The Responsibility Of Brutus In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

Although the conspirators believe that enlisting Brutus in the conspiracy will ensure their success, Brutus's tragic flaws of naivety and pride cause him to make a number of errors in judgment that ultimately doom their “noble enterprise” to failure. For instance, when Brutus demands that the conspirators do not take an oath, he shows his guilelessness. Casca and Cassius want all the conspirators to take an oath to lock in their motives and to keep them from running at the first sight of danger, knowing that these are dishonest and dishonorable men. “Give me your hands all over, one by one,” Casca expectantly delivers to the group of conspirators. In contrast, Brutus believes that these men are honest and that he can trust the to perform their task as instructed due to their honor. Brutus also believes that taking an oath would “stain / The even virtue of
The end result of this error is that Brutus later speaks instead of Cicero, the great orator, and is not able to appeal to the mob's emotions, but instead tries to appeal to the intellect of the mob, which is not a large influence over their opinions or actions. Perhaps the most significant error occurs when Brutus allows Antony to speak at Caesar's funeral oration without any of the conspirators watching him, which further displays Brutus's naivety. The conspirators would rather this not happen because Antony is a great orator and can influence the opinions of the mob through their emotion, further showing that leaving Cicero out of the conspiracy was a misstep in the planning of the conspiracy. Conversely, Brutus believes that Antony will follow the orders given to him and speak only good about the conspirators and their motives, further confirming the conspirators safety in