Et tu Brute?

If you have a meaningful life, do you need a happy ending?

Probably no other line could even come vaguely near to  ‘Et tu Brute? Then fall Caesar.’ in terms of the pain spilt out from a deceptive friendship and a betrayed heart.

 

Even though it’s not historically accurate. I like to believe that, those were the last line Caesar thought before he got stabbed 23 times. Which brings me back to the the opening lines. If you have a meaningful life, a life which you think served the purpose of your birth on the planet, then do you need to die happily…does one tragic incident which proves to be the last erase all the memories of the endless achievements? I say this because people remember Caesar less for his tyranny, which he clearly deemed as his achievements, and more for his infamous assassination, they remember Brutus for being the leader of the conspiracy Caesar not for the suicide he committed and that till death he thought that Cassius (who instigated Brutus against Caesar) was ‘The last of the Romans’. while Marcus Antonius is remembered more for his unmatched oratory skills which incessantly stressed on Brutus being an honourable man to imply just the  opposite and less for the erratically frivolous decision of suicide after mistakenly assuming that Cleopatra had already done so.

Caesar got an internationally famed play by one of the best playwrights of all time.

Antony got to be the hero by bringing down the conspirators.

And as for Brutus, he bore the brunt of it all.

I feel sorry for Marcus Brutus. Yes, i feel sorry for Marcus Brutus not because he was instigated by other senators and that is why he chose to lead the conspiracy but because he was a man chained by his ideals to the whole plot. He did what he had to for the people of Rome. He killed Caesar, not only a friend but a father-figure to him because he was forced into believing that he was ending dictatorship in Rome. Tethered to the apotheoses of a just kingdom, he lost everything, his friend, his wife, his conscience which was governed by the majority, and his life.

Caesar – “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars. But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”

 

 

We are who we are until we die. Death gives a different perspective to the life we led till our last breath.

And all those living will try to rationalise your life balancing between the end that you brought upon yourself and the end that you deserved.