William Shakespeare's Coriolanus: A Historical Analysis - Research Paper

Introduction

William Shakespeare had embarked on a historical project in the early 17th century particularly between 1564- 1616. The past project was referred to as Coriolanus. Coriolanus was particularly a story of a Roman General who was much relaxed with the throes of war than the vital safety and comfort of the home. Even though Coriolanus focused on a man that lived many years before his playwright, Shakespeare dramatized the life of Coriolanus through an in-depth analysis of the provided accounts by Plutarch (Clough 1932, p.269). The fame of Coriolanus is derived from being that he had served, attacked, abandoned as well as reprieved Rome. Most significantly, how Shakespeare and Plutarch have covered the Coriolanus stories vary considerably. Thus the paper focuses on comparing the two Coriolanus presented by Shakespeare's play and Plutarch's Life.

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Plutarch's Coriolanus

Most fundamentally, Coriolanus in Plutarch's life appeared in antiquity such that it was so detached from the ancient times when Coriolanus lived. The story seems so removed from the ancient times that one can easily believe that it was a myth rather than historical fact. Again, Plutarch's coverage of Coriolanus is exclusively concerned with civil-military relations. Plutarch became the first author of ancient times to make prominence out of the civil-military problem. Through the introduction of Coriolanus' life, Plutarch tends to examine two distinct themes.

First, Plutarch is interested in underscoring the theme that bustard children are capable of doing something on their own for themselves. Again, Plutarch communicates the message that the excellence of a soldier must not be necessarily that of a statesman or a soldier. Unlike in Shakespeare's play, Plutarch presents Coriolanus' nature as being nobbled and good. Plutarch implies notes that his character was not softened by education or even by reason (Clough 1932, p.263). At the preliminary stages of Plutarch's Life, the author presents Coriolanus to possess exclusive virtue. According to Plutarch, Coriolanus' life is marred with insensibility to pleasures and wealth both privately and publicly. Plutarch notes that the role of Coriolanus within the city was to maintain sanity and dignity in the military service within the town

Plutarch's Coriolanus is also portrayed as having some form of vigor and eloquence, which would later make him rule over the cowardly. Most fundamentally, Plutarch's Coriolanus is depicted as having the possession of military and warlike achievements. However, it does not possess monopoly, especially when it comes to military excellence. Plutarch superimposes that voting by tribal lines rather than centuries resulted in "the impoverished and busy-body (polupragmona) rabble (ochlos), which had no thought of honor (to kalon), superior in voting power to those who were wealthy, well known, and had served in the military (strateuomenon)" (Clough 1932, p.267)

Most significantly, unlike Shakespeare's play, Life delves deep into understanding whether religion worked well in serving its purpose within the ancient society. For instance, in Life, there is a significant failure by both religious and political techniques to address the challenge between pleb and patricians within the early stages of the Life (Clough 1932, p.263). The unique aspect of Plutarch is the exclusive description of how the embassy came into existence. Unlike in Shakespeare's play, Plutarch's Life indicates the implications that arose from the translation of the martial glory subsequently into political history.

Shakespeare's Coriolanus

Shakespeare's play on Coriolanus was derived from Plutarch's Coriolanus. When Shakespeare begins to dramatize Plutarch's Life, his priority seems to focus on the construction of political strategy out of the crucial point in the early periods of the Republic of Rome. Unlike Plutarch's Coriolanus, Shakespeare's Life is meant to invalidate the relationship between the contemporary political situation and classical history. For instance, the play seems to be a beautiful replica of Plutarch's Coriolanus. Shakespeare creates a simultaneous figure of the political leader who is a worrier through the deliberate observance of specific prerequisites to Stuart ideology.

Shakespeare expertly manipulates the dimensions of politics within the play. Plutarch's Life has significantly inspired how Shakespeare's Coriolanus is presented in much verbal belligerence. Most significantly, Shakespeare's Coriolanus politically speaks a complicated and multifaceted personality than in Plutarch's Life. For instance, Plutarch notes, "the only thing that made him love honor was the joy he sawe his mother took of him. For he thought nothing made him so happy and honorable, as that his mother might hear euery body praise and commend him" (Clough 1932, p.268)

Such passage has been dramatically expanded by Shakespeare thus gaining much relevance and significance. Both Shakespeare's and Plutarch's Coriolanus portray an ambiguous implication between sexual abstinence and the courage in war. For instance, in the play, Shakespeare condemns sexual access as a waste of political energy. In the play, Coriolanus is so much obsessed with his mother that he rejects to heed unto his own eulogy primarily because the mother would have "a charter to extoll her blood" (Clough 1932, p.263) It is also worth noting that on the occasion of Coriolanus' departure from Rome, Volumnia had previously been saluted by his son more like a wife than a mother, an act which is not exemplified in the Plutarch's Life.

He says to the mother, "Nay, mother Resume that spirit when you were wont to say, If you had been the wife of Hercules, Six of his labours you'd have done, and sav'd Your husband so much sweat." (Clough 1932, p.267). Shakespeare again implies that the war against the Romans had been a fight against the pseudo-marital and the maternal bond.

Most importantly, Shakespeare unleashed another hidden dimension of Coriolanus' sexual sensibility which is not covered by Plutarch's Life. There is a paradigm fight against the search for some form of erotic touch in Shakespeare's play. For instance, there is a depiction of a violent war that erupts between Coriolanus and Aufidius that occurs towards the end of Act One. Shakespear later portrays Aufidius to be much attracted to be sexually attracted to his antagonist. Most fundamentally, Shakespeare borrows specific passages from Plutarch's Life. For instance, Aufidius reports of a dream that has been experiencing, which relates to a physical bodily fight with Coriolanus. He says, "I have nightly since Dreamt of encounters 'twixt thyself and me- We have been down together in my sleep, Unbuckling helms, fisting each other throat- And wak'd half dead with nothing." (Clough 1932, p.263)

Concisely, unlike Plutarch's Life, whose primary source is Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Shakespeare's play is much derived from the Coriolanus described by Plutarch's Life. The Plutarch's account of the Roman warrior remained the intention of Shakespeare's play (Clough 1932, p.263). Both Plutarch and Shakespeare similarly interpret the Coriolanus. For instance, both of them imply that Coriolanus is much close to the mother. Thus, the only significantly different between Shakespeare's stage and the Plutarch's page is mainly on the timeline.

References

Clough, A.H. ed., 1932. Plutarch: The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans. Random House.