Motivation: The Tragedy of Julius Caesar

Shakespeare’s play “The Tragedy of Julius Caesar” is one that transcends time from the Roman times to the Elizabethan times and to the present. “The Tragedy of Julius Caesar” has characters which display similar mindsets of those in Elizabethan times and today. Many of the characters in the play have a certain motivation to complete a long-term or short term goal. These motives arise from things like a strive for perfection, ambition and greed among people who are subservient. Each character in Julius Caesar has his own motivation whether it is the soothsayer who wanted to warn Caesar or Cassius who wanted to kill him. The nature of human beings was clearly represented as characters in the play had different motives but ended up wanting to achieve the same purpose.

Each character in the play had a level of leadership among others. Brutus had position as the leader among the conspirators later in the story. Brutus had many motives that he acted from but most of his motives were for the well being of Rome. In his head he believed that many citizens feared that Julius Caesar might enslave them. With this mindset he decided with the help of Cassius’ encouragement to kill Caesar. In the end he sacrificed his long friendship with Caesar for the betterment of the Roman Empire. Brutus had a reputation for being a larger than life figure in the society. People looked up to him and loved him for being their leader. He felt that he was being watched carefully by Romans and that his reputation would plummet if he did not carry out the actions. The basic human nature of contemplation was shown in the third act where Brutus keeps contemplating whether or not he should join the conspirators. These tough decisions can receive empathy from people today because it is most likely that they have gone through a similar kind of contemplation.

Cassius and Brutus, had different motivations for the same purpose. Brutus had an incentive that was for the love of Rome and its citizens. Cassius’ incentive was greed for power and jealousy. Although the motives were different, the end purpose to kill Caesar was not different. Shakespeare also showed how people exceed their limit to reach their goal. Brutus’ motives for killing Caesar exceeded his friendship with Caesar. Because of his love for Rome and the trust the citizens put on him, he had to put his personal feelings aside. These outside motivations are what made Brutus become a conspirator.

In most stories there is a strong antagonist that creates the problem. Cassius played this role very well by first setting a concrete goal for himself; to kill Caesar. Cassius was ruled by jealousy and envy and this is what drove him to believe that he should have the same amount of power as Caesar. Cassius was strongly self-centered and he did not want Caesar to be crowned because he feared he would lose his own power. Cassius envied Caesar because many of the Roman citizens loved Caesar. This made Cassius angry that his own reputation was being diminished by the great Caesar. Cassius also claimed that Caesar was godlike in the eyes of Romans. Cassius did not have this reputation and this made him even more envious of Caesar. Cassius tried to manipulate Brutus and many other citizens to kill Caesar. Shakespeare used these motivations to show readers