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  • Essay / Animal Imagery in Shakespeare's Coriolanus - 823

    Animal Imagery in Shakespeare's CoriolanusCaius Martius Coriolanus, the protagonist of Shakespeare's play which bears his name, undergoes a circular transformation. He goes from the hero of Rome to an outcast and then becomes a hero again. During this transformation he is compared to a dog, a sheep, a wolf and an osprey. The invocation of animals to describe Coriolanus is “perhaps based on the very animal nature of Coriolanus himself” (Barton 68). His actions, like those of an animal, are not based on rational thought, but rather on instinct. Like an animal, he lacks speech and can only fulfill the role entrusted to him. Twice in the play the description of Coriolanus is linked to the invocation of the image of a wolf. The summoning of a wolf to counter Coriolanus' nature shows the way Coriolanus is played against himself in the text. He is treated by the text as prey. He is a pitiful creature who falls prey to the motivations of the other characters in the play. In Act 2, Scene 1, the use of the image of the wolf depicts Coriolanus as potential prey of the masses: MENENIUS: Not according to the prayer of the people, for they do not love Marcius. SICINIUS: Nature teaches animals to know their friends. MENENIUS: Please, who loves the wolf? SICINIUS: The lamb. MENENIUS: Yes, to devour it; as the starving plebeians would do for the noble Marcius. (Shakespeare 2.2.5-10) Coriolanus in this passage is compared to a lamb. Even his friend and supporter Menenius sees that Coriolanus, although feared by those outside Rome's walls, is easy prey for Rome's own citizens. The second place in the play where Coriolanus is seen as pitiful is in Act 4 Sc...... middle of paper ......oriolanus speaks in long lines to the Volscian generals. His speech is that of a shepherd who has experienced many trials. He recounts his banishment from Rome in long, flowing, bitter lines. Coriolanus manifests himself in his play as both lamb and shepherd, he is a defeated man who becomes the prayer of the wolves of Rome? (Barton 112). Works Cited and Consulted Barton, Ann. “Livy, Machiavelli and Shakespeare’s Coriolanus.” In Coriolanus by William Shakespeare, ed. Harold Bloom, New York, 1988. Frye, Northrup. “Nature and nothing.” Shakespeare Essays. Ed. Gerald W. Chapman. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1965. Shakespeare, William. Coriolanus, ed. John Dover Wilson. Cambridge, 1969. Wilkie, Brian and James Hurt. “Shakespeare.” Literature of the Western world. Ed. Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co..., 1992.