Questions on
Shakespeare’s Tragedies
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Coriolanus. (The Norton Shakespeare: Tragedies, 3rd ed. 1072-1152.)
ACT 1
1. In Act 1, Scene 1, what perspectives are we offered by the ordinary citizens and by the patrician (nobleman) Menenius on social class and politics? How does Menenius’ “belly” analogy for the workings of the body politic help him to advance his case? What is the cause of the plebeians’ present unrest, and what do they appear to think of Menenius’s analogy for relations between them, their governors, and the “state”?
2. In Act 1, Scene 1, what can we infer about Caius Martius (later Coriolanus, pronounced with accent on á as in bāke) from his comportment and words towards the plebeians (common citizens) of Rome? What approach does he take in speaking to them? What assessment do the people’s tribunes, Brutus and Sicinius, make of Caius Martius? If his state of error or flawed quality is already apparent, what is it?
3. In Act 1, Scene 2, how do the Volscian commander Aufidius and the Volscian Senators, respectively, weigh in on what they’ve heard about the basic social and political situation in Rome, Roman preparations to attack them and the state of the Romans’ knowledge of Volscian planning? In particular, what seems to be Aufidius’s main concern? (In responding, it would help to do some brief research on the Roman-Volscian Wars as well as the Secessio Plebis or “Conflict of the Orders” of 494 BCE.)
4. In Act 1, Scene 3, Caius Martius’s mother Volumnia and his wife Virgilia discuss him and his young son. What insights do these two women provide us not only about the temperament and bearing of a Roman matron but also about the expected character of a patrician man in the prime of life? In particular, what differences in sensibility and possibly opinion distinguish Volumnia and Virgilia?
5. In Act 1, Scenes 4-8, describe the ups and downs of the Roman campaign against the Volscians in and around the city of Corioles. What are the high points (including Caius’s single combat against Aufidius) and low points of the military action? How does Caius Martius manage his troops and his strategic/tactical responsibilities as a general? What is the outcome of the Roman campaign against Corioles?
6. In Act 1, Scene 9, what honors does Consul Cominius bestow upon Caius Martius as a result of his generalship and personal performance as a soldier during the battle of Corioles? How does Caius handle this high praise and the gifts that come with it? How does Cominius take Caius’s words and gestures as the recipient of such honors and gifts? Finally, what’s the significance of Caius’s requesting that Cominius free a poor man from captivity for helping him during the fighting, only to forget the man’s name?
7. In Act 1, Scene 10 (as well as Scenes 2 and 8), we catch glimpses of Caius Martius’s Volscian opponent, Tullus Aufidius. How does he size up his Roman enemy Caius, and what does Aufidius tell us will be his strategy for defeating him? To what extent does Aufidius delineate an ethos or set of values to set against those of the Romans? Describe that ethos or set of values.
ACT 2
8. In Act 2, Scene 1, describe the contentious meeting between the Tribunes of the People, Brutus and Sicinius, and the patrician and former consul Menenius Agrippa. What is the subject of their contention? What do the Tribunes evidently think of the returning Caius Martius “Coriolanus” (his new title in the wake of the Roman victory in Corioles) and, most immediately, of Menenius himself? In return, what does he apparently think of the two Tribunes?
9. In Act 2, Scene 1, what does Caius Martius Coriolanus’s mother, Volumnia, have to say about her son’s victorious return, and in particular the things others are saying as well as the wounds he has received? What is Coriolanus’s wife Virgilia’s reaction to these things? And what is the reaction of Menenius?
10. In Act 2, Scene 1, what reception does Coriolanus get when he returns to Rome along with his fellow Roman military leaders Cominius and Lartius? How does he at first react to being greeted by his newly earned honorific name, and to Volumnia’s hint that she wants Rome to make him consul? What does Coriolanus say is his first priority now that he has returned home to Rome?
11. Act 2, Scene 1, what role do Tribunes of the People Brutus and Sicinius intend to play in setting up Coriolanus for failure? What is their plan to bring him down, and what principle or ethos seems to underlie their determination to do so?
12. In Act 2, Scene 2, describe the brief debate between the First and Second Officers regarding Coriolanus’s relation to the plebeians or common folk. How does each man assess the general’s haughtiness and seeming contempt for “base-born” Romans? And what view does each evidently hold about the plebeians themselves, and specifically about their capacity to judge people and affairs soundly?
13. In Act 2, Scene 2, Rome’s key political actors assemble to praise and reward Coriolanus and to consider his intention to stand for the supreme office of consul. How does Coriolanus bear up under what we know must be a distressing experience for him at this formal gathering? What “special request” does he make by way of altering the usual procedures employed when one stands for the consulship? How is that request dealt with, and what reaction does the request spark in the Tribunes of the People, Brutus and Sicinius?
14. In Act 2, Scene 3, how does Coriolanus’s “standing” for the consulship go? What attitude does he take towards the people and the whole process of standing in front of the people to seek their support in electing him consul? What at first persuades the people to give their assent, in spite of the candidate’s brusqueness and evident discomfort in asking for the approval of those he despises?
15. In Act 2, Scene 3, what reservations do many of the common folk or plebeians begin to have almost immediately after they assent to Coriolanus’s suit for the consulship? What role do Brutus and Sicinius, the Tribunes of the People, play in directing the thoughts and emotions that sweep through the crowd? On the whole, what qualities and skills does Coriolanus lack that are essential to any successful democratic politician, and what role do those deficiencies play in his ultimate rejection by the people?
ACT 3
16. In Act 3, Scene 1, we hear that Aufidius is ashamed of his own people, the Volscians, as if they are an inadequate vehicle for his personal honor and valor. Coriolanus has something like the same problem with Rome’s plebeians. What complaints does the haughty Roman rehearse against the plebeians and their representatives, the tribunes? What principles of statecraft does he set forth in denouncing them all? Why, in his view, shouldn’t the aristocratic class (the patricians) bother mollifying the plebeians when they make economic and social demands or try to exercise authority?
17. In Act 3, Scene 1, what happens as a result of Coriolanus’s almost savage ranting against the Tribunes and the common people? How does the Tribune Sicinius react to what Coriolanus has said? How do Menenius and other patricians manage to redirect the people to a less bloody course, at least for the time being? What do they end up promising the Tribunes and the plebeians by way of a resolution to the standoff?
18. In Act 3, Scene 2, how do Volumnia and Menenius somewhat expand the narrow definition of “Romanness” that Coriolanus has apparently held all his life? What arguments do they use to fight his intransigence when it comes to wooing the common people and preserving his own honor? In sum, what is their advice to the headstrong, inflexible Coriolanus?
19. In Act 3, Scene 3, how and why does Coriolanus fail in his attempt to temporize with the plebeians (common people) now that he has lost their favor? What do Brutus and Sicinius have to do with this failure—what is their strategy to bring him down? His failure aside, however, there is a harsh nobility in Coriolanus’s final words of banishment and denunciation that it’s hard not to admire. What judgment does he pronounce against the plebeians and their tribunes once they have definitively banished him from Rome?
ACT 4
20. In Act 4, Scenes 1-2, in what spirits and with what expectations does Coriolanus take his leave from his Roman family and friends, and step beyond the boundaries of Rome? What are the familial consequences or fallout now that his banishment is about to take effect? What does his departure mean to Volumnia, Virginia, and Menenius, respectively?
21. In Act 4, Scene 3, what important political effects does the banishment of Coriolanus appear to have caused in Rome, according to the Roman traitor Nicanor, who in this scene meets the Volscian spy Adrian by chance on the road between Rome and Antium? What benefits may accrue to the Volscians from this crisis, and why?
22. In Act 4, Scene 4, describe Coriolanus’ entry into the Volscian city Antium. How is he dressed as he stands in front of Aufidius’s home? What are his reflections on the path, the events, that have brought him to this strange circumstances, as an exile in a foreign place about to plead his case with his longtime mortal enemy? What does he expect from Aufidius?
23. In Act 4, Scene 5, Coriolanus first encounters three servingmen of Aufidius’s household, and then comes face-to-face with his enemy Aufidius. How do the servingmen at first treat the disguised Coriolanus, and what is his response? Discuss Coriolanus’s meeting and conversation with Aufidius: how does the Volscian general greet and esteem his old enemy, now that he has turned his back on Rome? What offer does he make to Coriolanus?
24. In Act 4, Scene 5, once it’s apparent that Coriolanus will now be signing on as the leader of a significant part of the Volscian army along with Aufidius, what do the servingmen who had earlier insulted the Roman now say about him relative to their own leader Aufidius? What do they apparently think of the coming-on of still more war between the Volscians and the Romans?
25. In Act 4, Scene 6, what do the Tribunes Sicinius and Brutus think of Rome’s current condition now that Coriolanus has been banished? How does the quickly spreading rumor that Coriolanus and Aufidius have teamed up and are on their way towards Rome affect the mood in the great city, and what accusations does Menenius level against Sicinius and Brutus and the common people now that disaster impends?
26. In Act 4, Scene 7, what is Aufidius’s estimation of Coriolanus’s deal with the Volscians, especially as it affects his own reputation among his men? How does he analyze the former Roman general’s prospects for success against Rome? What ultimate outcome does he believe he can shape respecting Coriolanus once the fighting is done? On the whole, how would you describe Aufidius’s intentions towards Coriolanus?
ACT 5
27. In Act 5, Scenes 1-2, Cominius and Menenius get a chilly reception from Coriolanus in their attempt to stop the Volscian juggernaut against Rome, but in Act 5, Scene 3, the embittered warrior relents. Why do Volumnia, Virgilia, and Valeria succeed where the men failed? Treat the women’s words and gestures as a unified act of rhetoric (i.e., the means of persuasion): what finally breaks through to Coriolanus’s heart and gets him to drop his vengeful stance against Rome? What does Coriolanus believe will be the consequences of the resulting peace for him personally? What does Aufidius make of this turn of events?
28. In Act 5, Scene 4, what is Menenius’s assessment of his old friend Coriolanus on the eve of what still seems to him and Sicinius the certain destruction of Rome? How do he, Sicinius, and all the people of Rome receive the news that Coriolanus has relented at the instance of Volumnia, Virgilia, and Valeria? In Scene 5, what formal welcome do the women receive in thanks for their efforts?
29. In Act 5, Scene 6, how does Aufidius bring about Coriolanus’s personal destruction? What steps does he take to ensure that the former Roman general will fall into the trap that he, Aufidius, is carefully setting for him? What causes for his resentment of Coriolanus, both prior and current, does the Volscian general reveal to us as the motivating forces for eliminating his rival? How and when does the assassination that Aufidius has arranged occur? Once it has taken place, what are his thoughts about the man he has killed?
30. General question. T.S. Eliot remarked in his essay collection The Sacred Wood that while Coriolanus is by no means among Shakespeare’s most appreciated plays, it is nonetheless among the most properly classical among his dramas, in terms of its structure and overall approach. What, then, constitutes the classical attitude and design of this play? In responding, consider the representation of the protagonist Caius Martius Coriolanus as well as the play’s basic structure and action.
31. General question. Shakespeare’s play Coriolanus is set in early 5th-century BCE Rome (the 490s BCE), a period long before the final breakup of the Republic. But Roman history was always tumultuous, and while modern critics have pointed out that Shakespeare treats history loosely, there is always something authentic about his representations of Rome. What essential or authentic Roman qualities, then, does the playwright capture in this tragic tale of an arrogant nobleman, angry commoners, and determined external enemies?
Edition. Greenblatt, Stephen et al., editors. The Norton Shakespeare: Tragedies + Digital Edition. 3rd ed. W. W. Norton, 2016. ISBN-13: 978-0-393-93860-9.
Copyright © 2012, revised 2025 Alfred J. Drake
Document Timestamp: 8/1/2025 9:48 AM