Coriolanus
Pride of the nation
The warrior-aristocrat against the mob.
Traditional Right-Wing NationalistOne of 729 ideologies · enter the Right-Wing Nationalist hall →- Role
- Patrician general (fiction)
- From
- Shakespeare's Coriolanus
- Region
- Rome
- Social band
- Traditional
- Placement
- +48 · +52 · −58
§ Where Coriolanus stands
3 axesCoriolanus defends the propertied patrician order against a hungry city. The play opens with citizens rioting over grain they accuse the patricians of hoarding, and in Act 3 he denounces the free distribution of corn from the public storehouses, arguing that plebeians who would not fight for Rome had not earned it and that the gift would only feed their insolence.
He despises popular government. Martius treats the new office of the people's tribunes, conceded to end the corn riots, as a fatal surrender of authority, and in Act 3 urges the patricians to abolish it. Made to ask for votes in the marketplace, he does so with open contempt and will not show the citizens his wounds, convinced that rule belongs to the noble and the brave.
His values are those of an aristocratic warrior caste: honour, valour and loyalty to rank, instilled by his mother Volumnia, who prizes his wounds as marks of glory. He scorns flattery and compromise as dishonesty, and when he marches on Rome he spurns the city's envoys, yielding only to the pleas of his mother, wife and son.
How close are you to Coriolanus?
Three statements, one per axis. Answer them and we’ll drop you on the compass next to them.
§ The story
FictionCaius Martius Coriolanus is the title character of William Shakespeare's tragedy Coriolanus, written around 1608 and first printed in the First Folio of 1623. Drawing on Plutarch's life of a legendary general of the early Roman republic, Shakespeare makes him a patrician soldier of overwhelming courage who earns the name Coriolanus by storming the Volscian city of Corioli almost single-handed, then fails as a candidate for consul because he cannot bring himself to court the plebeians whose votes he needs.
Banished as an enemy of the people, he joins his old rival Tullus Aufidius and marches on Rome, relenting only when his mother, Volumnia, pleads for the city; the Volscians then kill him as a traitor. Coriolanus is Shakespeare's most directly political play, and both sides have claimed it: a Comédie-Française staging of 1933–34 became a rallying point for the anti-parliamentary right in Paris, while Bertolt Brecht rewrote it in the 1950s to side with the plebeians.
Notable for
- 01Tragedy of patrician pride
- 02Scorn for the mob
- 03Martial honour
Key works & moments
- c. 1608Shakespeare writes Coriolanus, adapting Plutarch's life of the Roman general from Thomas North's translation.
- Act 1Martius storms the Volscian city of Corioli and is honoured with the name Coriolanus.
- Act 3Banished after attacking the people's tribunes and the free distribution of corn.
- Act 5Spares Rome at his mother's plea and is killed by the Volscians as a traitor.
- 1933–34A Comédie-Française production becomes a rallying point for France's anti-parliamentary right.
- 2011Ralph Fiennes directs and stars in a film version set in a modern war.
In Coriolanus's words
“You common cry of curs, whose breath I hate / As reek o' th' rotten fens, whose loves I prize / As the dead carcasses of unburied men / That do corrupt my air, I banish you!”
“There is a world elsewhere.”
§ Minds closest to Coriolanus
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§ Also in the Right-Wing Nationalist hall
Enter the hall →§ Common questions
4 answersWhat is Coriolanus's political ideology?
Coriolanus is an aristocratic militarist who scorns popular government: on the 99ideologies three-axis compass, a Traditional Right-Wing Nationalist. Economically he sits on the propertied right (+48), denouncing the free distribution of grain to the plebeians. On governance he leans strongly authoritarian (+52), wanting the people's tribunes abolished and power kept with the patricians. Socially he is firmly traditional (−58), living by a warrior code of honour, rank and service to Rome, a city he serves fiercely until it banishes him.
Is Coriolanus left-wing or right-wing?
Coriolanus himself is right-wing in temperament, but the play is more even-handed. He defends patrician privilege, opposes grain relief and wants the plebeian tribunes abolished, all positions of an aristocratic right. Shakespeare, however, gives the hungry citizens real grievances and shows the tribunes as shrewd manipulators and the crowd as fickle, so productions have staged the play as a warning against arrogant elites, against demagogues, or against both.
Is Coriolanus a fascist play?
Not in itself, but it has often been used that way. Written around 1608, the play gives arguments to both patricians and plebeians. Its afterlife is another matter: in Paris in 1933–34 the Comédie-Française production drew right-wing audiences who cheered the hero's attacks on the tribunes during the crisis that led to the riots of 6 February 1934. On the left, Bertolt Brecht adapted it to favour the people, and Günter Grass's 1966 play The Plebeians Rehearse the Uprising set Brecht-like rehearsals against the 1953 East German rising.
Which minds are closest to Coriolanus?
On the 99ideologies three-axis compass, the minds closest to Coriolanus are Jair Bolsonaro (99% alike), Viktor Orbán (99% alike) and Giorgia Meloni (98% alike). The furthest is Emma Goldman (1% alike).