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III. The Spectacle of Tragic Punishment

Coriolanus's body is used as a metaphor for political life and its diseases, with his immune system breaking down entirely at the end in a violent spectacle of capital punishment. He demonstrates a special reluctance for political acting, which is theatrical acting writ small. Politics requires displays that strike Coriolanus as unbearable flattery. If Hamlet delays, Coriolanus refuses to act at all, which creates a tension endangering the forward action of the tragedy. Coriolanus despises ham acting much as Hamlet does dishonest shows, but he thinks his way through his dilemma as a military tactician. He leavens his flattery with contempt of those who desire it: "I will counterfeit the bewitchment of some popular man, and give it bountiful to the desirers" (2.3.101-02). Armed with a new ironic distance from his role, Coriolanus injects the bluster learned in his capacity as a military commander to hector his fellow Romans as...

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1. Introduction
2. I. Civil vs. Martial Law
3. II. Slander Law
4. III. The Spectacle of Tragic Punishment
5. IV. The Ends of Civility
6. Works Cited
7. Copyright