passions.” (qtd Gann) Brutus does not submit to the natural world, instead, he makes choices to change certain outcomes in his life. To answer to the reason for Brutus’ downfall, which was ‘his own doing’, the term is specific to the actions of Brutus himself, thus Brutus experienced downfall due to his attempts to change fate, ultimately due to his failure as a Stoic. This leads him to join the conspiracy of assassinating Caesar, which opposes the nature that Caesar was to …show more content…

Perhaps the act of murder could be seen as a success to Brutus, since he did do so for the greater good and not for personal passion, leading to him thinking that what he did was right because it was not for himself and was what a Stoic would do. However, he did not understand that a true Stoic will not attempt to change anything since he will accept everything in nature’s course. Thus, by analyzing the pursuit of Stoicism of Brutus to determine the reasons for his downfall, we can decipher whether the failure of Brutus was his own fault. Brutus’ downfall was his own doing because his actions solely depended on how much they satisfied his desires. Brutus’ desires and failure to be a stoic is seen from Act 1 Scene …show more content…

Upon hearing this, Brutus does not necessarily have to link his wrongdoing with not killing Caesar, instead, he could have considered other alternatives to change the situation of Caesar being the sole ruling leader. Brutus could be rational and try to enact change by perhaps suggesting to Caesar that a single ruler will not lead to good outcomes. This is a logical solution because Caesar, as proud as he is, will be willing to listen to the opinions of a fellow friend and family member to show that he is a wise leader. There are many other possible situations whereby Caesar does not have to be a sole ruler, either he can step down from power, or more powerful individuals such as Brutus or Mark Anthony can step up to assist Caesar in a triumvirate. The fact that Brutus did not consider his options and decided to join the conspiracy showed that his own interpretation of Cassius’ words led him to think that murder is the right thing to

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