by Marcus Anthony.

In Act 5, Scene 5, Brutus is confirmed as a tragic hero. Brutus has come to the end of the battle. He knows that he is defeated. He desires to end his own life. He desires to fall on his own sword. Brutus goes down fighting. He fought until he could fight no more.

Truly, Brutus is a tragic hero. He has the qualities of a hero, and he has a tragic flaw. He is an honorable, virtuous character who is destined for a downfall, a suffering or a defeat. Brutus' fate was decided when he began listening to the wrong people. Cassius used his power to influence and persuade to get Brutus to commit to killing Caesar. Brutus loved Caesar, but he loved Rome more. When Brutus believed that Caesar had become overly ambitious, he joined the conspiracy against Caesar. This act proved to be Brutus' ultimate defeat. Even though Cassius warned Brutus to take Antony's life as well, Brutus did not want to appear as bloody butchers. This was Brutus' tragic flaw. He cared too much about what the people would think. Allowing Antony to live cost Brutus his life. Nonetheless, Brutus dies as an honorable man.

Brutus definitely endures a tragic life and death. Brutus lost so much. In fact, he lost everything. First, he had to murder his good friend Caesar. Caesar's death caused Brutus a great amount of grief. Then he loses his wife who killed herself. Cassius and Brutus are not getting along anymore. Antony is winning the battle at hand. Brutus feels the weight of everything. He can not carry on any longer.

Brutus decides that the only way out is to fall upon his own sword. No doubt, Brutus is considered a tragic hero. He was heroic in all of his deeds. Even in death, he is considered an honorable man. When Antony finds Brutus' dead body, he gives him the highest of praise:

This was the noblest Roman of them all.
All the conspirators, except him,
Did that they did out of jealousy of great Caesar;
Only he, in a general-honest thought
And common good to all, made one of them.
His life was gentle, and the elements
So mixed in him that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world, "This was a man!"

Are you sure you mean Antony? He is not generally examined as a tragic hero in the play. Brutus is clearly a tragic hero, and some have made arguments that Caesar is a tragic hero, but Antony does not seem to fulfill the role as Shakespeare developed it.

The Shakespearean tragic hero is a powerful figure, even admirable, who occupies a high place in society before he falls into destruction. His tragedy is that he is destroyed by a fatal flaw within his own character, a flaw that he does not even recognize until it is too late. Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Brutus certainly fit this characterization.

Antony, in contrast, does not fall from a high position, nor is he destroyed in Julius Caesar. In fact, his character experiences the opposite fate. In the beginning of the play, he is shown to be a shallow, inconsequential young man who devotes himself to games and revelry. After Caesar's murder, however, he becomes focused on revenging Caesar's death and then grabbing power for himself. By the end of the play, he has formed a powerful military alliance, waged war, and defeated the army of Brutus and Cassius. Antony is the victor in the power struggle that resulted from Caesar's assassination. Brutus, however, who tried act in the best interests of the Roman people, is destroyed by his own naive nature and disastrous decisions.

Arguably, Shakespeare's play belongs to Brutus, not Julius Caesar despite his name in the title. For, it is Brutus who exhibits the traits of the tragic hero.

1. The tragic hero is of noble stature. Certainly, Brutus is one of Rome's noblemen. In fact, he is well respected as Cassius enlists him as one of the conspirators because of the fact that he is a nobleman who is revered and has credibility with the Romans. Moreover, Brutus possesses a greatness about him in that he is philosophically committed to the principles of republicanism. After his death, Marc Antony even acknowledged the noble nature of Brutus that surpassed any of the other conspirators,

He, only in a general honest thought
And common good to all, made one of them. (5.72-73)

2.  Although he is good, the tragic hero is not perfect, and his fall results from his "act of injustice," or hamartia, as Aristotle describes it. This act of injustice is committed out of ignorance or from a conviction that some great good will be served. For Brutus, his hamartia comes from his idealistic conviction that Caesar will become a tyrant. In his soliloquy of Act II, Brutus thinks aloud,

He would be crowned....
And therefore think him as a serpent's egg
Which hatched, would as his kind grow mischievous,
And kill him in the shell. (2.1.10,32-35)

3. The hero's fall is his fault. Brutus falls from greatness by his flawed judgment about killing Caesar. Then, Cassius warns him against Marc Antony, but Brutus does not heed his advice; as a result, Antony moves the Romans to break out into civil war, a war in which Brutus makes mistakes such as marching upon the troops at Philippi.

4. Yet, the hero's fall is not wholly deserved. Brutus does make some bad judgments, but his death is undeserved. For, he is a man that is admired, and his death does rend pity for him.

5. The tragic fall is not complete loss. Before he dies, Brutus gains some self-knowledge, and he perceives the victory of Octavius and Anotny as causing the downfall of Roman freedom:

I shall have glory by this losing day
More than Octavius and Mark Antony
By this vile conquest shall attain unto. (5.5.36-39)

6. Although it arouses pity and fear, Brutus's death does not leave the audience in depression.

The audience feels a certain emotional release with Antony's oration on Brutus after his death, and there is a renewal of the greatness of Brutus. Antony declares,

His life was gentle, and the elements
So mixed in him that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world, "This was a man!" (5.5.73-75)

Aristotle said "A man doesn't become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall." A tragic hero exercises flawed judgment (hamartia), caused by excessive pride or hubris, which causes his own downfall. The hero also realizes his downfall was his own doing.

In Julius Caesar, Brutus is a tragic hero. His decision to kill Caesar is flawed and caused by excessive pride because he believes he knows what is best for Rome. Brutus loves Caesar, but when Cassius asks him if he feels content with Caesar's growing acclaim in Act I, Scene 2, Brutus answers, "I would not, Cassius; yet I love him well." Brutus loves Caesar and would rather not kill him, but he allows Cassius to manipulate him into killing Caesar. In Act V, Scene 5, just before he kills himself by running through his sword, Brutus says, "Caesar, now be still: I kill'd not thee with half so good a will." His words show an awareness of the flawed judgement that led to his own downfall, and this awareness is another feature of a tragic hero. In the end, Brutus feels remorseful about having thought, with excessive pride, that his actions could save Rome.