Julius Caesars Tragic Hero
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According to Aristotle, the function of tragedy is to rouse pity and fear in the audience so that the reader may be purged or cleansed, of these unsettling emotions. A tragedy can arouse these twin emotions of pity and fear only if it presents a certain type of hero or heroine who is neither completely good nor completely bad. Aristotle also says that the tragic hero should be someone "highly renowned and prosperous," which in Aristotle's day meant a member of the royalty. The hero must fall from tremendous good fortune, or the reader wouldn't feel such pity and fear. The cause of the downfall is a tragic flaw, or a fundamental character weakness.
In the Shakespearean tragedy Julius Caesar, there are many characters who could have been thought of as a hero. Cassius could have been a hero because he helped kill Caesar and he fell from power to his death. Casca could also be thought of as a tragic hero because he made the first blow on Caesar, but he had to either flee the country or be killed by the plebeians. However, the character who exemplifies a tragic hero the best is Brutus.
Brutus is in a very high position in Rome...