Coriolanus

• Caius Martius is Rome's greatest warrior — arrogant, contemptuous of the common people, and incapable of diplomacy • He wins a decisive victory at Corioli (hence the name Coriolanus). Returns to Rome as a hero • To become consul, he must show his wounds to the people and ask for their votes. He can barely bring himself to do it — he despises the masses • The tribunes (Sicinius and Brutus, elected by the people) manipulate the crowd against him. Coriolanus explodes in fury, calling the people "fragments" • Banished from Rome. "There is a world elsewhere." He goes to his mortal enemy, Aufidius the Volscian, and offers to destroy Rome together • Coriolanus leads the Volscian army to Rome's gates. The city is in panic • His mother Volumnia — the woman who made him what he is, who taught him to value martial honor above all — comes to plead for Rome • Coriolanus yields. "O mother, mother! What have you done?" He knows this will kill him • He returns to the Volscians. Aufidius accuses him of treason. Conspirators murder him • Volumnia is the play's real protagonist — she created Coriolanus and ultimately destroys him by invoking the bond she forged • Shakespeare's most political play — a clinical examination of democracy, aristocracy, populism, and military elitism