The Tragedy Of Julius Caesar: A Tragic Hero

The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare has two truly tragic deaths. However, of these two tragic deaths who was the tragic hero? Even though the namesake of the play is Caesar, the real tragic hero of the play is Brutus because his idealism leads to his tragic demise.
The element revenge of justifies that Brutus is the tragic hero of this story. After the conspirators kill Caesar, Antony comes in to speak to them. When Antony is left alone with the body, he begs Caesar’s body for forgiveness and vows to take revenge on the conspirators. This points to Brutus’s fatal flaw of idealism because he believes that after they kill Caesar, everything would just fall into place and work out perfectly. That was why Brutus told Cassius that
Pindarus who is Cassius's servant misinterprets what is happening as Titinius rides up to meet with an approaching group. Pindarus thought that Titinius has been captured or killed and that is what he tells Cassius. Upon hearing this news Cassius decides to kill himself. After that, when Titinius comes back from meeting the group who are delivering news that Brutus had won his battle. Titinius sees Cassius dead and decides to kill himself as well. These things set off a domino effect that lead to Brutus losing the next battle which ultimately leads to his death. If Brutus had been less idealistic when making his battle plan he might have decided to let Octavius and Antony’s armies come to them, instead of meeting them at Philippi. Instead, Brutus ignores Cassius’s very sound argument and states that their armies are at their peak so they should attack now. This was very poor judgement and it leads to them losing the battles at Philippi. It also results in both Cassius and Brutus committing suicide. If Brutus had listened to Cassius and had been a bit more practical with his judgement, then perhaps Brutus and Cassius would have won and taken back Rome. Instead, they end up dying at Philippi due to Brutus and his
Brutus struggles with an internal conflict, because he feels that he is obligated to protect Rome. Brutus is so optimistic that he believes that he is capable of doing the impossible by protecting all of Rome from anything that might jeopardize it. It is this obligation combined with his idealistic nature that drives him to join up with Cassius and assassinate Caesar. He kills him because he believes that this is what will be best for Rome. He ends up being wrong and pays the ultimate price for it. He overestimated himself and the reaction of the plebeians. It is this judgement error that leads to his tragic death. Another conflict that Brutus struggles with is what Rome would be like under Caesar’s rule. It is this question that causes him to wonder if Caesar is truly the good man he believed him to be. Having this doubt is enough for Cassius to persuade Brutus to join up with the conspirators. The conspirators ultimately persuade him to kill Caesar. Brutus is such an romantic that he completely believes that after he kills Caesar the entire country of Rome will rejoice and praise him for freeing them from a tyrant. This lapse in judgement was what causes Brutus to act rashly and kill Caesar. This causes war to break out in Rome, which is exactly what the conspirators were trying to avoid. All of this ultimately results in the death of all the conspirators and the