Julius Caesar Essay

Brutus’s motivation over killing Caesar

“It is the bright day that brings forth the adder, And that craves wary walking. Crown him? - that?” Brutus is a confused man torn between his loyalty to Caesar to his devotion to Rome. Brutus doesn’t know how Caesar is going to behave after he is crowned; however he still sees Caesar with a negative point of view after he gains power. Brutus was a honorable man and he wants to convince himself that his actions do good for Rome. He tries to argue for both loyalties and concludes that murdering Caesar is the only way to save Rome.

Brutus is devoted to Rome and will do anything to save Rome from corruption, even killing his friend, Caesar. Brutus’s main cause of patriotism is because of his family history, his ancestors were the ones who had once saved Rome from dictators and made it a republican country. Now Brutus has the feeling and the pressure of saving Rome, he thinks its up to him so save Rome from falling under the power of Caesar. “My ancestors did from the streets of Rome the Tarquin drive; when he was call’d a king. ‘Speak, strike, redress!’ Am I entreated to speak, and strike? O Rome, I make thee promise, if the redress will follow, thou receivest thy full petition at the hand of Brutus.” Brutus is reading a letter that was sent to him by the ‘people’ when it actually was just by Cassius. This tells us how Brutus loves the people of Rome and wants to save them from being slaves. Cassius takes advantage of Brutus’s love to Rome thus writing him this letter telling him that its his responsibility to save Rome.

“If there be any in this assembly, and any dear friend of Caesar’s, to him I say that Brutus’s love to Caesar was no less than his. If then that friend demand why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer: Not that I loved Caesar less but that I loved Rome more.” This quote tells us that Brutus loves Rome even more than his friends that we will sacrifice even his friends for the welfare of Rome and he also later on mentions that if his death is required to save Rome I will do so to.

Honor means everything for Brutus and he was known was being an honorable man across Rome. Why do we need any spur at our own cause to prick us to redress? What other bond than secret Romans that have spoke the word, and will not palter? what other oath than honesty to honesty engag’d that this shall be or we’ll fall for it?” This tells us how Brutus is honorable because he believes that his actions are what he wants to do and does not need any motivation to complete them. He is committed to his decisions and if not completed he says he will die. “ Lets kill him boldly, but not wrathfully; Lets carve him as a dish fit for the gods, Not hew him as a carcass fit for the hounds.” Brutus wants nothing more than to be honorable, and if his act of killing Caesar wasn’t honorable he wouldn’t do so. But the rest of the conspirators convinced him that the murder of Caesar was going to be honorable and that the people of Rome will be happy if Caesar died. Brutus decides to kill Caesar but still respects Caesar as a person, he wants to kill him with respect ‘as a dish fit for hounds’ and not just but him out of anger and revenge. He wants to also do this so that it will appeal so the public that they are sacrificers and not butchers that will help them see that the cause was good and support this act. Brutus believes that doing the act out of wrath and jealousy will give a bad image for the conspirators and Brutus himself. Thus he sacrifices Caesar to keep his honorable image.

Even though Brutus did the act for the people of Rome, in the end even they turned against him. Brutus got influenced by Cassius’s way of thinking which lead him to the negative side of Caesar. Brutus thought his actions brought good to Rome. When his actions actually did well to only the conspirators and himself. His act was not noble because he never gave Caesar a chance to be king his negative views over the previous dictators got him to think negatively of Caesars power as well. Brutus’s act ended up not doing any good to Rome and had ended up alone with all of Rome against them. Rome still had Octavious be a dictator and rule Rome. Brutus also ended up killing himself which means him killing Caesar didn’t affect Rome at all.

Writing Reflection

Ideas and Content

I followed my ideas with examples from the quote. I also referred to the situation or of what I thought was interpreted there without direct relation. For example I, showed some characteristics of Santiago with the support of some quotes. Whereas in Julius Caesar I also referred to the thinking of the character and the thoughts I got from a lot of people with the help of the Socratic seminars.

Sometimes in both essays I went off topic and didn’t focus on what I was meant to say. My ideas weren’t always clear enough and sometimes I didn’t have a proper evidence. In also my Julius Caesar essay I used my perceptions, which may have been right or wrong to support my ideas. I should get quotes and use facts to support my ideas better so the viewer can get a clear understanding of what I trying to say.

Organization

In the Alchemist, my organization was clear because I had several chances to revise it and I kept on getting feedbacks. Some parts were poorly organized since I sometimes repeated the same sentence meaning using different words. In my Julius Caesar essay my organization was bad since I sometimes went way off topic and slowly started loosing my focus. I also had to have a conclusion which I had but I didn’t really talk about my whole essay in my final conclusion.

Personal Growth

I definitely had become better in my writing skills since I started focusing more on the ideas and content on my Julius Caesar essay. I clearly passed on my points but the only reason I got a less grade to the Julius Caesar essay than my Alchemist essay was because my sentence structure was bad and because it as my first draft.

SLR Reflection

I used reason critically the most in both my essays since I had to reason of why I chose these characteristics for both Santiago and Brutus by using quotes and situations to support why I chose these particular characteristics.