Does the end justify their means?

Marc Antony

‘Et tu, Brute? Then fall Caesar!’ (3.1 lines 77) ‘Julius Caesar’ a story that shows the conflict among the noble Romans, there was the conspiracy that were against Caesar and there was people like Antony that loved Caesar. There was only one conflict to Antony; it was Caesar’s death. Antony was just a normal person that liked to have fun all the time, and had no hatred against anyone in the Senate or in Rome. However, when Caesar was killed Antony was not the Antony he was before, he changed into this man with determination to kill everyone as revenge for Caesar. Having his best friend die, Antony was motivated by revenge and love to take down all the people that had any connection to Caesar’s death.

Antony could be described as a sheep in the beginning of the story because he had nothing to worry about; as long as Caesar was alive Antony was always happy. Antony was this innocent little sheep that listened to everything that Caesar told him to, not because he was weaker than Caesar, because he loved Caesar. ‘ I shall remember: When Caesar says, ‘do this,’ it is perform’d.’ (1.2 lines 9~10). This is the first time that Antony was introduced to the story. And as you can see Antony’s lines show how much love he had towards Caesar. This shows that Caesar was Antony’s best friend and that Antony would do anything for Caesar. Everything was so peaceful for Antony when Caesar was alive, but since he loved Caesar that much, when Caesar was taken away from him, Antony was motivated that he will have to kill the people involved in the conspiracy. Because they had killed Antony’s best friend, not only his best friend but also the person he loved the most, Antony’s love for Caesar made Antony trust Caesar as a friend. ‘He was my friend, faithful and just to me;’ (3.2 lines 83). Antony talks in Caesar’s funeral, which the crowd was all happy of Caesar’s death. Antony’s speech means that Caesar was his friend and was a reliable man. Which was the total opposite of what the conspirators had said. From this you can identify that Antony was disagreeing with the reasons why Caesar had to be killed. When Antony says ‘friend’ it shows that Antony wants to say that Caesar had no ambition of being the king of Rome. But since the conspirators had killed his friend because of the fact that they thought he had started growing ambition in him made Antony unhappy. His best friend that he loved the most had been killed because of a stupid reason that didn’t even suit Caesar. The love that Antony had towards Caesar affected the decisions on saying either Caesar was ambitious or not. If Antony had no love for Caesar nothing much would have motivated him to take action after Caesar’s death. But love was not the only motivators that drove Antony to kill all the conspirators; Antony also killed them for revenge.

Caesar’ death changed Antony from a little innocent sheep to this bug hungry lion. Antony was determined to bring destruction to Rome, there was no limit on where he would stop, but his goal was to bring destruction/ kill the conspirators until everyone that he had listed died. Revenge came after love. Antony loved Caesar, so as Caesar could not do anything about his death Antony decided to take revenge for him. ‘ Over thy wounds now do I prophesy… Domestic fury and fierce civil strife shall cumber all the parts of Italy.’ (3.1 lines 259,262,263) Here Antony is making a prophecy to Caesar’s dead body. Antony is saying that there will be a civil war in Rome and that there will be destruction all over Italy. This foreshadowed that Antony was going to be the one bring destruction and the one who was going to start the civil war. Revenge drove Antony to act like this. Since Caesar was killed like a carcass for the hounds Antony decides to bring a huge destruction back to Rome as Caesar died. ‘ These many then shall die; their names are prick’d.’ (4.1 lines 1) This shows that Antony had planned out everything and chose the people that he was going to kill. Antony became a strong leader for the Romans to follow and kill the guilty murderers. Nothing could stop Antony because he mind was fixed on killing the people he had listed. There was no motivator that could stop Antony behave the way he did.

Caesar’s death being the only conflict for Antony motivated him to kill everyone involved in the conspiracy because of the driving factors of ‘love,’ and ‘revenge.’ Love and revenge made Antony decide on a goal and navigated him to his goal. The love he had and the burning fire of revenge he wanted to take for Caesar did not stop him from his goal. Antony did achieve his goal at the end, since he had the help from Octavius and the people of Rome (that he had convince with his speech at Caesar’s funeral) he had brought down everyone that was involved in the conspiracy. I think Antony achieved his goal because of his motivators. They were good driving factors together, because love leaded onto revenge. Which made Antony have a stronger motivation. Antony’s goal was noble because it justified his mean. Antony had made his revenge for his best friend Caesar and Rome was back to peace again.