Friendship: a Deeper Look Into What Friendship Means to the Main Characters of the Tragedy of Julius Caesar
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- Category: English: Shakespeare
- Date Submitted: 02/19/2012 08:59 PM
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A friend is a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard. For some people, a friend is very important and he or she would do anything for their friends. Brutus and Antony had different views of how important friends are and that put them against each other. Their views of the importance of friends also influenced their interactions with the other characters.
Putting friends first and his country next, Antony says he cares for the people around him personally and not for a big, future dream. He did Caesar’s bidding while Caesar was alive because of his philosophy of friends being important to him. He became distraught when Caesar was murdered because he had lost someone he cared for, someone with whom he was close. In his speech at Caesar’s funeral, he uses “Friends, Romans, and countrymen” (III.2.73) to show that he cared for his friends more than his country.
Brutus was a Stoic and he was too patriotic, loving his country more than friends. He was naïve about everything. He wanted to free Rome from Caesar’s rule without killing Caesar; showing he cared for his friends, but in the end his country would always come first. He pushes his belief even further when he says “Romans, countrymen, and lovers” (III.2.13). Again, he puts Romans first and lovers, or friends, last. It is also possible that Brutus was too Stoic. He seemed to have no feelings at all, even when Portia died. When she died, all he did was say that he must “bury all unkindness” (IV.3.157) with wine and that they had a battle to plan. He didn’t mourn Portia because it was Stoic philosophy not to be influenced by feelings, so Brutus let himself be influenced by feelings; which ends up coming across as cold-hearted and inhumane.
Antony and Brutus were at odds with each other because of their different beliefs of how important friendships are. If Brutus had been a good and true friend, many people would not have died the way they did; including Caesar and Brutus himself. If...
Putting friends first and his country next, Antony says he cares for the people around him personally and not for a big, future dream. He did Caesar’s bidding while Caesar was alive because of his philosophy of friends being important to him. He became distraught when Caesar was murdered because he had lost someone he cared for, someone with whom he was close. In his speech at Caesar’s funeral, he uses “Friends, Romans, and countrymen” (III.2.73) to show that he cared for his friends more than his country.
Brutus was a Stoic and he was too patriotic, loving his country more than friends. He was naïve about everything. He wanted to free Rome from Caesar’s rule without killing Caesar; showing he cared for his friends, but in the end his country would always come first. He pushes his belief even further when he says “Romans, countrymen, and lovers” (III.2.13). Again, he puts Romans first and lovers, or friends, last. It is also possible that Brutus was too Stoic. He seemed to have no feelings at all, even when Portia died. When she died, all he did was say that he must “bury all unkindness” (IV.3.157) with wine and that they had a battle to plan. He didn’t mourn Portia because it was Stoic philosophy not to be influenced by feelings, so Brutus let himself be influenced by feelings; which ends up coming across as cold-hearted and inhumane.
Antony and Brutus were at odds with each other because of their different beliefs of how important friendships are. If Brutus had been a good and true friend, many people would not have died the way they did; including Caesar and Brutus himself. If...