Coriolanus
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This play offers a timeless exploration of pride, political manipulation, and the conflict between personal honor and public duty, making it a gripping study of character and society.
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Book Summary
A Roman general, Caius Marcius Coriolanus, is a brilliant warrior but a proud and arrogant patrician who despises the common people. His refusal to court their favor leads to his banishment, driving him to ally with his former enemy, the Volscian Aufidius, and march on Rome, only to be swayed by his mother's plea and ultimately betrayed and killed.
The play opens with a revolt of Roman citizens against the patricians, particularly Caius Marcius, whom they hate for his pride. Menenius Agrippa calms them with the fable of the belly, arguing for social interdependence. Meanwhile, the Volscian leader Aufidius prepares for war. Marcius leads the Roman army to capture the Volscian city of Corioli, earning the name Coriolanus. Returning to Rome, he is pressured to seek the consulship by humbly showing his wounds to the plebeians, but his disdainful manner and the manipulation of the tribunes Brutus and Sicinius lead to his banishment. In exile, Coriolanus allies with Aufidius and marches on Rome. His mother Volumnia, wife Virgilia, and son plead with him to spare the city, and he relents, making peace. This act of mercy enrages Aufidius, who conspires with Volscian lords to kill Coriolanus. Coriolanus is slain, and Aufidius, though victorious, is left to mourn him.
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Narrative arc
Story tension across the book.
Caius Marcius Coriolanus
A patrician general whose battlefield fury earns him the surname Coriolanus, he returns from Corioli to find Rome's citizens and tribunes already measuring his pride. He cannot flatter, cannot wear humility like a costume, and tells his mother he would rather serve the patricians his way than rule with the people's voice. That refusal — to perform the deference a consul must show — sets the whole tragedy in motion, turning his own city into the enemy he cannot bring himself to fight.
Menenius Agrippa
Menenius is the patrician everyone tolerates: a talker, a peacemaker, a man who calls Coriolanus his friend and Rome his family. He tries to keep the general's temper in check — 'Be calm, be calm' — and to keep the tribunes from turning a grain dispute into a coup. His loyalty is genuine but his influence is limited, and watching him fail to bridge the gap between a proud soldier and an angry city is one of the play's quiet heartbreaks.
Tullus Aufidius
Aufidius is Rome's mirror-image enemy: a general whose personal hatred of Coriolanus has become almost a form of devotion. He curses his own troops for yielding Corioli, retires to Antium, and lets it be known he would pawn his fortune to be called Coriolanus's vanquisher. That obsessive rivalry — equal parts loathing and admiration — makes him the one figure in the play who truly understands what Coriolanus is, and the one most dangerous when that understanding curdles.
Volumnia
Volumnia raised her son on stories of blood and honour, and she measures his worth by the wounds he carries home. She pushes him toward the consulship, dismisses his reluctance as squeamishness, and treats his victories as the fulfilment of her own designs. Her love is real and her ambition is fiercer than his, which makes her the play's most unsettling force: the woman who made Coriolanus, and the only one who might be able to unmake him.
Sicinius Velutus
Sicinius is one half of the tribunician pair that guards the plebeians' hard-won voice against patrician contempt. He watches Coriolanus's triumphal return not with awe but with calculation, noting that a man who cannot 'temperately transport his honours' will lose them soon enough. His patience is his weapon: he lets Coriolanus's own tongue do the work of turning the people against him, then steps in to bar the way to the Capitol.
Junius Brutus
Brutus shares the tribuneship with Sicinius and shares his suspicion of Coriolanus's popularity, but his voice is the cooler, more strategic one. He notes how the whole city crowds to see the returning general — nurses, maids, veiled ladies — and concludes that such worship cannot last if the man refuses to ask for it. He and Sicinius work the crowd, frame Coriolanus's contempt as an insult to Rome, and turn a hero's homecoming into a political ambush.
Pride and Arrogance
Coriolanus's excessive pride and disdain for the common people drive the central conflict, as his refusal to flatter or humble himself leads to his political downfall and exile.
Class Conflict
The play vividly depicts the struggle between the patricians and plebeians, with the citizens' hunger and resentment against the aristocracy fueling political manipulation and rebellion.
Honor and Valor
Coriolanus's identity is built on military honor and martial prowess, yet his rigid adherence to this code clashes with the political necessity of compromise and diplomacy.
Motherhood and Influence
Volumnia's powerful influence over Coriolanus shapes his character and actions, as she instills in him a relentless pursuit of honor and ultimately persuades him to spare Rome.
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