Loyalty in Julius Caesar Analysis

A theme that was played throughout the book of Julius Caesar was deciding which comes first, loyalty to one’s country or loyalty to a friend. Personally I think in the play it was more for the country. 

In Julius Caesar, he was loyal to his country and didn’t want to rule over Rome or Rome's citizens. One example of this could be when Caesar reveals to everyone that he doesn’t want to be a “ruler” or a “king” he wants to be part of Rome and help the people in Rome. After Caesar's speech he doesn’t put the crown on his head, he starts walking away. He goes behind the railing and has an epileptic seizure, Calpurnia notices. As his speech ended Brutus and Cassius stop Casca and have a conversation with him about how Caesar doesn’t want the crown. Casca states “It was mere foolery;  I did not mark it. I saw Mark Antony offer him a crown” (Julius Caesar 1.2 230-335)  This shows the first time he was offered it. As  .

Later on in the book Brutus was talking  in the play. This statement was in Act three after Caesar’s death. On Page.111. Brutus was presenting his speech about Caesar after he died. He made arguments to persuade the crowd that he didn’t kill Caesar. Brutus stated “ Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more (Julius Caesar 3.2 20-24).I like this example because he was trying to convince the crowd by saying something that Caesar would have said. This was because he didn’t want the people of Rome to think he took part in killing Caesar. 

The last example of loyalty in the book that I wanted to talk about was in act five scene four. This was when Brutus started to question Cassius' loyalty to Rome because he changed his view on why he took part in killing Caesar and what the initial goal was. In a bigger paragraph, one of the sentences that Brutus stated that caught my eyes was when he said  “Did not great Julius bleed for justice sake?”  (Julius Caesar 4.3 20-28). This shows that Cassius was making Brutus question his loyalty for partaking in the killing of Julius Caesar. 

In conclusion, Loyalty plays a big role in millions of different books but Julius Caesar was one of very few that will leave a message like no other. Unlike Shakespeare's play Caesar himself was a far more complicated and fascinating character than Shakespeare's portrayal.