Power & Freedom

Caius Cassius – A man hungry for power and freedom

“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”(Act 1 Scene 2 Line 138~139). Cassius, in this play, performs as cunning and power hungry figure at first. However, as the play reaches the back, he starts to become a poor image than an evil one. Cassius is mostly inspired by power in the beginning and freedom at last. This leads to Caesar’s death and his death also. The end of this man is justified because he kills a tyrant (in his thought) but has been revenged on it. Also, he might not have died if Brutus had listened to Cassius more and not ignore him. Cassius’ death serves as an example that it was Brutus’ fault for not being careful enough.

Cassius’ motivator’s are different as he goes through the play. At first, he is driven by power. He was hungry for power and wanted it so much. This leads to his hatred towards Caesar and gives him a manipulative image. From the quote, “ and Cassius is a wretched creature, and must bend his body If Caesar carelessly nod on him.” ( Act 1 Scene 2 Line 115 ~ 117), he is describing himself as a creature who was once the same as Caesar but now is inferior than him. This calls for his greed for power and how much he is upset for Caesar being more powerful than him. Another quote, “ Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world Like a Colossus, and we petty men Walk about his huge legs, and peep about,” (Act 1 Scene 2 Line 133 ~ 135) which is similar to the first one also shows how much Cassius wants power. By saying Caesar is a Colossus and we petty men, he shows how much Caesar is superior to themselves. This is because he wants to emphasize his mind and motivate himself and Brutus to think that we are inferior to Caesar. Many might think that this action is dropping them into a lower level. However, by saying this Cassius is showing that he wants to be like him and wants power. Normally, if everyone knows that one is powerful, they don’t usually say out that that person is powerful and superior to us. This is because everyone knows that and they have no reason to repeat that fact. They do this when they are trying to flatter a powerful person and gain something they want. However, in this situation, Cassius is talking to a completely different person. In this case, it must mean something else than flattering that person. So, it shows that Cassius wants to be like Caesar and wants power like him. This leads to conjuring up a conspiracy and getting rid of Caesar. He justifies it by saying that every man are equal and there’s nothing special in that Caesar. This is also a bit ironical because he and his friends also think the commoners as dirty things and he’s saying that there’s nothing different from him and Caesar. If there’s no difference between them, there should be no difference between them and the commoners, too. So, Cassius makes up a conspiracy and gathers people who are worried about Caesar gaining power. Also, he convinces Brutus to make him join him. This was because he needed someone with a noble and honorable image to show upon the people. So, Cassius thought that Brutus will become that person and there he will justify their action. However, Brutus isn’t as reliable as Cassius thought.

Between Act 2 and Act 3, Cassius seems to appear less and take little parts of the play. However, as it goes to Act 4 and 5, he reappears and we can see many changes in his aspects and behaviors toward Brutus and himself. After the conspirators killed Caesar, Brutus tried to justify their means to the citizens. However, Mark Antony comes by and gives his speech that makes the people be mad at the conspirators. So, all of them are killed except for Brutus and Cassius who causes a war and fights Mark Antony who becomes stronger with his friend Octavius. In this part, Cassius has many conflicts. These conflicts are in himself, between Brutus and the fight with Mark Antony and his troop. Of course, Brutus and Cassius is laid in jeopardy because Antony had succeeded to get people on his side and the two starts to argue each other while they should help each other and fight against their enemies. Due to fights, Cassius becomes irritated and starts to regret why he had started this. When he was arguing with Brutus, he becomes so angry and says, “ Oh ye god, ye gods! Must I endure all this?” (Act 4 Scene 2 Line 41). This shows that Cassius is sick and tired of the mess he had made up and looking for gods to rely on and ask them whether he has to come over this. Although it’s because of Brutus’ insult, Cassius’ quote also shows how much he is tired of it. So, he wishes freedom from that disaster in some way. As the play goes on, Cassius loses his hunger for power which mostly influenced him in his behavior at first. Instead, he starts to regret what he had done. Another quote shows how much he wants to be freed from this burden. “Now be a freeman and with this good sword, That ran through Caesar’s bowls, search this bosom”(Act 5 Scene 3 Line 41 ~ 42) This shows that Cassius is not even afraid to die if he could get out of the situation. There are many ways that he can come over the nightmare. To end the war, he might run away or collect more people and win the war. Or, he could have surrendered and hope that Antony will spare him like Caesar did for Pompey. However, he knows that none of those will work and even if he runs away, they’ll send trackers to hunt him down and kill him. So, Cassius eventually asks his servant to kill him. His hunger for power is seen nowhere in this part and he becomes a wretched creature like he described himself as. In the end, he dies and is freed from the burden he had suffered from.

Cassius was a man of ambition and hungry for power. His motivators were power and freedom. These made him kill Caesar but fail to clean up the mess he had made up. In my point of view, he had partially achieved his goals. He managed to assassinate Caesar but failed to gain power, as he had wanted. However, in the end he succeeds to get out of the situation, which was a pain in the neck for him. So, his goals are achieved but not as a whole. Caius Cassius’ actions were fair enough for himself but not noble for everyone. It was fair of him wanting power because everyone does when they go into the field of politics. However, he slips out of the burden of being responsible for what he had done. His actions were more for his good than others. This justifies for himself but not for everyone his actions.