‘the tragedy of Coriolanus originates in his intense allegiance to the cult of virtus’ | Miller |
‘he is no more capable of restraining his fury than is a child in a tantrum’ | headlam wells’The tragic struggle of the play is not that of patricians with plebeians, but of Coriolanus with his own self’ |
‘The tragic struggle of the play is not that of patricians with plebeians, but of Coriolanus with his own self’ | hazlitt |
‘Shakespeare was recognising and exploiting Coriolanus’ resemblance to Elizabethan military adventurers” | Jorgensen |
‘What Shakespeare wanted was a simpler and more appalling situation than he found in Plutarch, and a hero enslaved by his passion and driven blindly forward’ | AC Bradley |
If ‘his behaviour is at odds with the world around him, he will attempt to destroy the world around him’ | Wheeler |
‘Has finally learned to talk like a politician… but I’m doing so he debases himself… we admired him more when he spoke like a Roman’ | Hussey |
A warrior whose only charm is his lack of it | Gurewitsch |
His tragedy is not the consequence of the people’s fear and anger, but of his own nature and nurture | Bloom |
Killing machine | Bloom |
“The ruin of noble life through the sin of pride.” | Dowden |
You can’t make him easy to sympathise with- it weakens him as a character’ | Fiennes |
He sees himself… not only as a Roman, but as the embodiment | Hatlen |
Coriolanus I their greatest warrior, bred to believe that personal merit can be measured by the number of wounds sustained in a battle | Kermode |
His faults are repellent and chill our sympathies | AC Bradley |
The pride and wrath of Coriolanus can be seen as admirable as well as detestable | Bloom |
Victim of his own dominating and domineering mother | Bloom |
Anywhere except at a battlefield he is, at best, a disaster waiting to happen | Bloom |
Thinks his heart is iron, and it melts like snow before fire | AC Bradely |
With such a mother, nasty as he can be, must be forgiven by the audience | Bloom |
there is his relationship to war, his relationship to the community, and his relationship to his mother, and the quality of the first two derives from the strength of the last | proser |
Coriolanus critics
July 21, 2019