Brutus
Play
Summary
Marcus Brutus is the most prominent conspirator against Julius Caesar and the play's tragic protagonist — a man of genuine honour and republican idealism who convinces himself that killing Caesar is a selfless act of patriotism rather than personal ambition. His fatal flaw is his tendency to subordinate political reality to abstract principle: he overrules Cassius at almost every decisive moment, and each misjudgement brings the conspirators closer to defeat. At his death, Antony calls him "the noblest Roman of them all," recognising that Brutus alone acted from conscience rather than envy.
Notable Quotations
"It must be by his death: and for my part, / I know no personal cause to spurn at him, / But for the general." *(2.1)*
"Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more." *(3.2)*
"Between the acting of a dreadful thing / And the first motion, all the interim is / Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream." *(2.1)*
"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." *(4.3)*
"Caesar, now be still; / I killed not thee with half so good a will." *(5.5)*
Cross-references
- Julius Caesar — the play
- Tragedies
- character_cassius — the man who recruits him into the conspiracy
- character_julius_caesar — the man he kills for Rome's sake
- character_mark_antony_jc — his great antagonist after the assassination
- character_portia — his devoted wife