(38) Coriolanus

Coriolanus is a play about power, namely, the origins of power, how power relates to class, and the way in which power is gained and lost (and, in the case of this play, gained and then lost again, really lost, like dead lost…but more on that in a minute). As a tragedy, I think it holds up reasonable well, but it really doesn't compare to some of the other tragedies in the canon (but, given the competition, that can’t be too surprising, right?). My main complaint is on the main character Coriolanus: a character of only one dimension, he’s the same guy throughout and doesn't change one bit, at any point. You know who he is right away and he stays that way. Arrogant, inflexible, ridiculously proud, and utterly disdainful of the lower classes, I didn't like him very much at all I guess, which is probably a big reason why he (and this play) holds up only “reasonably well” in my humblest of estimations.

An oversimplified summary: Coriolanus saves Rome by defeating his arch rival Aufidius in battle. He is lauded as a hero by the patricians (upper class) but essentially dismissed by the plebeians (lower class). In reacting to this dismissal, he says the exact wrong things, basically intimating that, as a member of the upper class, those in the lower class can pretty much just suck it. He says this over and over, even when called upon specifically to unsay it as apology and in order to gain the consulship (so even when a lot is at stake). He's like the worst politician ever. The anti-politician.

Not surprisingly, the people of Rome expel him, which sets him off to no end. In his anger, he gathers a huge army to invade Rome. All seems lost for the Romans until his wife and family persuade him to call off the invasion. He agrees, is accepted back into Rome, but is betrayed, right at the very end, and killed (what did you expect?). In typical Shakespearean fashion, everyone immediately realizes the horror of losing such a great man and he is carried dead off stage, with much pomp and lamentation.

To read this play is to experience, in full force, the idea of the “body politic.” Shakespeare explores this concept extensively in this play, perhaps more so than any other I have read (and I have read them all…first time I can write that!). To review: the body politic is what it says, a concept that likens the political nation to the human body. The head is the king and the body the people, with endless permutations on each part as it relates to the other. Indeed, in this play, that is exactly what happens, with countless references to human body parts sprinkled throughout, including Menenius’ famous speech to the plebeians to calm them after one of Coriolanus’ many arrogant insults, a speech where Menenius likens the upper class to the stomach, which distributes nourishment to the plebian “body,” magnanimously taking only the leftovers as nourishment, after the body has had its fill. A great speech, as good any in Shakespeare, and for this alone I was glad to have read the play.

This idea of the body politic, or more accurately a “diseased” body politic, is so thematically prominent in this one that it seems overdone at points. The likening of the various parts of the nation to human body parts was apparently quite popular in Shakespeare’s day so perhaps he’s just pandering to the crowd. The king is the head, the nobility the limbs, the lower rebellious classes the “great toe of this assembly” and thus “o’ th’ lowest, basest, poorest” of people. Simple as that, the lower you go, the less your social esteem. As a monarchist (as Shakespeare most certainly was), you could see the appeal of this message, to him and to his audience, the extensible idea of body as nation, hierarchical and rigid, safe and straightforward. Religiously right. Appealing in his day for sure, and as appealing (perhaps more so), in ours?

So there it is, my last play “analyzed.” The goal has been reached. I have read every play so this project is over…but not quite. I have a few more “wrap up” posts in me I think, things like favorite lists and lessons learned and whatnot so bear with me. Just a few more, but not many, as I am more than ready to move on. It’s been a blast but enough is enough, right?