Coriolanus

Caius Martius Coriolanus is the protagonist of the play and a tragic hero. He is a Roman patrician who is originally called Caius Martius until he receives the honorific agnomen “Coriolanus” to commemorate his deeds in capturing the city of Corioles.

In the early parts of the play, he is referred to as Martius, a name derived from Mars, the Roman god of war. This name contributes to his characterization as a natural soldier who values military glory and bravery over any other virtue. Shakespeare portrays Coriolanus as a man whose most admirable virtues are also his greatest faults. While his ferocity, anger, and stubbornness are beneficial on the battlefield, they are catastrophic when he attempts to enter the world of politics. Shakespeare also hints that Coriolanus embodies the traits traditionally associated with the aristocracy, making him an unbeatable leader but also causing him to damage his own career through uncompromising pride.

Many characters who encounter Coriolanus remark about his frightening appearance when he is angry or in battle. One of his fellow Roman commanders describes him in such terms as he observes him in battle:

LARTIUS. Thou wast a soldier

Even to Cato’s wish, not fierce and terrible

Only in strokes, but with thy grim looks and

The thunderlike percussion of thy sounds

Thou mad’st thine enemies shake, as if the world

Were feverous and did tremble (1.4.74-79).

Lartius mentions that Coriolanus looks terrifying even when he is not striking with his sword, and that his appearance and voice alone are enough to make Rome’s enemies tremble with fear. Servants at Aufidius’s hall later remark upon this same trait, not recognizing Coriolanus as a nobleman due to his beggar’s clothes, but growing alarmed when they see his angry expression. This characterization serves Shakespeare’s larger point that Coriolanus is a dangerous man to have as an enemy. While the tribunes regard him as a threat to their office if he gains power in Rome, they discover that he poses a much greater threat once he is banished.

By contrast, Menenius describes Coriolanus positively, emphasizing his innate nobility while also acknowledging how that very same trait causes him to be prone to anger. He tries to excuse Coriolanus’s temper by claiming:

MENENIUS. His nature is too noble for the world.

He would not flatter Neptune for his trident

Or Jove for ’s power to thunder. His heart’s his

mouth;

What his breast forges, that his tongue must vent,

And, being angry, does forget that ever

He heard the name of death (3.1.326-332).

Menenius links nobility to honesty, integrity, and bravery, downplaying how this same trait damages Coriolanus’s reputation by making him violent and often insulting towards others.

While Coriolanus is often an unlikable, proud, violent, and tempestuous person, Shakespeare reminds the audience several times that his negative traits are not self-serving or motivated by a desire for personal reward. After the battle with the Volsces, Cominius offers Coriolanus a greater share of the plunder, but he refuses, insisting, “[I] cannot make my heart consent to take / A bribe to pay my sword. I do refuse it / And stand upon my common part with those / That have beheld the doing” (1.6.43-46). By refusing financial reward for his service, Coriolanus makes it clear that he risks his life because he sees it as virtuous, rather than to obtain more wealth. Similarly, Coriolanus refuses to listen when Cominius praises his bravery before the senate, feeling embarrassed by descriptions of his prowess in battle. Through this, Shakespeare indicates that Coriolanus does not fight to have his own reputation increased either.

Ultimately, Coriolanus’s inability to modify his behavior within the civic sphere ruptures his bond with Rome and results in his banishment. His desire for revenge leads him to make a pact with Aufidius and to march on Rome, although he is persuaded to broker a peace once he hears his mother’s pleas for mercy. His death at the hands of Aufidius’s men shortly afterwards reinforces the sense of a tragic downfall, as Coriolanus dies bravely and defiantly, still unable to truly modify who he is in any meaningful way.