Coriolanus, write a critical appreciation of the following passage, (Act 1, Scene 1, 146-210) showing what it contributes to your understanding of Martius (Coriolanus).

by cj7 (student)

Paying close attention to language and tone, write a critical appreciation of the following passage, (Act 1, Scene 1, 146-210) showing what it contributes to your understanding of Martius (Coriolanus).

Coriolanus can be thought of as the story of a heroic soldier whose downfall is caused by pride and inflexibility of character. Shakespeare found the story of Coriolanus (Caius Martius) in the writings of the Roman historian, Plutarch. There, he read that Caius Martius ‘was so choleric and impatient that he would yield to no living creature, which made him churlish, uncivil, and altogether unfit for any man’s conversation’. In this passage, Shakespeare provides Martius with language to match Plutarch description. Tone in this passage also effectively contributes to the understanding of Martius’ (Coriolanus’) character.

Martius’ first entry, introduces a different kind of patrician among all – the man hardened by battle to an unyielding rigour, which he maintains in public life. It is clear that Menenius and Martius aredramatic foils. Menenius is wise, has a great wit and is willing to play a part, to talk and flatter his way out of difficult situations. Martius is hot-tempered, full of disdain and has no skills with which to deal with the common masses. Note the contrast between Martius’ and Menenius’ tone and behaviour; Martius is rash and angry in dealing with the plebeians but Menenius has proven himself calm and wise. Martius’ insults undo all of Menenius’ hard work, and again inflame the anger of the masses. He clearly does not know what to do in tricky domestic situations like in this particular passage. Nevertheless, he is blunt and is not afraid to show his dislike for the plebeians unlike Menenius who is easier going yet too ready to compromise, and to hide his true feelings about the plebeians. In truth, Menenius is a hypocrite, for he has little regard for the commoners, much like Marcius.

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Martius has a single-minded virtue – a warrior virtue. His reaction to the news of the approach of the Volsces, Rome’s ancient enemy, illuminates his love of war and fighting and his restlessness when not involved in battle: He rejoices at the prospect of war with the Volsces. ‘We shall ha’ means to vent our mustly superfluity’ literally means ‘We will have ways of getting rid of the surplus of our old rotten corn.’ But Martius is thinking of the rebellious citizens of Rome, and expressing the belief that war is like a medicine that cleanses society, killing of the excess population. The image echoes a popular medical practice in Shakespeare’s time: bloodletting. Doctors drained blood from a sick person, believing that an excess of blood caused the illness. Martius single minded virtue is incapable of leading him to a comparably just conclusion about the people. He sees the people as a diseased part of the state, worthless and unclean.Yet, as we seen, he has more in common with them than he realizes. Even in their mutual hate, similarities emerge between Martius and the people. At the play’s opening, the mutinous citizens hope to relieve the dearth by killing Martius. This sentiment may represent the illogicality of a rampaging crowd, but no less illogical is Coriolanus’ way of answering their grievances and their accusations against the patricians : “Would the nobility lay aside their ruth, and let me use my sword, I’d make a quarry with thousands of these quarterd’d slaves, as high as I could pick my lance.”

Animal imageries in this passage contribute to the understanding of Martius’ character. Lines 147-71 are a tirade of scornful abuse against the plebeians which contains many antitheses: peace/war, lions/hares, foxes/geese. These intensify and deepens imaginative effect, creating and giving insight into Martius’ feelings and thoughts, thus we are able to gain impression of Martius’ character. When Caius Martius erupts into the play at line 146, Immediately the pace and tone of the scene changes from passive to active, his contempt of the plebeians ironically paralleling their earlier criticism of him, as he accuses them of being made ‘proud’ and describes them as ‘curs’. Within his first speeches the audience are given a clear demonstration of his arrogant contempt for the fickle citizens that he regards as the diseased parts of the body that is Rome, his anger at the thought of giving power to those he considers unworthy of it as cowards who do not fight for the State, and his mistrust of words that flatter but mean nothing: “With every minute you do change a mind , And call him noble that was now your hate, Him vile that was your garland………”

Martius’ language reflects his aggressive active nature. When with the people, he suffers from loss of verbal control; he cannot stop talking, nor can he always shape whole sentences. The structure of his speech is not smoothly rhythmic and lines are crammed with thoughts and enjambments as thoughts spill over to the next line; the language seems harsh, rugged and choppy. Lines are often divided, sometimes more than once, the caesuras created by the punctuation emphasising the pithy, stressed, often explosive projection of Martius’ words, adding to an impression of his impatience and rage. The rhythm of the verse is further disrupted by the frequent use of trochaic feet, creating a tension between the contrasting regular iambic pentameter and Martius’ speech which intensifies the sense of emotional conflict and aggression. He, for one, uses words as if they were actions and that by hurling as many brutal words around as he can. When he has to work with words alone, he often gets very angry and his less pleasant emotions come through.

Caius Martius is indeed proud both in North’s Plutarch and Shakespeare which is evident in his tone when speaking to the pebeians. Martius ridicules the proverbs used by the plebeians, to him, they are only childish slogans. Shakespeare made Martius deliver his speech with a sneering tone to intensify his arrogance. Martius also probably names Junius Brutus and Sicinius Velutus with great distaste, and he disdains to remember the names of the other tribunes. Despite his anger, he is right about the citizens in some respects. His statements foreshadow later events, like how the citizens are easily led to fulfil the wishes of the tribunes, and how he, one of Rome’s great leaders, will be unceremoniously tossed out by a mob that doesn’t know what is the best for itself.

Martius is an inflexible, arrogant heroic warrior, whose courage and perseverance win every match on the battlefield. He is hot-tempered and is also filled with pride. He disrespects the commoners, feeling they are not as smart as the patricians and are unfit to even be represented in the government. Since they do not share his values, Martius refuses to hide his dislike for them. He is always brutally honest and speaks his mind. He believes the commoners are inconstant and cowardly, and he clearly tells them so. These are effectively portrayed by Shakespeare through language and tone. Martius’ language matches Plutarch’s description of Martius. His tones when speaking to the plebeians are of a sneering, dismissive ridicule, menace and ironic tone. Everyone, it seems, has an opinion to express about Caius Martius, and those opinions, appropriately for this play, are conflicting. There is very little soul-searching or questioning through soliloquy in Caius Martius Coriolanus. Our knowledge and understanding of the man, therefore, relies on what is said about him and by him, and through observation of his actions and interaction with others in the play.

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