Real Hero of the Play Julius Caesar, Caesar or Brutus
Several
critics opine that Julius Caesar is only the titular hero, while the dramatic
hero is Brutus, and the play should have been named after him. According to
this view, Caesar appears only thrice in the play and even then the impression
he leaves in poor one. On the other hand, Brutus dominates the play from the
beginning to the end. He is the center of interest in the play. We are made to
watch his career with interest and it is the tragedy of Brutus that Shakespeare
depicts in the play. Hence Brutus is unquestionably the hero of the play.
Several
other critics including Brandes, Hudson, Dowden, strongly claim Julius Caesar
as the protagonist of the play. They say that in the early part of the play the
living Caesar dominates and in the latter part it is the angry spirit of Caesar
that dominates an ultimately conquers.
Again
there is a third view that Julius Caesar is a play without a hero, and this
view has its strongest support from Dr. Macmillan, the learned editor of the
Arden edition. He examines the claims of both Caesar and Brutus to the hero-ship
of the play and suggests that Shakespeare ‘does not claim our attention to any
principal figure’. In the first two Acts of the drama our interest is almost
equally divided between Caesar and the conspirators, and in the last two Acts
although we are never allowed, our sympathy is almost entirely concentrated on
the declining fortunes of Brutus and the conspirators. As to Brutus, he is too
frigid a character to hold our attention. Thus according to him, the play has
no hero in the sense as Othello or Hamlet has and Shakespeare in following the
practice of his English historical plays has given to the play the name after
Julius Caesar, who to all intents and purposes had become the Monarch of Rome.
Whatever the criticisms
are, we are to consider Shakespeare’s purpose in writing this play. Shakespeare
depicts here the triumph of Caesarism against which Brutus fought and failed.
Caesar and Caesarism are writ large over the play. Even after the physical
presence of Caesar is removed by the daggers of the conspirators the name
‘Caesar’ recurs in their mouths like a refrain. Caesars spirit hovers, and it
is this contrast between Caesar’s failing bodily powers and his unassailable
spirit between Caesar ‘the man’ and ‘the Caesar idea’ that is emphasized
throughout the play. So Caesar is the protagonist of the play. In other words,
Caesar is the real hero of the Play.
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