Brutus

Who He Is

Brutus is the man Rome trusts, and for that reason the man the conspiracy needs. He loves Julius Caesar, has no personal grievance against him, and still leads his death, convinced that he does it for Rome. He descends from the Brutus who drove out King Tarquin, is married to Portia, the daughter of Cato, and is first the friend and then the adversary of Cassius, who seduces him with a mirror. He wants the act to look clean and those who carry it out to be seen as purifiers. He ends defeated at Philippi, by his own sword, which Strato holds, and is recognized by Mark Antony as the only conspirator moved by the common good.

Trajectory

In Act I, Scene 2, when Cassius invites him to watch the race, Brutus says he is no joker and that he is going through an inner conflict. Cassius asks whether he can see his own face, and Brutus answers that the eye sees itself only by reflection, opening the door for Cassius to be the mirror. Hearing the shouts of the crowd, he fears that the people will choose Caesar as king and adds that, even so, he loves him well. Cassius speaks of Brutus's name, which weighs as much as Caesar's, and of the ancient Brutus who would not tolerate a king in Rome. Brutus promises nothing: he asks for time to think and says he would rather be a villager than a son of Rome under such conditions.

In Act II, Scene 1, before the conspirators arrive, he decides alone in the orchard. He says he has no personal motive against Caesar, only the fear of what he may become with the crown, and the reason he gives is about the future:

Lucius hands him an anonymous letter that wakes him ("Brutus, thou sleep'st"), and he completes the thought alone: Rome cannot remain under the rule of one man. When the conspirators arrive with their faces hidden, he refuses the oath, because the honor of honorable men needs no promise, and he also refuses Cicero, who does not follow what others begin. He prevents Antony's death: he wants them to be sacrificers and not butchers, and he thinks that Antony, without Caesar, has only the strength of the arm of a man who has lost his head. He asks that the conspiracy hide itself behind smiles, like Roman actors. After the others leave, Portia questions him and kneels, and Brutus promises to tell her what weighs on him. Then he recruits Ligarius, who throws off his illness on hearing that Brutus has an enterprise of honor in hand.

In Act II, Scene 2, he goes with the others to Caesar's house to fetch him and receives the invitation to drink wine with him. Aside, he says that not every likeness is the same, and that his heart tightens at the thought. In Act III, Scene 1, he gives the last blow and, after the murder, asks the Romans not to flee: the debt of ambition is paid. He proposes that they wash their hands in Caesar's blood up to the elbows and go out crying "peace, freedom." He receives Antony, who offers himself to death, and welcomes him with friendship. He grants Antony the floor at the funeral, against Cassius's warning, but with conditions: he speaks first, explains the act, and Antony only afterward, without blaming the conspirators.

In Act III, Scene 2, in the Forum, he divides the crowd with Cassius and speaks in prose. He says he loved Caesar, but loved Rome more, and asks who would be so base as to wish to be a slave, concluding that he has offended no one. He says he keeps the same dagger for himself, should Rome need Caesar's death, and is acclaimed: one citizen says he ought to be Caesar. On leaving, he asks them to stay and hear Antony.

In Act IV, Scene 2, at Sardis, he hears from Lucilius that Cassius received him with courtesy but without his former intimacy, and he recognizes in this a friend who is cooling. In Act IV, Scene 3, in the tent, Cassius complains that Brutus punished Lucius Pella for bribery, and Brutus replies that Cassius himself has an itching palm and sells offices for gold. He recalls that the conspirators killed Caesar out of justice, and says he asked Cassius for money to pay the legions and was refused. The quarrel reaches threats, the two are reconciled, and Brutus reveals that Portia is dead. Later he asks Messala whether the letters bring news of her and, on hearing the confirmation, accepts the loss like a Roman. Against Cassius, who prefers to wait for the enemy, he decides to march at once to Philippi, with the argument of the tide:

With the servants asleep, he sees the ghost of Caesar, who says he is his evil spirit and that he will see him at Philippi.

In Act V, Scene 1, at Philippi, he exchanges harsh words with Antony and Octavius and, at parting, tells Cassius that he thinks it vile and cowardly to kill oneself out of fear of what may come, but that he will not be taken prisoner to Rome, and that the day will finish the work the Ides of March began. In Act V, Scene 2, he has Messala give the order to attack, and in Act V, Scene 3 Titinius says that Brutus gave the signal too early. Seeing the bodies of Cassius and Titinius, he says that Caesar's spirit still walks about and calls Cassius the last of the Romans. In Act V, Scene 4, he rallies his men, and Lucilius passes himself off as him and tells Antony that Brutus will be found just as he is. In Act V, Scene 5, surrounded, he asks Clitus, Dardanius, and Volumnius to kill him, and the three refuse. He tells Volumnius that the ghost has appeared to him twice and that the hour has come, and Strato holds the sword. Before throwing himself upon it, he tells Caesar that he killed him with much less willingness than he now kills himself. Antony praises him before Octavius, and Octavius orders him given funeral honors.

Themes Embodied

Brutus decides by the future and by image. As there is no personal cause, he says it must be shaped by what Caesar could become, and he shapes the figure of the act as well: sacrifice, not murder; sacrificers, not butchers. He wants the conspiracy to have the cleanness of a ceremony, and that is what he proposes to the conspirators after the blow, with hands in the blood and the cry of freedom through the streets.

His failure lies in his judgment of others. He spares Antony because he thinks him given to sports, extravagance, and company, and not a danger; he lets him speak because he believes the reason laid out is enough; and Cassius warns twice and loses both times. In Act V, Titinius says Brutus gave the attack signal too early.

In Act I, Scene 2, Brutus says the eye sees itself only by reflection, and Cassius offers himself as a mirror. In Act V, Scene 4, Lucilius says Brutus will be found just as he is, and in Act V, Scene 5 Antony speaks of him as the only conspirator who acted for the common good. The play deals with a man whose image, from the start, depends on who holds it, and at Philippi it is held by those who defeated him. Honor and Reputation appear in him as the place where Loyalty and Betrayal are tangled: the same man who betrays a friend to be faithful to Rome does not accept being led as a prisoner to Rome.

Relationships

• Cassius: the one who seduces him in Act I and who quarrels with him in the tent at Sardis; the friend whose cooling he recognizes and whom he calls the last of the Romans.
• Julius Caesar: the friend he kills for Rome and who returns as a ghost, to whom he says, as he dies, that he kills himself with more will than he killed him.
• Portia: the wife who demands his secret, and whose death he reports to Cassius in the tent.
• Mark Antony: the man he spares and to whom he gives the floor, and who praises him at the end.
• Casca: the conspirator who gives the first blow, before his own.
• Octavius: the young man who says he was not born to die by Brutus's sword, and who grants him funeral honors.