Friday, 8 July 2011

How do Antony and Octavius treat Brutus's body in Julius Caesar?

When the
victorious Antony and Octavius view Brutus's dead body on the battlefield at Philippi, they both
speak of him with praise and respect. Marc Antony says,


This was the noblest Roman of them all.
All the conspirators, save only
he,
Did that they did in envy of great Caesar;
He only, in a general honest
thought
And common good to all, made one of them.


Antony previously accused the conspirators of being primarily motivated by envy in his
funeral oration. Envy has been defined as "the resentment which occurs when a person lacks
another's superior quality, achievement, or possession and either desires it or wishes that the
other lacked it" (Parrott).aroused this painful emotion in other men because he was
superior to them in many ways. Aristotle defines envy as "the pain caused by the good
fortune of others." Brutus, according to Shakespeare's Marc Antony, was the only
conspirator who was motivated by patriotism instead of envy.

Octavius concurs
with Antony and even goes so far as to have Brutus's body kept overnight in his own
tent.

According to his virtue let us use
him,
With all respect and rites of burial.
Within my tent his bones to-night
shall lie,
Most like a soldier, order'd honourably.


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