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also proves a dangerous force,
threatening to turn their fury on
their own tribunes by the close.
Bad politician
Diplomacy is not a quality for
which Coriolanus is renowned.
This character makes enemies very
easily, and it is perhaps surprising
that he avoids assassination for
as long as he does. He is at once
one of Shakespeare’s most
unattractive and most compelling
characterizations. The patrician
soldier is courageous and awe-
inspiring on the battlefield, but
has little success when he enters
the world of politics, for which he
requires the citizens’ approval.
Coriolanus is larger than life,
a killing machine; he would
always prove a misfit in public
life. “Rather say I play / the man I
am,” (3.2.13–14) he declares when
his mother urges him to play the
role of the diplomat in receiving the
citizen’s voices of election. He
cannot dissemble; he can only
speak as he feels. Ultimately,
Coriolanus’s stinging and unbridled
tongue, combined with the
machinations of two power-hungry
tribunes, will lead to his banishment
from Rome. Although the citizens
view this as a victory, their safety
is no longer assured. In a typical act
of arrogant defiance Coriolanus
“banishes” Rome, and looks to
revenge the people’s ingratitude.Firm voice
Although there are many citizens’
voices to be heard in this play,
it is Coriolanus’s distinctive tone
that will remain in the audience’s
ears. Coriolanus carries with him
both the charisma of a celebrity
and the terror of a mythological
monster. There is crispness and
bite in the phrasing of his angry
dismissal of the Roman mob:
“You common cry of curs, whose
breath I hate / As reek o’th’ rotten
fens, whose loves I prize / As theDo the people of Rome
control Rome’s freedom
and independence, or are
such notions in the gift
only of a strong and
decisive leader whose
protection may crush
the collective will?dead carcasses of unburied men /
That do corrupt my air: I banish
you” (3.3.124–127). Coriolanus’s
speech is gritty, muscular, and
often monosyllabic. Every word heCORIOLANUS
Let me have war, say I.
It exceeds peace as far as day
does night. It’s sprightly,
walking, audible, and full of
vent. Peace is a very apoplexy,
lethargy; mulled, deaf, sleepy,
insensible; a getter of more
bastard children than war’s a
destroyer of men.
First servingman
Act 4, Scene 5