![]() Note the irony of this phrase, because Cassius will shortsightedly commit suicide. In addition, any doubts that the audience may have had about Brutus' nobility are swept aside by the sympathy gained for him through the powerful friendship he has developed with Cassius.Įnsign an officer who served as flag bearer.Įver thick Cassius tells us that his eyesight is poor. In contrast to Brutus' virility in the face of his great friend's death, Cassius is less manly.īrutus, who at the beginning of the play was passive and pursued by Cassius, is now a man of action. Note that Cassius' melancholy is the "mother" to his death. At the end, Cassius is prepared to show his great love for his friend and, although this love is noble in itself, it diminishes him to some degree. He was emotionless, clinical, and detached not a friend to Brutus, but a suitor of his power and reputation. His motives for killing Caesar were murky - the readers knew there was more to Cassius' intentions than he admitted. Cassius was a dark manipulator of language. ![]() What is interesting to note is the way in which the audience's views of these two characters has changed since the beginning of the play. This interpretation of his death will be all the more hurtful to Brutus. Titinius and Messala believe that Cassius killed himself because he lost faith in the rightness of their cause and in Brutus' abilities. Cassius grasps at Pindarus' words as justification for what he desires: death. Cassius dies because Pindarus misreads the battle and Cassius despairs - a despair that began in Scene 1. "Alas, thou hast misconstrued every thing." If earlier scenes were about misuse and misinterpretation of language, this is a scene about miscommunication. To both of them, he pays a sad farewell, calling Cassius "the last of all the Romans." The men leave for another encounter with the enemy. While Messala goes to report his tragic discovery to Brutus, Titinius kills himself with Cassius' sword.īrutus comes onstage with Messala, Young Cato, Strato, Volumnius, and Lucilius and finds the bodies of Titinius and Cassius. He now enters with Messala, hoping to comfort Cassius with the news that Octavius' men have been overthrown by Brutus. Titinius was not captured at all, but hailed by some of Brutus' troops when he arrived on horseback. Pindarus does so, and Cassius dies, saying, "Caesar, thou art revenged, / Even with the sword that killed thee." He asks Pindarus to keep his oath of obedience and to stab him. When Pindarus reports that he saw Titinius alight from his horse among soldiers who were shouting with joy, Cassius mistakenly concludes that Titinius has been taken prisoner by the enemy. Thus Cassius sends Titinius to ride toward the soldiers that he sees in the distance and determine who they are, and he asks Pindarus to mount the hill and watch Titinius. On another part of the field, Cassius sees his men retreating Brutus' forces, having driven back those of Octavius, are foraging about the battlefield for spoils, leaving Antony's army free to encircle Cassius' troops.
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