Does Shakespeare presents Cassius as a strong or a weak character? Refer closely to specific examples.

Shakespeare presents Cassius as a strong character but one
who has many faults. He is greedy, miserly, cunning, and potentially treacherous, but
certainly not weak. He boasts about his courage: 

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For once upon a raw and gusty day,
The
troubled Tiber chafing with her shores,
Said Caesaar to me "Dar'st thou,
Cassius, now
Leap in with me into this angry flood,
And swim to
yonder point?" Upon the word,
Accoutred as I was I plunged in,
And
bade him follow. So indeed he did.
The torrent roared, and we did buffet
it
With lusty sinews, throwing it aside,
And stemming it with hearts
of controversy.
But ere we could arrive the point proposed,
Caesar
cried "Help me, Cassius, or I sink!"
Ay, as Aeneas our great
ancestor
Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder
The old
Achises bear, so from the waves of Tiber
Did I the tired Caesar.     (Act
1.2)

A bit later Caesar
himself says to Antony:

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Let me have men about me that are fat,

Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep anights.
Yon Cassius has a lean
and hungry look.
He thinks too much. Such men are
dangerous.

And he
continues:

He
reads much,
He is a great observer, and he looks
Quite through the
deeds of men. He loves no plays,
As thou dost, Antony; he hears no
music.
Seldom he smiles, and smiles in such a sort
As if he mocked
himself, and scorned his spirit
That could be moved to smile at
anything.
Such men as he be never at heart's ease
Whiles they behold
a greater than themselves,
And therefore are they very
dangerous.

Even Caesar is
afraid of Cassius. It is Cassius who is the originator and organizer of the
assassination plot. Without Cassius, Caesar would not have been killed. He would have
gone on to become king or emperor. Cassius is a very strong, determined, resourceful
man. The only times he appears to show weakness are when he has differences of opinion
or quarrels with Brutus. It has been observed that Brutus continually overrules him.
This is especially to be observed in their quarrel in Brutus' tent in Act 4, Scene 2,
during which Cassius repeatedly threatens to kill Brutus. The quarrel comes to a head
when Brutus tells him:

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There is no terror, Cassius, in your
threats,
For I am armed so strong in honesty
That they pass by me as
the idle wind,
Which I respect
not.

After this, Cassius
resorts to denials and appeals to their old friendship but not to any more threats
throughout their meeting. It would appear that both these men are strong--but Brutus is
the stronger. Cassius is handicapped by the fact that he knows he needed Brutus from the
beginning. Brutus is liked and honored by everyone, whereas Cassius knows he is not
liked or honored because he knows himself to be what he is, which is pretty much as
Caesar described him to Mark Antony.

Men are strong if they
have something strong to motivate them. It doesn't necessarily have to be anything good,
but they need motivation. Cassius is motivated, as Shakespeare shows, by selfishness,
greed, ambition, envy, and hatred. Brutus is motivated by patriotism and idealism. He
also has a strong sense of family honor he feels obliged to uphold. The two men do not
make good partners. The discord that erupted in Brutus' tent was bound to erupt sooner
or later. It would have done so even if they had won the battle with Antony and Octavius
at Philippi and had become join rulers of Rome. In such a case, it might have been
Cassius who overcame Brutus, because Cassius could and would plot against Brutus, while
Brutus is too noble to think of doing such a thing to Cassius.