I not only really like Shakespeare's Coriolanus: I also like the man Coriolanus as he is revealed in the play. Sure, he may be a hothead, an arrogant bully, an immature mama's boy with a proto-fascist personality, but he is also a man of extraordinary physical courage and sincere personal modesty who would like nothing better than to do his warrior's duty and be left alone. Unfortunately, though, his mother--whose values are also those of the Roman republic--sees her son's patrician duty as incl [...]

“Let it be virtuous to be obstinate.” - William Shakespeare, CoriolanusI'm a sucker for a revenge play, so this one floats easily just on the heat generated by Coriolanus' anger. I remember being exposed to the Coriolanus story last year when I was reading Plutarch's Lives, Vol 1* and again earlier this year when I was reading Livy I: History of Rome, Books 1-2. So, going into the play I was fairly comfortable with the basic story, but completely unprepared for Shakepeare's viscious tongue. [...]

There are many gods, and when we organize and rank them we go too far, we ask too much of them.- "Women and Men", Joseph McElroyI am certain that had this play been written by anyone other than Shakespeare it would be venerated as a major work; performed and discussed perhaps in the way Hamlet, King Lear or Macbeth are. Written late in The Bard's career (it is the last of the Tragedies and the Histories), Coriolanus is his work that might be the most relevant and relatable to our modern world.Ca [...]

Let the first budger die the other’s slave, And the gods doom him after. - Caius Marcius CoriolanusShakespeare turns to 5th century BC Roman history for a deeply serious drama depicted in combat scenes between fierce enemies, conflicts between patricians and the plebeians, and contrasting perspectives within family. His treatment of war, statesmen, citizens and family life is surprisingly unusual in that the common denominator in all, the hero, is motivated by a powerful mother-son dynamic. Ca [...]

Shakespeare yaşasa iddia ediyorum bugünden sonra Cemre'nin Tragedyası diye bir oyun yazardı. Çok kötü bir gün geçirdim ve fazla şey yazmaya mecalim yok. Bu sebeple oyunla ilgili kısaca birkaç şey söylemek istiyorum. Pek çok sefer belirttim bunu, biliyorum; ama yine söylemek istiyorum ki ben Shakeapeare'i izlemeyi değil okumayı seviyorum. Sahnede bazı şeyler olmuyor gibi hissediyorum ya da belki de ben başarılı bir Shakespeare uyarlamasına hiç denk gelmedim. Buna karşın [...]

Going into this drama, I did not think that I would like it, because I was never really that much into dramas. I read The Tempest by Shakespeare last year, and I did not enjoy it. Now, when I finished it, it surprises me to say that I actually loved reading it. The story grabbed me at the beginning, and held me 'till the end. I do think that the drama could have been a couple of dozen pages shorter (that's why the 4 stars), but apart from that, I completely loved it. Hopefully my next drama by S [...]

“From face to foot, He was a thing of blood, whose every motionWas timed with dying cries.”I recently went to see the Donmar Warehouse production of this play, so of course I read it beforehand. The production was excellent and only heightened my appreciation of it. Reading this I started out a little weary. It’s one of the lesser known Shakespeare plays, and I’d never heard of it until I found out about the Donmar Warehouse show, so I had no idea even what it was really about. But as I [...]

Gurur temasını odak noktasına taşıyan "Coriolanus'un Tragedyası / The Tragedy of Coriolanus", oldukça karmaşık ve antipatik ana karakteriyle diğer tragedyalardan ayrılıyor. Diğerlerine nazaran daha soğuk bir tavrı olan oyunda halktan nefret etmesine rağmen vatan için yanıp tutuşan Coriolanus’un gururu sebebiyle çöküşü anlatılıyor. Coriolanus öyle bir karakter ki savaştaki başarılarından dolayı övünmekten nefret ediyor ve övülmekten de tiksiniyor. Bu yapısı [...]

I'm told Coriolanus, the person, is unlikeable, but I happen to like him. I don't even think he's a right-wing bastard, just shy, awkward and misunderstood. It's his severe self-effacement that makes him hate publicity. Who wants to stand in the market and exhibit your wounds in a stupid political stunt? And his thickheadedness, the fact he has no idea when to use that soldierly bluntness and when to keep his trap shut, is a naivety I like against the politics of Rome. He's a soldier, yes, but a [...]

I don't have much to say about Shakespeare that hasn't already been said, and I don't feel worthy of even trying, but essentially, I think Coriolanus has a lot to offer in therms of psychology, especially psychology of the masses. It is hard trying to analyze something that has already been written about in many textbooks, but for me, at least, Coriolanus's leitmotif is the herd behavior. Of course, there are many other sub ideas, but the most interesting thing to read about was the way society [...]

This play took me by surprise, I had not heard of it before and only read it because I wanted to watch the adaptation with Tom Hiddleston. And lucky me, this was such an interesting play and this edition was just the right one to give me enough background information and interpretation ways that I could make the most out of the play.Being thus prepared I could appreciate the adaptation a lot better and enjoyed it tremendously.I can only recommend it, if you get the chance to watch it.

Generals do not make good politicians7 November 2013 This is a story about a General who is thrust into the world of politics, namely because he was such a good general. However, while he happpens to be a great general, as a politician he positively sucks. Basically, Gaius Marcius' main flaw (despite the fact that I don't believe in fatal flaws) is that he simply speaks his mind, which is a noble characteristic is most professions, but not in politics. To put it bluntly, Marcius (aka Coriolanus, [...]

Caius Marcius Coriolanus on the public he would rule: He that will give good words to thee will flatter Beneath abhorring. What would you have, you curs, That like nor peace nor war? the one affrights you, The other makes you proud. He that trusts to you, Where he should find you lions, finds you hares; Where foxes, geese: you are no surer, no, Than is the coal of fire upon the ice, Or hailstone in the sun.…The fires i’ th’ lowest hell fold in the people!His opponents the demagogic tribune [...]

This play made me realize how good Shakespeare really is. I had honestly never heard of "Coriolanus", and I picked it up to read because the National Theatre Live is broadcasting it live on January 30, 2014. I have read a few of the basic Shakespeare plays - "Hamlet", "Macbeth", "A Midsummer Night's Dream", "Julius Caesar" - the usual suspects. The problem is that I already knew how they would end, more or less. I don't remember a time in my life when I didn't know the plot and ending of "Romeo [...]

The only reason I can get the smallest grasp of appreciation for this play is that my natural interest in politics has been wrung through the wringer of six Shakespearean tragedies previous. This is the incompatibility of war and peace in Titus Adronicus crammed into the crucible of democracy and dictatorship, wherein power to the people will forever be a ruse so long as a single conscience can conceptualize the people as the abject. I won't lie and say I'd like the look of this on stage better [...]

Boy!Never has Shakespeare entertained me so much. He has confounded me, interrogated me and mirrored me but never has he handed me a summer Hollywood blockbuster - a chilling and thrilling script of violent tragedy stoking societal passions from all sides.Despite the gripping plot, I tried to focus on Caius Marcius' character. As in all of Shakespeare's plays, the characteristics of a hero or villain shape the play and bend our sympathies - not the action or twisting storylines. Through this rea [...]

Shakespeare's Coriolanus is both noble and so stiff-necked that he cannot compromise his principles -- and this at a time when tribunes have been chosen to represent the common people that the Roman hero professes to loathe. Despite his heroic victories in the best, the tribunes have him exiled, whereupon he goes straight to Tullus Aufidius of the Volsces, Rome's most bitter enemy. Invading Rome with Aufidius, Coriolanus is stopped dead in his tracks only by his mother Volumnia and his wife and [...]

In anticipation of the release of a new filmed version of Coriolanus, I reread the play in Dec 2011.It remains a difficult play to enjoy, and I'm going to retain my 2-star rating - it's OK compared to other Shakespeare plays.The protagonist is an arrogant, spoiled, immature patrician whose disgust for Rome's plebeians is so manifest and violent that his enemies easily manipulate the citizens into banishing him. He flies to his chief enemy, Tullus Aufidius, the leader of the Volsces, and returns [...]

This is an excellent drama, very political in terms of plotline and very main character-driven, a rarity for a Shakespearean play. It's written in verse for the most part, with sections in plain prose, and covers the later years in the life of Roman general Caius Martius Coriolanus, patrician war hero of the Volscian/Roman wars, as chronicled by Plutarch in his Lives.The story has a straight pull forward: The Volsces, an Italian tribe, start a war with Rome and the city calls its most brilliant [...]

I didn't really care for this one. It's well written, but too long.

The bleakest and most uncompromisingly harsh of the tragedies. The people of Rome are an easily fooled rabble, their leaders (the Tribunes) are unprincipled careerists, the patricians are weak and fearful. Caius Martius (Coriolanus) is a great general but among the worst political leaders imaginable, getting himself exiled from Rome when the acclaim for annihilating the Volscain army should be at its highest. His mother, Volumina, may be the coldest and least maternal woman in literature, wishin [...]

Roman general Caius Marcius is nicknamed Coriolanus translated from Latin as "Conqueror of Coriolis", after dealing with success with Rome's enemies in the homonymous town.I believe that Shakespeare didn't mean "anus" like Romans did i.e. "ring", a signet ring as a prize on the finger of a champion, but as we use it, hence Coriolanus is "that asshole from Coriolis". Furthermore, since "coriolis" means "secure", Coriolanus is the "security/militant asshole" or a saving-his-own-ass guy.Anyway this [...]

Fierce warrior, great general, total prat.

An arrogant Roman general switches sides, wants political power, has horrid temperament, is deposed, wants revenge, death comes for him.

Anger's my meat: I sup upon myself, And so shall starve with feeding.

Donmar Warehouse in Covent Garden is setting up this play in December and January, starring Tom Hiddleston (Loki in Avengers, Capt. Nicholls in War Horse, loveliest guy in the world), Hadley Fraser (a number of roles in Les Mis, Raoul in Phantom of the Opera) and Mark Gatiss (Mycroft in BBC's Sherlock), and honestly, how could we resist? The tickets sold out in 20 minutes, and with that lineup it is completely understandable. We are seeing this in early January and can't wait. Expectations are h [...]

I jumped into this play with no fragment of knowledge about it; I found myself swept up into the see-saw of Caius Marcius' fortunes. The layers and textures still intrigue me. Manifold motifs: naming, gratitude, pride, honor, tongues, integrity, courage, friendship, politics, alliances. Laughed aloud: suffered me to be whoop'd out of RomeI definitely want to revisit this in the future.(Aside — I was watching Game 5 of the Cubs-Dodgers National League playoff game. When the Dodgers went ahead 7 [...]

Shakespeare, in my opinion, really is the dog's bollocks.I decided to read this (for the first time) before I see the new film version directed by and starring Ralph Fiennes opening this weekend. However, I was not prepared to be so bowled over by the sheer poetry of the master playwright WS. Reading the Bard, one is constantly reminded of the richness of the English language. The character of Coriolanus is frustratingly macho and stubborn which ultimately leads to his downfull, for tragedy this [...]

While not as good as Hamlet (but then again, what is?) Coriolanus is Shakespeare at his best. The titular character and his mother are extremely compelling characters. Volumnia's speeches, Coriolanus' confrontation with Alfidious after his exile, the political intrigue by the oligarchical patriciate of Rome, are all beautifully written and quotable scenes. Any Julius Evola "Against the Modern World" types will love Coriolanus. In fact, Coriolanus is just Julius Evola as a Shakespeare character, [...]

За един воин всичко започва и завършва с него самия!Карлос КастанедаПризнавам си – виновна! Макар да харесвам Уилям Шекспир, единствената причина, поради която посегнах точно сега към тази пиеса беше желанието ми да гледам изпълнението на Том Хидълстън като Кориолан в пос [...]