Major characters of Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

Shakespeare creates in Caesar a character who is sometimes reasonable, sometimes superstitious, sometimes compassionate, and sometimes arrogantly aloof. Casca and Antony’s attitude toward Caesar demonstrates that they consider him a man whose every wish should be considered a command by the citizen of Rome.

Caesar does not fear Cassius because he believes himself to be beyond the reach of mere humans, and he caps his explanation of his incapability of experiencing fear by observing,”.., for always I am Caesar.”

His partial deafness provides an obvious contrast between the conceptions of this this aging man vain man who perceives himself in godlike terms. Caesar compares himself to the gods of Olympus.

Caesar openly displays a superstitious nature, but from the beginning he displays a propensity to ignore warnings and signs that should alert a man of his beliefs. He ignores the soothsayer, Calphurnia, the many portents, his priests, and finally Artemidorus because he has ceased to think of himself as a fallible human being, and because he passionately wants to be crowned king. He does not fear Cassius, although he knows him to be a danger to political leaders, because he believes that he and Cassius occupy two separate levels of existence. Cassius is a man; Caesar is a demigod. He even comes to think himself as more terrible than “danger”.

His sense of superiority to his fellow humans, as well as overriding ambition to be king, ultimately prevent him from observing and reasoning clearly. Caesar stages a mock refusal of the crown, thinking that he will build a desire in his audience (the plebeians) that he eventually accepts it. Caesar’s stage managing backfires though, and instead of acclaiming him, the people act like a real audience passing judgment on the quality of the spectacle.

Antony

Antony is loyal to Caesar as dictator and as a friend. Following the assassination, Antony quickly Brutus grasps that he must deal with Brutus, and he has the shrewdness to take advantage of Brutus’ naïveté. He is not in the slightest degree deterred by considerations of honesty when dealing with those whom he wishes to deceive or manipulate. He knows that Brutus wants to believe that he (Antony) will join the conspirators’ cause, and he takes advantage of Brutus’ hope when he falsely tells the conspirators, “Friends am I with you all, and love you all.”

He will also freely use half-truths and outright falsehoods to sway the mob at the Forum to do what he wants.

Antony faces danger in this meeting from Cassius, who knows him to be a “shrewd contriver,” and from the other conspirators, who knows him to be a friend of Caesar.            He will turn the citizens to rebellion by professing that he does not want to stir them up. Antony, in reality, wants two things: to avenge Caesar’s murder and to rule Rome. In order to do both, he must first undermine public confidence in the republicans, and second, he must drive them from power by creating a chaotic situation that will allow him to seize power in their place. In his soliloquy in the Capitol, Antony reveals that he intends to create civil strife throughout Italy, and in his oration he sets it off to a promising start. He wants to create rebellion and overthrow the republicans so that he and Octavius can fill the vacuum, and he succeeds to the fullest measure. From his soliloquy in the Capitol until the end of the play, he is constantly ambitious, confident, successful, and exceptionally ruthless.

He has some personality conflict with Octavius, but he is able to relegate it to the background so that their differences are always secondary to their struggle to defeat Brutus and Cassius. Antony is also particularly adept at locating the most advantageous point of attack in all of his confrontations. In the Capitol, rather than confront all of the conspirators, he concentrates on Brutus’ naïve sense of honor and nobility. In the Forum, rather than construct a reasoned argument against the assassins, he appeals to the emotion with which he saw the crowd respond to Brutus’ speech. At Philippi, when Brutus leaves Cassius’ army exposed. Antony attacks immediately. At conclusion of the play, when Brutus and Cassius are dead and the republicans thoroughly defeated, he publicly praises Brutus in order to set about healing the political wounds of Rome. Ironically, Brutus hoped to remove arbitrary government from Rome by assassination, but by murdering Caesar, he established the conditions for an even more ruthless tyranny to seize power in the persons of Antony and Octavius.

Octavius

In order to stabilize the political situation in Rome following the assassination and to solidify the triumvirs’ control of the government, Octavius is willing to conduct a ruthless reign of the terror during which the opponents to the triumvirs are methodically slaughtered.

Octavius exhibits creditable insight in his observation that all who currently act friendly to the triumvirs are not indeed friends and in his attitude toward Antony throughout the play He knows that he is in a power struggle with Antony that will intensify after they have defeated their enemies, and he knows enough about Antony’s thirst for power to protect himself from domination by Antony.

Consequently, he is not reluctant to disagree with Antony, as he demonstrates in his defense of Lepidus (“he’s a tried and valiant soldier”), in his pointing to Antony’s error in predicting that Brutus and Cassius would not come to Philippi, and in his insistence that he will fight on the right-hand side of the battlefield at Philippi and not the left-hand side as Antony orders.

However, Octavius does not let his determination to remain independent interfere with following Antony’s advice when he realized that Antony speaks from experience, as he demonstrates in agreeing to allow Antony to make Lepidus junior partner in the Triumvirate, in agreeing with Antony that the most important matter at hand is following the assassination is to prepare to meet the republican armies, and in accepting Antony’s decision that they should fight from defensive positions at Philippi and allow the enemy to initiate the battle. Octavius is also supremely confident that he will succeed in defeating his enemies at Philippi and in organizing a successful new government of Rome.

Brutus

Brutus is the most complex of characters in this play. He is proud of his reputation for honor and nobleness, but he is not always practical, and is often naïve. He is the only major character in the play intensely committed to fashioning his behavior to fit a strict moral and ethical code. He cannot justify, to his own satisfaction, the murder of a man who is a friend and has not excessively misused the powers of his office. Consequently, thinking of the assassination in -terms of a quasi-religious ritual instead of cold-blooded murder makes it more acceptable to him. Unfortunately for him, he consistently misjudges people and the citizens of Rome.

Brutus is guided in all things by his concepts of honor.  He speaks of them to Cassius, and he is greatly disturbed when events force him to act in a manner inconsistent with them. Consider his anguish when he drinks a toast to Caesar while wearing a false face to hide his complicity in the conspiracy. Ironically, his widely reputed honor is what causes Cassius to make an all-out effort to bring him into an enterprise of debatable moral respectability. Brutus’ reputation is so great that it will act to convince others who are as yet undecided to join.

Brutus’ concentration on honorable and noble behavior also leads him into assuming a naïve view of the world. He is unable to see through the roles being played by Cassius, Casca, and Antony. He does not recognize the bogus letters as having been sent by Cassius, although they contain sentiments and diction that would warn a more perspective man. He underestimates Antony as an opponent, and he loses control over the discussion at the Capitol following the assassination by meeting Antony’s needs too readily. Brutus as a naïve thinker is most clearly revealed in the scene in the Forum. He presents his reasons for the assassination, and he leaves believing that he has satisfied the Roman citizens with his reasoned oration. He does not realize that his speech has only moved the mob emotionally; it has not prodded them to make reasoned assessments of what the conspirators have done.

Brutus believes that he has acted honorably and nobly. In the tent at Sardis, after learning of Portia’s death and believing that Cassius is bringing discredit on the republican cause, Brutus becomes most isolated. He attacks Cassius for raising money dishonestly, yet he demands a portion. His private life is destroyed, and he also has difficulty avoiding the taint of dishonor in his public life.

His final words, “Caesar, now be still: / I kill’d not thee with half so good a will,” are almost a supplication for the end to his mental torture.

On the other hand after he’s committed to a plan he does not waiver. He quickly takes command of the conspiracy and makes crucial decisions regarding Cicero and Antony. He does not, however, make adequate plans to solidify republican control of government following the assassination, and he too readily allows Antony to speak.

Nevertheless, at the end, Brutus is a man who nobly accepts his fate. He dismisses the ghost of Caesar at Sardis. In his last moments, he has the satisfaction of being certain in his own mind that he had been faithful to the principles embodying the honor and nobility on which he his placed so much value throughout his life.

Cassius

The most significant characteristic of Cassius is his ability to perceive the true motives of men. Caesar says of him, “He reads too much; / He is a great observer and he looks / Quite through the deeds of men.”

Cassius believes that the nobility of Rome are responsible for the government of Rome. They have allowed a man to gain excessive power; therefore, they have a responsibility to stop him, and with a man of Caesar’s well-known ambition, that can only mean assassination.

Cassius intensely dislikes Caesar personally, but he also deeply resents being subservient to a tyrant, and there are indications that he would fight for his personal freedom under any tyrant. To accomplish his goal from moving Caesar from power, he resorts to using his keen insight into human nature to deceive Brutus by means of a long and passionate argument, coupled with bogus notes. In the conversation, he appeals to Brutus’ sense of honor, nobility and pride more than he presents concrete examples of Caesar’s tyrannical actions. Later, he is more out rightly devious in the use of forged notes, the last of which prompts Brutus to leave off contemplation and join the conspiracy. Cassius later uses similar means to bring Casca into the plot.

Throughout the action, Cassius remains relatively unconcerned with unscrupulous means he is willing to use to further the republican cause, and at Sardis, he and Brutus come almost to breaking up their alliance because Brutus objects to his ways of collecting revenue to support the armies. Cassius sees Brutus as the catalyst that will unite the leading nobles in a conspiracy, and h makes the recruitment of Brutus his first priority.

He envies Caesar; he becomes an assassin; and he will consent to bribery, sell commissions, and impose ruinous taxation to raise money. Cassius is also highly emotional. He displays extreme hatred in his verbal attack on Caesar during Lupercal; he gives vent to his anger in his argument.