In William Shakespeare’s tragedy, Julius Caesar, tragic flaws determine both Caesar and Brutus’s fate. Both characters are proud to a fault, leaving them open to manipulation which leads to their ultimate demise. While their motivations are different, their weaknesses are similar. Both paradoxical figures adhere to strict ideals that betray their intuition. Right before his murder, Caesar makes a speech where he describes himself as “constant as the northern star” (61). This kind of unwavering rigidity is seen in both characters as they attempt to maneuver their aggressive political atmosphere. Their unwillingness to compromise and adapt despite better instinct and even overt warnings ultimately make them victims of their own hubris. Inflexibility coupled with pride prove to be a lethal combination for both Caesar and Brutus, whereas Antony’s ability to deftly navigate the ever-changing nature of politics leads to success.
In the speech delivered just before his murder, Caesar holds himself above all men by likening himself to the uniquely steadfast polestar. He ironically deems himself “unassailable” moments before he is killed (3.1.70). Caesar refers to himself as “unshaked of motion” (3.1.71). While he intends the North Star as a metaphor representative of his steadfast strength, it speaks to the larger theme of inflexibility that characterizes both Brutus and Caesar. Their rigid ideals leave them unbending amidst a cutthroat political system that requires adaptability.
While Caesar prides himself as fearless and unshakeable, it is this very arrogance that puts him in danger. His final speech confirms Cassius’s belief that Caesar holds himself above other men “like a Colossus” (1.2.136). The disjunction between what Caesar sees and understands on an intuitive level is negated by the arrogant pride that cannot listen to the human part of him. Despite his glorified self-image, Caesar is affected by very human afflictions, one being mortality. He considers himself to be invincible, even godlike, yet he is blind to the events transpiring around him as seen throughout the text. Caesar is confronted by omens of his impending demise, yet his unwavering arrogance leads him to repeatedly brush them aside.
While he is astute enough to recognize Cassius as dangerous, Caesar’s inflated view of self leads him to believe he is above fear: “Yet if my name were liable to fear, I do not know the man I should avoid so soon as that spare Cassius” (1.2.198). Similarly, when a soothsayer predicts the day of his death, Caesar dismisses the soothsayer as “a dreamer” (1.2.24). While Caesar disregards augurers who warn him to stay at home, Calpurnia’s dream nearly persuades him to avoid the Senate. However, Caesar is easily manipulated by a member of the conspiracy. When Caesar tells Decius he will not be in attendance, Decius immediately responds with a jab at Caesar’s greatest weakness—his pride. By implying that he is afraid, Decius shames Caesar for yielding to his wife’s “foolish” pleas, easily persuading him to go despite the ominous circumstances.
Caesar stubbornly disregards clear warnings and refers to himself in the third person as if a god: “Caesar should be a beast without a heart if he should stay at home today for fear. No, Caesar shall not. Danger knows full well that Caesar is more dangerous than he” (2.2.41). Caesar truly believes he is “unassailable” and any fear he may have felt is overthrown by ambition. In his speech, Caesar proudly tells of his “true-fixed and resting quality” that no man rivals (3.1.62.). This fixation and unwavering marriage to pride ultimately brings about his downfall.
Despite Brutus’s political opposition to Caesar, they share the same tragic flaw and are both unwilling to compromise. Brutus’s inflexible sense of family honor similarly leaves him susceptible to manipulation by Cassius. Unlike Cassius, it is his ideals rather than envy that motivate him to kill Caesar. Rather than seeing himself as a conspirator, Brutus believes he is simply reestablishing the roman republic to its proper constitutional bounds.
Even though he loves Caesar, Brutus’s virtuous love for the Roman republic trumps that of his friend. His idealistic fixation is comparable to the unwavering pride Caesar touches on in his last speech. Because of his honorable reputation, the conspirators need Brutus as the face for the coup to win over public opinion. Cassius appeals to Brutus’s prideful nature and plays to his sense of honor: “we petty men walk under his huge legs and peep about to find ourselves dishonorable graves. Men at some time are masters of their fates” (1.2.137). By implying that it would in fact be dishonorable not to act against a tyrant, Cassius begins to sway Brutus. Strict adherence to his ideals is a form of pride that similarly plagues him throughout the play. Cassius recognizes this as his weakness and seizes the opportunity to manipulate him: “Well, Brutus, thou art noble. Yet I see thy honorable mettle may be wrought from that is disposed. Therefore it is meet that noble minds keep ever with their likes; for who so firm that cannot be seduced?” (1.2.308).
Like Caesar, Brutus’s unwavering sense of pride renders him vulnerable as he continually misinterprets the world around him. When Cassius suggests killing Antony as well, Brutus insists they kill only Caesar believing it his righteous duty. To shed more blood than necessary would be against his honor and would “stain the even virtue of [their] enterprise” (2.1.132). In his uncompromising idealism, Brutus gravely underestimates Antony. Once again he disregards the advice of Cassius and allows Antony to speak after him demonstrating a foolhardy pride in his own abilities as an orator with an unfounded confidence in a fickle, angry mob.
Unlike Brutus and Caesar who let pride guide them like the north star, Antony adapts to events as they unfold around him. He is perceptive of his enemies’ subtleties, giving him an advantage and ensuring his survival. Antony is Brutus’s antithesis. Rather than adhering to a blinding sense of virtue, Antony is duplicitous when necessary which ultimately makes him the better politician. He sees things the way they are: Caesar as a friend murdered by men out for their own political agenda and the conspirators as another political faction that will eventually turn on him if given the chance. Unlike Caesar and Brutus who are servile to their sense of pride, Antony gains the leniency of the conspirators and conceals his emotions despite his desire for revenge: “Oh, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, that I am meek and gentle with these butchers!” (3.1.256)
Instead of idealizing like Brutus, Antony sees Rome and its people as the hazard they are: “Here is a mourning Rome, a dangerous Rome, no Rome of safety…” (3.2.290.). Brutus is so naively self-righteous he believes simply explaining the rationale behind Caesar’s murder will justify the killing of a tyrant. While the stoic, composed position of Brutus does initially appease the masses, he is trumped by the passionate rhetoric of Antony.
In the play’s great reversal scene, Brutus enters act III scene II totally confident and in control of the situation, yet at the end of the scene his defense of the Roman republic has been lost. Although the crowd is briefly convinced of Brutus’s righteousness, they very quickly succumb to the persuasive style of Antony’s oration. The contrast between the two men is very evident in this climactic moment when Antony stirs up the crowd in a matter of 100 lines.
Antony’s speech provides a sharp contrast between characters. Instead of speaking rationally and stoically like Brutus, his speech is riddled with persuasive lies. He also differs from Caesar for swallowing his pride, in fact demurring his intelligence and immense power as an orator. His ability to compromise in his speech turns the tide of the play and the reversal is complete.
Brutus leaves the stage utterly persuaded that his moral and political rectitude has saved the day. But when Antony steps to the pulpit, he treads a fine line by employing a series of lies and using tricks of emotion in order to arouse the people’s passion to act without openly condemning Caesar’s murderers. Antony concludes his speech saying, “Oh, masters, if I were disposed to stir your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage, I should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong, who, you all know, are honorable men. I will not do them wrong; I rather choose to wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you, than I will wrong such honorable men” (3.2.123). By inverting the meaning of honor, he damns Brutus without overtly doing so. He also downplays his rhetorical skill and effectively manipulates the crowd. Antony’s ability to adapt in a tense, evolving situation proves him to be a superior politician. While Caesar prides himself on his unwillingness to “be well moved,” it is this very quality that leads to Antony’s success (3.1.59).
Even after gaining the affection of the Roman people, Antony continues to downplay his abilities, calling himself “a plain blunt man” that has neither “wit, nor words, nor worth, action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech to stir men’s blood” (3.3.199). Antony is neither too virtuous to lie nor too proud to downplay his capabilities, making him both vastly different from Brutus and Caesar and a much abler politician.
Only toward the end of the play does Brutus begin to recognize the malleability and ever-changing nature of the world. He acknowledges “there is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat, and we must take the current when it serves or lose our ventures” (4.3.217). He recognizes that as humans, one must adapt to the world in order to succeed. This notion opposes that of Caesar’s fixed north star and addresses the larger theme of compromise within the play. Caesar and Brutus are inflexible and blinded by their pride whereas Antony is fully aware of both his friends and enemies and reacts accordingly, compromising when necessary in order to gain the most benefit.
Whether due to arrogance or virtue, the inability to compromise becomes problematic for both Brutus and Caesar as their pride determines their interpretation of the people around them. Brutus and Caesar misread and at times arrogantly disregard warnings despite their better intuition. They are subsequently exposed to manipulation that brings about their downfall whereas Antony does the manipulation. Both characters lack Antony’s diplomatic mobility, and their fatal commitment to pride leaves them unwilling to compromise in a merciless political system that requires flexibility in order to survive.