Table of contentsIntroductionThe value of honor in Roman societySymbols of honorConflict and tragic resolutionConclusionIntroductionIn the tragedies of William Shakespeare, the themes of revenge, chaos , uncertain honor and premature death permeate the tales, whether they depict the fall of a noble king, a passionate general or a valiant warrior. One of these tragedies, "Coriolanus", explores society and the self-destruction of a Roman warrior model, illustrating the consequences of excessive character traits, and even of one's honor. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay This piece presents a nuanced examination of gender dynamics, particularly through the characters of Coriolanus and Volumnia. It explores the complex relationship between masculine and feminine concepts of honor in Roman society. Although semantically related, these notions of honor manifest independently, leading to a conflict that leads to the tragic outcome of the play, ultimately seeking to restore this primary virtue to both characters. Value of Honor in Roman Society In “Coriolanus,” both sexes hold honor. in higher esteem than limb, life or love. Volumnia, a prominent Roman matriarch, immediately establishes this value upon her entrance, expressing: "If my son were my husband, I would rejoice more freely in this absence where he has won honor than in the embraces of his bed where he would show the more love. » (1.3.2-5). Coriolanus, his son, illustrates this verbal esteem through action, voluntarily leaving his wife and child whenever his role as an honorable warrior requires it, and accepting the injuries that result. Even minor characters uphold this value system; for example, Cominius, a Roman general and father figure to Coriolanus, expresses his devotion to honor by stating: "I love the good of my country with a respect more tender, holier and deeper than my own life, according to the 'esteem of my dear wife, the increase of her belly' (3.3.111-14). In this statement, Cominius not only highlights the importance of honor to Shakespeare's Romans, but also elucidates its societal significance: sacrifice for patriotic defense, essential to the well-being of the nation. Both genres subscribe to this definition, with Coriolanus developing it during the first act. When given the choice of Cominius' best men to fight alongside him, Coriolanus proclaims: "...if any less fear for his person than a bad report, if anyone thinks that a courageous death will prevails over a bad life, and that his country is dearer than him; that he alone, or so many persons disposed to do so, agitate thus to express his disposition, and follow Martius (1.6.70-6) The “. "bad report" feared here means the loss of honor in the eyes of one's peers - a concept that Coriolanus links closely to a deep sense of duty to one's country Linda Bamber, a professor at Tufts University, in her book "Comic Women. , Tragic Men: A Study of Gender and Genre in Shakespeare", explores this semantic fusion of sexist perceptions of honor. She notes the preference, not only among men but also among women, for a "kind of bloody honor and ambitious" (91) Volumnia embodies this fanaticism, asserting: "...if I had had a dozen sons, each in my love the same, and no less dear than yours and my good Martius, I would have preferred. let eleven die nobly for their country rather than one feed voluptuously on his own country. action” (1.3.22-5). Although Coriolanus and Volumnia share similar definitionshonor, their socially prescribed methods of achieving it differ considerably. In Roman society, men, represented by Coriolanus, gained honor primarily through their physical participation in combat – a philosophy instilled from early childhood. This is exemplified by Coriolanus' son, who, sharing his father's name, symbolizes an extension of his martial qualities. The text commends him for his warlike tendencies when he aggressively destroys a butterfly that had provoked him during his pursuit (1.3.54-67).Symbols of honorWar, as the only means to achieve honor masculine, further marks the entry of a patrician boy into manhood, a ritual recounted by Volumnia when she notes "...Towards a cruel war I sent / [Coriolanus], from which he returned, his eyebrows tied with / oak. I did not jump more for joy when I first learned that he was a male child than I did now when I first saw that he had turned out to be a man. 1.3.13-17). By fighting in defense of their country, men symbolically achieve true masculinity and the honor it implies, which Will Fisher shows by noting that, although Coriolanus lacks signifiers such as a beard, "he accomplishes martial feats that literally confer masculinity” (155) Although achieved independently of the physical signs of puberty, this masculine honor, bestowed as a result of self-sacrifice, requires symbols on the self, particularly scars and scars. the cognomen of Coriolanus, to be recognized by the Romans Cominius grants the latter of these two symbols shortly after seeing Coriolanus face and subdue an entire city alone, proclaiming: "For what he has done before Corioles, call. -the, / With all the applause and clamor of the host, / Caius Martius Coriolanus Bear / the bill nobly ever!” (1.9.62-5). Immediately after his return to Rome with the noble addition, Coriolanus receives recognition of the extent of his honor from the general population, who, despite their hatred of his supposed pride and his wicked tongue, find themselves incapable to rightly deny. the services he rendered to his country. Beyond his name, the scars of Coriolanus, each a visual proclamation of sacrificed flesh, provide the soldier with an additional, perhaps more widely available, means of proving his honor. Coppélia Kahn, in her feminist analysis of Shakespeare's works, supports this symbolism, noting that "wounds signify martial prowess...The warrior who survives his wounds affirms the impregnability of the male body...". (153). The Roman woman, on the other hand, must obtain honor through the gendered Other rather than through the Self, through maternal and, indirectly, martial sacrifice as the physical and pedological mold of Rome's deadly weapons. Kahn demonstrates this feminine role by arguing for the existence of two “constructions of the maternal,” the second of which is that “a mother produces sons for the State, to which she owes them” (146). Women, to whom social scripts make participation in battle unavailable, achieve their honor by associating with and supporting those who are not subject to this restriction. Although these sources of honor need not be sons, as in the case of Virgilia whose husband fulfills this role, for the widow Volumnia the filial source remains the only source from which to implement one's patriotism. This role of mother sacrificing her son to the state was manifested before Coriolanus' birth when Volumnia "...helps [him]", continued during his childhood when she reminds Coriolanus, "you suck me [ your valor]". ", and remains for the adult Coriolanus around whom the play focuses. In the last stage of his life, Coriolanus, now capable ofwinning the battle honor for which his mother shaped him, achieves such a result that can reflect his source, his outward appearance. this recognition becomes the symbol of her mother's duty to her country and, therefore, her honor. For Volumnia and the other honorable Roman women she represents, this leads to an inability to distinguish between honor and honors, as she receives an amount of the former equal in proportion to the amount of the latter bestowed upon her son. Volumnia demonstrates her connection between the two at the beginning of the play, stating: "I, considering how / honor would become [Coriolanus] - that it was no better / than a picture to be hung on the wall, if fame / didn't make her move. . (1.3.9-12). Fame, often the product of publicly bestowed honors such as the consulship Volumnia would later beg her son to do whatever was necessary to achieve it, receives status among the Romans.women, in this assertion, from that one who gives value to honor. Coriolanus's desire for fame is the source of Volumnia's later declaration: "O, he is wounded: I thank the gods" (2.1.118), a statement which the matriarch qualifies as "There will be great scars to show the people when they must / defend their place” (2.1.143-5). Conversely, the difference in the actualization of masculine and feminine honor makes clear the distinction between honor and honors for Coriolanus, who will not sacrifice the former by begging. for the latter. While he wears his wounds proudly and thanks Cominius for the "good addition" of his family name (1.9.71), Coriolanus consistently rejects verbal, material, and societal rewards as a means of external compensation for internal sacrifice. For example, when asked to choose the spoils of the defeated Corioles, the warrior remarks: “I thank you, general, / But I cannot make my heart agree to take / A bribe to pay for my sword » (1.9.37-9). Menenius acknowledges this rejection by Coriolanus noting: "He would rather risk all his limbs for honor / Than be in his ears to hear it..." (2.2.74-6). This rejection of external praise by Coriolanus is something that Lynn Enterline interprets as a socially acceptable way for the hero to obtain more of what he denies himself (25), and Kahn echoes this belief, observing that even when Coriolanus “rejects praise, wounds give rise to wounds.” , he does it in a way that recalls them” (153). Although each of Coriolanus's denials actually refers to the scars on his body, his motivation for this repetition more likely comes from the fact that it is the praise, not his injuries, that carries a connotation of shame. Won solely for his country, the depiction of Coriolanus' wounds as a means of obtaining personal homage marks a form of sacrilege for the noble warrior. Coriolanus's own words regarding his refusal to praise himself support this interpretation: "To boast to them: 'Thus I have done, and so!' / Show them the insensible scars that I should hide, / As if I had received them in exchange / From their breath only! (2.2.146-9).This absolute adherence to honor on the part of Coriolanus confirms his role as the ne plus ultra of Roman warrior virtue, an excess of character which disrupts the socially perceived harmony between the granting of honors and recognition of honor. , creating the conflict that leads to Coriolanus' expulsion. Presenting himself at the consulate, Coriolanus cannot, as stated, subdue his honor, notably by exchanging the manners prescribed for the protection of his country for those best suited to promote himself, "taking off his hat, kneeling, bowing his head with humility." (Kahn 155). Furthermore, neitherneither the plebeian class nor the patrician class of Rome live up to Coriolanus' ideal of honor. Presenting their country with demands for edible goods rather than sacrifices for its security, the commoners are, in his view, "cursed, / who love neither peace nor war... Where he should find lions, he will find hares.” (1.1.166-7, 169). His fellow soldiers fare no better in his eyes, agreeing to retreat to their trenches rather than accompany him inside the enemy walls and thus incurring the description of "...a plague.../The mice never avoided the cat as they did / Of rascals worse than they” (1.6.42-5) This combination of an excess of honor in Coriolanus and an absolute lack of honor in society. Roman leads the tragic hero to do nothing value for societal opinions, refusing to give in to the will of either class when he presents himself to the consulate As a result, Coriolanus's political enemies, Sicinius and. Brutus, seizes on both his abandoned humility and his righteous hatred of the plebs to play on public fears that commoners will suffer under his rule. This results in a trial for treason, during which both patricians. and the plebeians of Rome refer to Coriolanus as "Martius" while requesting or authorizing his exile, stripping him of both the lexical emblem and patriotic root of his honor. This revocation of the honored family name of Coriolanus begins in the accusations of Sicinius, "Martius would have everything of you, Martius, / Whom you have recently appointed consul", is echoed by all the commoners present in their proclamation of "Yield, Martius, yield!,” and even extends to those most affectionate with Menenius declaring, “Help Martius” (1.3.196-7, 217, 228). Meanwhile, Sicinius and Brutus succeeded in their demands and, with little protest from Coriolanus' own class; the people pronounce a verdict of banishment. Although later lines from Coriolanus' fellow nobles restore his title, the connection between the time of declared exile and the stripping of his name signifies the connection between the loss of statehood and the loss of honor. Despite this loss of statehood, Coriolanus refuses to change the makeup of his character, declaring upon his exit from society: "As long as I remain above ground, you will still hear of me, and never anything from me / But what once resembled me” (4.2.51-3). However, he now lacks a higher power to surrender to in pursuit of honor and must therefore, in order to restore that honor, move him to the land of an equally honorable enemy, the Volscians. Upon learning of this enemy's approach in the first scene, Coriolanus says: "They have a leader, Tullus, Aufidius who will put you there." / I sin by envying his nobility, / And if I were anything other than what I am, I would only want him” (1.1.226-9). Coriolanus further refers to this adversary as ". a lion / that I am proud to hunt” (1.1.223-4), evoking the same bestial metaphor as him. was in the habit of refusing honor to plebeians in order to demonstrate the great extent of this quality in Aufidius. This honor possessed by Aufidius and recognized by Coriolanus bestows honor on the land Aufidius serves to win, allowing the hero to accomplish his patriotic reorientation there. As he approaches the location, Coriolanus declares: "My birthplace hates me and my love is on / This enemy city." I will enter. If he kills me, / He renders fair justice; if he gives way to me, / I will. his country's service" (4.5.23-6). Conflict and tragic resolution Coriolanus's vow to serve the Volscians necessitates an attack on his own country, a course of action motivated by vengeance and a desire to prove his worth to his new allies.. 285-302.