William Shakespeare illustrates Marcus Brutus as a tragic hero in the play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. Shakespeare defines the tragic hero as an imperfect character who has luck, then loses everything he has precious, which leads to his misfortune, but a tragic hero must have that moment of enlightenment, that moment when a character can see that he caused his own downfall and receives the blame for its own tragedy based on a historical event - the assassination of Julius Caesar; however, the story revolves around the conspirators, not Caesar. The protagonists, Cassius and Brutus, are the two main conspirators: Cassius being the mastermind. and Brutus being the face of the conspirators character; Cassius tricks Brutus into joining the conspirators under the false hope that the people fear Caesar and his authority, and Brutus wanting what the people want, gave in to Cassius' plan and has. acted as a result of the assassination of Julius Caesar, believing that. by killing him, the republican government that held Rome at the top would continue and the ideals of a monarchy would disappear with Caesar's body. This was not the conclusion; By assassinating Julius Caesar, the man Rome wanted to become king, the conspirators created a king, Caesar's adopted son. Instead of Brutus and Cassius becoming the heroes and new rulers of Rome, both are banished and hated, creating a struggle for them to gain relief from their lust for power for Rome, resulting in death. Brutus is the tragic hero of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar because he was flawed, brought about his own downfall, faced a moment of enlightenment, and showed himself to be an honorable man. Brutus believes himself to be an arrogant, invulnerable and honorable man, because the R...... middle of paper ...... ymen, my heart rejoices that yet, in all my life, I have not found no man who was not faithful to me” (996). Due to his downfall, the punishment no one deserves, and his enlightenment, the audience is meant to pity him and feel sympathy for him, as the writer will be effective in receiving the audience's grief when a character faces to a trial that the public could not bear to think about. of such a scenario. Brutus is a sympathetic character worthy of pity. In the play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare humanizes Marcus Brutus with flaws that cause his personal downfall and a struggle for enlightenment, which defines him as a sympathetic character. With his last words, in his moment of enlightenment, Brutus died an honorable man. Brutus' life is the definition of a tragic hero.Works CitedElements of Literature. Orlando: Holt, Winston, Rinehart, 2007.