Coriolanus Annotated PDF Download

CORIOLANUSShakespeare's principal source for the story of Coriolanus is a history written by Plutarch, of a Coriolanus who supposedly lived in ancient Rome. Shared with this source material is a concern for the overlap between virtue and valour; whereas, in Rome courage and bravery in war were considered to be virtues, Shakespeare's play is not completely convinced of this equation. Shakespeare deviates from other literature that focuses on heroes by making Coriolanus a flawed man, whose martial excellence does not necessarily translate into goodness of character. The historical Coriolanus of Plutarch was also a flawed character, similar to Shakespeare's Coriolanus in his great military successes, hubris, banishment, and death at the hands of Rome's enemies, whom he was trying to serve.Although Shakespeare's play follows the basic plot outlines of Coriolanus' story as related in Plutarch, there are a few key differences in Shakespeare's play that add to its timeliness and relevance for the audience. Among these is a change in the motivation for the people's unrest; in the original, the people were stirred to revolt by usury, but in Shakespeare's text, their revolt is motivated by a lack of corn. Just a year before Coriolanus was first performed, there were food shortages throughout England that sparked popular riots by the poor. The people charged the upper classes with hoarding grain, which was also the plebeian charge in Coriolanus; the aristocracy countered, as do their Shakespearean counterparts, that it is bad weather and an overall lack of grain that was to blame. This changed motivation would have been particularly resonant with Shakespeare's audience, as a significant part of their recent history is duplicated exactly in the framework of the play.