I can’t decide what to think about Coriolanus.
He’s an enigma of a character.
Who is he? Why is he? What does he want?
He’s a solider. He was a child soldier. He is a soldier because his mother sent him to war at sixteen and then sent him back for more. Is being a soldier his chosen or inherent identity or one that was assigned to him? Is there a difference?
Why does he hold so much disdain for the people of Rome? Because they don’t uphold his code of valor in battle? Because his stakes need to be life or death 100% of the time and that just isn’t sustainable for the majority of people?
Why can’t he play the political game his mother seems to love? Is that not a type of war? Maybe the stakes are too low for him or maybe he simply knows he wouldn’t be good at it. That has never held him back before, though. Coriolanus doesn’t seem to fear failure. He hates (not fears) dishonor. Maybe playing the game of politics is irreconcilable with his honor code.
I’m not entirely sure what the tragedy of Coriolanus is. Maybe it’s not that he dies but that he is so caught up in war and violence that it’s simply impossible to seek peace (and I’m never quite sure if he honestly wants it in the first place).
Coriolanus is tragic long before act 5. He is turned into an object to be gawked at, stripped of his autonomy. He wants to be alone, maybe because there is no one else like him or maybe because it’s easier to be isolated than to have all eyes on him.
