Power In Julius Caesar Essay

There are things which are inherently good. Service is looked at fondly as one of these naturally good things. Murder is typically thought of as wrong. We encourage service but condemn murder. Then there are concepts that we can’t quite pin down. They could be thought of as either right or wrong depending on specific circumstances or experiences. Power can go either way. In Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, power is addictive, it destroys relationships, and induces guilt in the characters.
There are two examples in Julius Caesar where power changes the characters into greedy men. The first example is Julius Caesar. At the beginning of the play, he has already attained most of the power he could possibly have. He needs only to be crowned the king of Rome to have absolute power. When he says, “Let me have men about me that are fat/Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep a-nights./ (1.2.3.192-193). Caesar wants to have people that are easy to be convinced of anything. This is one of the first signs that he is power hungry. He believes that anyone who “thinks too much” is a threat to
Shakespeare demonstrates this by showing the conflict Brutus has between killing Caesar, his friend, and doing what he thinks is right for his country. He eventually decides that his country is more important than his friendship when he says, “It must be by his death; and for my part,/I know no personal cause to spurn at him/But for the general” (2.1.10-12). Brutus was intimate friends with Caesar but when it came to questioning Brutus’s stoic nature, he chose to go with his head rather than his heart. The effects of his choice are seen in Act III when the conspirators murder Caesar. As Caesar is lying on the ground, he looks up and sees Brutus among the group of his assailants. He speaks the famous words, “Et tu, Bruté?—Then fall, Caesar” (3.1.77). Caesar feels betrayed by his friend and dies knowing that Brutus didn’t love him enough to spare his