Themes + Quotes of Coriolanus

Courage

• “He is a lion that I am proud to hunt.” – First Citizen (1.1)
• “I’ll fight / Against my cankered country with the spleen / Of all the under fiends.” – Coriolanus (4.5)
• “If any think brave death outweighs bad life, / And that his country’s dearer than himself, / Let him alone.” – Cominius (1.6)

Masculinity

• “Thy valiantness was mine, thou suck’dst it from me.” – Volumnia (3.2)
• “He was a man worth any two of theirs.” – Cominius (1.4)
• “You have put me now to such a part which never / I shall discharge to the life.” – Coriolanus (2.2)

Valour

• “If any such be here— / As it were sin to doubt—that love this painting / Wherein you see me smear’d.” – Coriolanus (1.6)
• “If any man in Rome be noble, / Who were’t that would not be? He that will not, / Is not.” – First Citizen (1.1)
• “He is their god: he leads them like a thing / Made by some other deity than nature.” – Cominius on Coriolanus (2.2)

Manipulation

• “You are too absolute; / Though therein you can never be too noble.” – Menenius (3.1)
• “You are too great for what contains you. Go to them, / With this bonnet in thy hand.” – Volumnia (3.2)
• “Put not your worthy rage into your tongue; / One time will owe another.” – Sicinius (3.1)

Honesty

• “Better it is to die, better to starve, / Than crave the hire which first we do deserve.” – First Citizen (1.1)
• “I have some wounds upon me, and they smart / To hear themselves remembered.” – Coriolanus (1.9)
• “I wish you all joy of the worm.” – Coriolanus (2.3, bitter honesty to the plebeians)

Revenge

• “I’ll be revenged / On him.” – Aufidius (1.10)
• “I’ll fight / Against my cankered country.” – Coriolanus (4.5)
• “My hatred be corded to your love.” – Coriolanus (5.3)

Judgement

• “Consider this: he has been bred i’ the wars / Since he could draw a sword.” – Menenius (3.1)
• “Our swaying is as good as theirs.” – Sicinius (1.1, about the plebeians’ judgement)
• “He is a kind of nothing, titleless.” – Sicinius (3.1)

Control

• “You are too absolute.” – Menenius to Coriolanus (3.1)
• “I banish you! / And here remain with your uncertainty.” – Coriolanus (3.3)
• “At a few drops of women’s rheum… Shall be abated.” – Aufidius (5.6)

Identity

• “Call me their traitor! Thou injurious tribune.” – Coriolanus (3.3)
• “Caius Marcius Coriolanus! Bear / The addition nobly ever.” – Cominius (1.9)
• “Like a dull actor now / I have forgot my part.” – Coriolanus (5.3)

Privilege

• “What authority surfeits on would relieve us.” – First Citizen (1.1)
• “He that will give good words to thee will flatter / Beneath abhorring.” – Coriolanus (2.2)
• “You common cry of curs!” – Coriolanus (3.3)

Compromise

• “You are too absolute.” – Menenius (3.1)
• “Speak to the people; they expect thee.” – Volumnia (2.2)
• “He’ll never hear him.” – Brutus on Coriolanus (3.1)

Deception

• “He is their god: he leads them like a thing / Made by some other deity than nature.” – Cominius (2.2, exaggeration of Coriolanus’ glory)
• “He pays himself with being proud.” – Sicinius (2.1)
• “Our spoils he kick’d at, / And look’d upon things precious as they were / The common muck o’ the world.” – Cominius (1.10)

Reputation

• “His nature is too noble for the world.” – Menenius (3.1)
• “He had rather venture all his limbs for honour / Than one of his ears to hear it.” – Cominius (1.1)
• “Name not the god, thou boy of tears!” – Aufidius (5.6, mocking Coriolanus’ fall)

Love

• “If my son were my husband, I should freelier rejoice in that absence wherein he won honour than in the embracements of his bed.” – Volumnia (1.3)
• “O mother, mother! / What have you done?” – Coriolanus (5.3)
• “I loved the maid I married.” – Coriolanus (4.5)

Appearances

• “He must stand for his country.” – Volumnia (2.1)
• “This man hath robbed many beasts of their particular additions.” – Menenius (2.1)
• “Go to them with this bonnet in thy hand.” – Volumnia (3.2)

Duty

• “There’s no more mercy in him than there is milk in a male tiger.” – Sicinius (5.4)
• “His nature is too noble for the world.” – Menenius (3.1)
• “I will fight / Against my cankered country.” – Coriolanus (4.5, corrupted duty)

Power

• “He is a kind of nothing, titleless.” – Sicinius (3.1)
• “Our virtues lie in th’ interpretation of the time.” – Cominius (4.7)
• “He is their god.” – Cominius (2.2)

Jealousy

• “He’s mine or I am none.” – Aufidius (1.9)
• “At a few drops of women’s rheum…” – Aufidius (5.6, bitter jealousy of Coriolanus’ change)
• “I sin in envying his nobility.” – Aufidius (1.10)

Consistency

• “His nature is too noble for the world.” – Menenius (3.1)
• “I banish you!” – Coriolanus (3.3, firm in stance)
• “His own impatience / Takes from Aufidius a great part of blame.” – Cominius (1.1)

Inconsistency

• “He has deserved worthily of his country; and his ascent is not by such easy degrees as those who, having been supple and courteous to the people, steal into their affections.” – Menenius (2.1)
• “Most sweet voices! / Better it is to die, better to starve.” – Coriolanus (2.3, sudden change)
• “At a few drops of women’s rheum…” – Aufidius (5.6, condemning Coriolanus’ wavering)

Hierarchy

• “What authority surfeits on would relieve us.” – First Citizen (1.1)
• “Our swaying is as good as theirs.” – Sicinius (1.1)
• “You common cry of curs!” – Coriolanus (3.3)

Status

• “Caius Marcius Coriolanus! Bear / The addition nobly ever.” – Cominius (1.9)
• “His nature is too noble for the world.” – Menenius (3.1)
• “Our swaying is as good as theirs.” – Sicinius (1.1)

Pride

• “He pays himself with being proud.” – Sicinius (2.1)
• “You common cry of curs!” – Coriolanus (3.3)
• “His nature is too noble for the world.” – Menenius (3.1)

Arrogance

• “Better it is to die, better to starve, / Than crave the hire which first we do deserve.” – Coriolanus (2.3)
• “You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate.” – Coriolanus (3.3)
• “Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death.” – Coriolanus (3.3)

Vulnerability

• “Like a dull actor now / I have forgot my part.” – Coriolanus (5.3)
• “O mother, mother! / What have you done?” – Coriolanus (5.3)
• “If you have writ your annals true, ’tis there / That, like an eagle in a dove-cote, I / Fluttered your Volscians.” – Coriolanus (5.6, defiant yet exposed)

Trustworthiness

• “He has deserved worthily of his country.” – Menenius (2.1)
• “He that will give good words to thee will flatter / Beneath abhorring.” – Coriolanus (2.2)
• “You are too absolute.” – Menenius (3.1, questioning reliability)