The Internal Conflict of Brutus

In William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar , the main character is Caesar's friend named Brutus. Brutus is a well-respected senator in Rome and everyone knows he is Caesar's good friend. Brutus is an honorable man. This is mention quite a lot in the story for it is important in understanding the reason for Brutus' betrayal to Caesar. Brutus is approached by Cassius who pretends to be his friend so he will join him in his plot. Cassius and some other Romans were planning to assassinate Caesar. They claimed it was for the good of Rome and absolutely necessary for this to be done. Brutus experiences an internal conflict between morality and friendship with Caesar versus the good of the public and Rome.

Brutus seems to obey whatever the Romans ask of him. He is such an honorable man, he agrees to join in the conspiracy to kill Caesar. Brutus tells the other conspirators to all agree that they will do this for freedom and the good of Rome. One of the main complaints he had about Caesar was that he treated the Romans as slaves and was too ambitious. Despite Brutus' love for Caesar, he felt it more necessary to help the common man.

So after much contemplation, Brutus decides to go ahead with the assassination. When Caesar arrives at the capitol that day, all the conspirators stab Caesar at once, except Brutus. Caesar goes over to Brutus looking for help, but Brutus stabs him. Caesar says "Et tu, Brute?" (Or "And you Brutus?"), and then dies. Now that his friend had betrayed him, he had given up all hope of living. Brutus was compassionate when he killed Caesar. A lot of the Romans questioned why Brutus was involved in the assassination. Brutus replied to them by saying "Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more." The Roman people are still rowdy when Antony gives his great speech. In his speech, he explains how the conspirators and especially Brutus are all very honorable men.

After the assassination is all over and done with, Brutus must flee from Rome for his safety. Brutus starts to feel guilt for killing his friend even though it was for the good of Rome. He has a vision of a ghost of Caesar that spoke to him. Brutus gets much upset and decides to get himself killed.