Motivation In Julius Caesar

Shakespeare's play "The Tragedy of Julius Caesar" is one that transcends time from the Roman times to the Elizabethan times and to the present. "The Tragedy of Julius Caesar" has characters which display similar mindsets of those in Elizabethan times and today. Many of the characters in the play have a certain motivation to complete a long-term or short term goal. These motives arise from things like a strive for perfection, ambition and greed among people who are subservient. Each character in Julius Caesar has his own motivation whether it is the soothsayer who wanted to warn Caesar or Cassius who wanted to kill him. The nature of human beings was clearly represented as characters in the play had different motives but ended up wanting to
achieve the same purpose. Each character in the play had a level of leadership among others. Brutus had position as the leader among the conspirators later in the story. Brutus had many motives that he acted from but most of his motives were for the well being of Rome. In his head he believed that many citizens feared that Julius Caesar might enslave them. With this mindset he decided with the help of Cassius' encouragement to kill Caesar. In the end he sacrificed his long friendship with Caesar for the betterment of the Roman Empire. Brutus had a reputation for being a larger than life figure in the society. People looked up to him and loved him for being their leader. He felt that he was being watched carefully by Romans and that his reputation would plummet if he did not carry out the actions. The basic human nature of contemplation was shown in the third act where Brutus keeps contemplating whether or not he should join the conspirators. These tough decisions can receive empathy from people today because it is most likely that they have gone through a similar kind of contemplation. Cassius and Brutus, had different motivations for the same purpose. Brutus had an incentive that was for the love of Rome and its citizens. Cassius' incentive was greed for power and jealousy. Although the motives were different, the end purpose to kill Caesar was not different. Shakespeare also showed how people exceed their limit to reach their goal. Brutus' motives for killing Caesar exceeded his friendship with Caesar. Because of his love for Rome and the trust the citizens put on him, he had to put his personal feelings aside. These outside motivations are what made Brutus become a conspirator. In most stories there is a strong antagonist that creates the problem. Cassius played this role very well by first setting a concrete goal for himself; to kill Caesar. Cassius was ruled by jealousy and envy and this is what drove him to believe that he should have the same amount of power as Caesar. Cassius was strongly self-centered and he did not want Caesar to be crowned because he feared he would lose his own power. Cassius envied Caesar because many of the Roman citizens loved Caesar. This made Cassius angry that his own reputation was being diminished by the great Caesar. Cassius also claimed that Caesar was godlike in the eyes of Romans. Cassius did not have this reputation and this made him even more envious of Caesar. Cassius tried to manipulate Brutus and many other citizens to kill Caesar. Shakespeare used these motivations to show readers that negative motivations can lead to negative actions. He shows that it is natural for a human to act out of mere jealousy and greed, though he also shows that being motivated for the wrong things can lead to death .When Cassius was negatively motivated to kill Caesar, he ended up dying in the battle between Caesar's loyal friends and the conspirators.

Mark Antony was another character in this play.
Mark Antony was a Roman citizen, who was good friends with Julius Caesar. When the conspirators killed Julius Caesar, Mark Antony was very angry. Though he pretended to be their friend, he truly revolted against the conspirators by becoming motivated. By being provoked, he had also motivated the crowd to rebel against the conspirators. Mark Antony had many causes for rebelling against the conspirators who assassinated Julius Caesar. These motivations led to a battle between Mark Antony, Octavius Caesar, Brutus, and Cassius. His main motivation was vengeance. One last drive for spurring up the crowd to attack the conspirators was that he was extremely loyal to his friend, Julius Caesar. He cared and loved Julius Caesar. He called him one of the noblest mans that ever lived. Shakespeare created this character using drives that sparked from the murdering of Julius Caesar. He makes an understanding that revenge can be a type of motivation that causes things to happen because of events that have happened in the past. This human characteristic is natural and appears commonly in our world. Shakespeare also probably tried to show that revenge could drive oneself into a more deathly path than a safe one. By utilizing motivations, which satisfy one's need, Shakespeare was able to grasp the reader or
viewer.
"The Tragedy of Julius Caesar" is a play that can definitely be thought of as a humanistic play. Even though some of the events that happen are not relevant in today's world the human nature of the characters and their motives can be thought of as transcendent of time. Each character in the play had motives and each acted through these motives. Though all motives were different some end purposes were the same for many characters. Shakespeare aptly displays the motives in the play to bring out each character's own human nature.