I've seen so many posts about how Coriolanus is cold and calculating and a user first and foremost but like. y'all are forgetting that he genuinely cared about people. He loved his family fiercely, he had a best friend in school (Festus) and even seemed worried about him because of what Nero Price had done during the war to feed his family (the line, "Did you tell your best friend his crush was a cannibal?")
We see other instances of his compassion throughout, too. Even if you discount everything he ever did to protect Lucy Gray, even if you boil his affection for her down to infatuation and obsession, he cared about other people.
he had the capacity for kindness (shown many times with Lysistrata), for guilt (for Clemensia's encounter with the snakes and for how he ignored her after), for genuine sympathy (he nearly cried for Festus when his tribute died and he left the dais), for regret (over turning Sejanus in), for grief (Arachne, the Ring twins, Gaius, Sejanus—to an extent, we even witness the grief he still feels for his mother's death).
The entire book of tbosas is a constant example of his anxiety, as well.
Yes Coriolanus turns out evil in the end, but discounting his capacity for humanity and genuine warmth will only serve to make us forget that his tale is one of choice.
this was not predestined.
he wasn't born a monster; he was molded into something bitter, and tired, and scared, and shaped himself into something monstrous after. his descent was not a steady decline; it was full of moments where he nearly turned himself around! it was his feeling of obligation to his family's legacy that kept him on a dark, easy path.
Lucy Gray believed they were written in the stars, and the book comments that Coriolanus didn't truly believe in mysticism or destiny or anything like that.
Because Coriolanus made every possible choice he could to delay the inevitable: his own disgrace. He valued his image more than his morals, which is what eventually led to his first downfall and eventually his death. remember what Tigris said? about having to choose between those?
Well, Coriolanus did have a tendency toward greed.
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