Coriolanus: ‘Author of Himself’

Abstract

Coriolanus, which takes its title from the name its protagonist Caius Martius wins for himself through his prowess in battle, is one in the series of six tragedies Shakespeare provided for the King’s Men from 1604 through 1608. It is also one of a sub-group of four within that series in which the protagonist is a warrior. Like Othello, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra, this play — by most estimates the last Shakespearean tragedy — directs attention to the warrior’s relationship with a woman, but it is different in one vital respect. In them, the relationship between the warrior and the woman is sexual, involving the wives of Othello and Macbeth and Antony’s lover Cleopatra, who, in her final moments, claims him as a spouse: ‘Husband, I come’ (V.ii.286). Coriolanus, too, has a wife, but primary emphasis does not fall on their relationship. The play stresses instead his relationship with his mother. The point of crisis for Coriolanus — and in the play — comes when his mother pleads with him to spare his native Rome, powerless to resist the army, composed of those he won fame by fighting against in the service of Rome, that he now leads against it. She implores him to change from warrior to peacemaker, to reconcile Romans and Volsci so that ‘each in either side / Give the all-hail to thee, and cry, “Be bless’d / For making up this peace!” ’ (V.iii.138–40).