Minh Nguyen

WRITING ASSIGNMENT 5 WHO IS THE HERO

English 10B

5/1/2020

WHO IS THE HERO

Adam Phillips once said: “Tragic heroes are failed pragmatist. Their end are unrealistic and their

means are impractical.” According to Aristotle, a tragic hero is someone who start out as a nobble person.

He or she possess certain hamartia that lead to the person’s downfall, or nemesis, the punishment of the

protagonist’s hamartia. The Tragedy of Julius Caesar end with a lot of character decease, one way or the

other. While many can be arguably to be the tragic hero of the story, however, only one of them is. In this

play of Shakespeare, Marcus Brutus is the hero.

Even though being one of the main characters, Cassius is definitely not the hero of the story..

Even though he start out as as a nobleman, like a tragic hero should be, he act for his personal purposes

that is no larger than himself. He first be the conspirators’ leader in the mission of murdering Caesar.

Different from Brutus, he hold on resentment with Caesar personally. He manipulate Brutus for his own

target. He flattering and plans the letter so that Brutus would be in his side of murdering Caesar. He did

not possess any flaw that usually a good thing but end up being deadly in the play, therefore not a tragic

hero. His downfall is easy understand due to his foolishness. He let his feeling cloud his judgment and

end up killing Caesar, he cannot see far enough to know that his action is not that smart. Even though he

is good enough to manipulate Brutus, he end up agreeing with Brutus that Antony will not be a threat. He

also underestimate Octavius and many other Caesar supporter. All in all, he is a jealousy, foolish,

shortsighted character and surely not the hero of the play.

Despite many misconception, the title character, Caesar is not the tragic hero of the play. Firstly,

he only appears in a small portion of the story. He die before Act 3 even started. And even though his

ghost do appear later on, he did not do much more than an element to help drive all the character forward

in the story. He is the reason for the forming of two main opposing forces in the play: the triumvirate,
including Octavius, Antony, Lepidus and the conspirators, mainly Brutus and Cassius. This eventually led

to the main conflict, or climax, which is the civil war. He also possess no major hamartia, or tragic flaw.

The conspirator killed him because of personal reasons and fear of himself rather than any flaw that he

possess. In contrast, he even being careful instead of reckless. He is actually being cautious of Cassius.

“Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look. He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous.” The betrayal

of Brutus is unforeseeable for him. Caesar is not the hero, however, his friend, Marcus Brutus, is.

Marcus Brutus appears to be the character with the most complexity in the play. He is not only a

beloved politician and a nobleman with integrity but also a loving friend. Due to the complexity, he

suffers multiple internal conflicts throughout the play. However, it is because of these noble characteristic

that make up his tragic flaw, he is too naïve and easy to manipulate. Firstly, due to this harmatia, Cassius

exploit him by flattering and the fake letter of people of Rome, in which Brutus’s interpret that Caesar is a

threat to the Roman Republic. As a result, he join and take over the conspirators, participate in the murder

of Caesar, his loving friend, for a more noble reason, saving Rome from dictatorship. "Not that I loved

Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more." Then, his flaw make him believe that Antony will be no harm

without Caesar. By underestimating and letting Antony speak at Caesar funeral, it directly lead to his

downfall when Antony stir up the commoners into riot against Brutus and the conspirators. Later on, for

righteous reasons, Brutus sabotage his friendship with Cassius for he is taking bribe in order to fund the

war. In the end, his suicide it his punishment for his naïve when now all of his friends are dead, from

Caesar to Cassius and Titinius. Brutus also incite catharsis, feeling of pity by the audience, when he is

mourned by his enemy. Antony call Brutus the noblest of Romans and Octavious order for Brutus to be

buried in the most honorable way.

In conclusion, Brutus fit completely in Aristotle's definition of tragic hero. He start out as a

noblemen. His downfall occur as a result of his tragic flaw, his noble characteristic. As a result, there is

no doubt that Marcus Brutus is the hero of the play.