Coriolanus, first performed in 1606, is probably the last play of Shakespeare’s tragic period. It tells the story of an incomparably brave and patriotic soldier, Caius Marcius Coriolanus, who is honoured by his fellow patricians for his service to the Roman Republic. He is persuaded to stand for high political office, but, in order to be appointed, he must plead with the common people for their support. This he is too proud to do with any conviction and he succeeds only in alienating the populace, already discontent at a time of economic privation. The result is his downfall and the threat of total destruction to Rome itself.
For a modern audience the play is problematic. Coriolanus is the least sympathetic of all Shakespeare’s heroes. He is proud to the point of arrogance and contemptuous of his social inferiors. He is driven by a hyper-masculine, militaristic creed that, for those who remember the 20th century, is reminiscent of fascism. He is also, unlike Shakespeare’s other tragic heroes, unwilling or unable to explore himself or consider his own deficiencies. Some readers find, however, that it is precisely in the challenges the play presents to most of us today that it is most stimulating. The play is also remarkably interesting for the pictures it gives of relations between the sexes, particularly that between mother and son. The hero’s alarming mother, Volumnia, is one of the most brilliantly imagined of Shakespeare’s female characters.
The class will include discussion of the modern questions which the play provokes, though it will also attempt to remind class members of the sorts of perspective that were familiar to Shakespeare. We shall study one act of the play per day, reading as if the outcome were unknown to us, trying not to anticipate too much as we go on.
For illustration, we shall watch extracts from the 2011 film of Coriolanus, directed by Ralph Fiennes and starring Fiennes in the title role with the great Vanessa Redgrave as Volumnia.
