4. “Comment: Julius Caesar and the Tragic Hero.”
In Shakespeare’s play “Julius Caesar”, Julius Caesar himself is the tragic hero of the play. Throughout his life Caesar wants to get to the highest power position he can. He has been able to make it to the highest place, eventually becoming the ruler of the Roman Empire. He finally achieves his goal, but as many power driven men it is still not enough for him. He wants the Roman Empire to become a monarchy despite the fact that his wife Calpurnia did not bear him any children. His tragic flaw is his uncontrollable lust for power. He will do anything to get himself into a place of power that in turn cause everyone to hate him, and eventually the people he was supposedly close to, kill him off.
The definition of a tragic hero is when the protagonist of the story or play is killed off due to his tragic flaw. That tragic flaw is first introduced in Act one scene one when the politicians wanted the people in the street to stop celebrating Caesar’s conquests and start looking at Pompey’s death. The politicians being more educated that the commoners celebrating knew of the depth Caesar would go to in order to fulfill his lust for power. It illustrated the beginning of the hatred that would build up against Caesar. The scene is using the politicians to foreshadow the difficulties that Caesar will face with the public opinion once his conquests are taken too far.