The Shakespeare Book

304

C

oriolanus is a play about

power, politics, personality,

and the fraught relationship

between Rome’s plebeians and

its proud patricians. The play

opens with a scene of riotous

discontent. The citizens are

appalled with a governing class

that shows little concern for the

people’s welfare during a time of

famine. Ten lines into the play we

hear the first rallying call for the

murder of a patrician: “Let us kill

him” (1.1.10). The plebeians hate

the city’s leaders in general for

their greed and profligacy, but

target Caius Martius as “chief

enemy to the people” (1.1.7–8).

Of all the patricians who place

their own needs above those of

the people they govern, Caius

Martius (later Coriolanus) is

most despicable: “He’s a very

dog to the commonality” (1.1.27).

Although some of the plebeians

recognize that Coriolanus has

fought valiantly in battle to protect

the city and its people from harm,

most resent his “nature,” which

they perceive to be scornful and

self-important. For Coriolanus, the

people of Rome represent little

more than a stinking, cowardly,

CORIOLANUS

fickle mob worthy only of

disdain—a herd of “boils and

plagues” (1.5.2) in his words.

Undeserving people

This play pits an individual against

society. Coriolanus’s greatest battle

is not against invading forces, but

against his own people, who are

fighting for equality and against

injustice. The citizens perceive

themselves as being the lifeblood

of the city itself, but Coriolanus

sees them merely as a blot on the

landscape. In his mind they are

rioting “To curb the will of the

nobility” (3.1.41), rather than, as

their appointed tribunes would

argue, fighting for their liberties

and their human rights. The

patrician Menenius presents the

ruling class as compassionate and

paternal: “most charitable care /

Have the patricians of you”

(1.1.63–64). He argues that the

famine should be blamed on the

gods, and discourages accusations

IN CONTEXT

THEMES

Class struggle, identity,

pride, honor, masculinity,

power, politics, family

SETTING

Ancient Rome

SOURCES

1579 Thomas North’s English

translation of Plutarch’s Lives

of the Ancient Greeks and

Romans.

LEGACY

1681 Nahum Tate adapts

Shakespeare’s Coriolanus to

create a royalist propaganda

piece called The Ingratitude

of a Commonwealth.

1941 Coriolanus is

championed in Germany

and taught in schools there.

The protagonist is identified

with Adolf Hitler as a model

of charismatic leadership.

1959 Laurence Olivier plays

Coriolanus in Stratford-upon-

Avon, portraying him as a

spoiled, incorrigible boy.

1964 The Berliner Ensemble

performs an adaptation

by Bertolt Brecht, which

emphasizes the plebeians’

class struggle.

1990 Michael Bogdanov’s

production for the English

Shakespeare Company sets

the play in Eastern Europe

during the politically turbulent

era of the 1980s.

2011 Ralph Fiennes directs

and stars in a British film

adaptation of Coriolanus set in

a modern-day version of Rome.

All the contagion of the

south light on you,

You shames of Rome!

You herd of—boils

and plagues

Caius Martius

Act 1, Scene 5

Control of the city of Rome is a

central question in Coriolanus. Does

the city belong to its people, or do the

patricians have a right—and duty—to

rule as they see fit?