The Honorable Marcus Brutus In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

The Honourable Marcus Brutus What does it mean to be honourable? According to the Oxford dictionary honourable means being worthy to something or some cause and adhering to moral ethical and moral principles. In the play Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, there is one character that portrays this definition of honourable to the city of Rome. The character’s name is Marcus Brutus, referred to Brutus in the play. This play is about Brutus who betrays his uttermost beloved friend, Julius Caesar and murders him for the benefit of Rome, so Rome can exist in a democratic empire. Brutus is an honourable man because he is selfless to the city of Rome and only wants to be seen as a saviour and not a butcher. Brutus is honourable because he is devoted
He puts Rome before anyone, even his most admired friend; therefore he assassinates Caesar for the sake of Rome. He decides that his country outweighs anyone, even himself when he states, “For let the gods so speed me as I love/ The name of honor more than I fear death” (1.2.95-96). This shows how Brutus is honourable to Rome and wants it to be a marvelous place to live and does not want it to be regulated by dictatorship. It proves that if Rome would be better if Brutus is dead, than Brutus would heroically kill himself for the honour of Rome. By being loyal to Rome, Brutus believer Caesar’s ambition and growing power is turning him into a tyrant and is a serious threat to Rome. Furthermore, what Brutus is doing is honourable and wants Rome to know what he did to Caesar was for them. In act 3 scene 2, when Brutus speaks out to the citizens of Rome in the Capital, in front of the angry people of Rome and justified his action he shows how truly honourable he is in the quote, “Not that I
He is sparing the life of Mark Antony because he believes he does not need to be killed to benefit the city of Rome. When with the other conspirators, when they are discussing who they should kill along with Julius Caesar, Brutus speaks up and says, “For Antony is but a limb of Caesar./ Let’s be sacrifices, but not butchers, Caius” (2.1.179-180). In this quote it shows that Brutus is trying to persuade them that they don’t need to worry about Antony. Caesar is their main problem so they need to kill Caesar and not anyone else. Brutus doesn’t want to be seen as butchers because then he wouldn’t be honourable, he wants to be honourable by doing the right things which is to kills Caesar. To make sure the conspirators don’t kill Mark Antony he persuades them again by saying, “And for Mark Antony, think not of him,/ For he can do more than Caesar’s arm/ When Caesar’s head is off” (2.1.194-196). Here Brutus tries to tell the conspirators that if they kill Caesar, if Mark Antony was noble to Caesar then he would also die for Caesar. Brutus doesn’t want to kill Mark Antony, but if Mark Antony kills himself it wouldn’t be his fault or be blamed on him for murdering too many people. Brutus wants to be honourable and being honourable is respecting everyone else. He is respecting Mark Antony’s life by being an honourable