Coriolanus (Vol. 75) - Eugene M. Waith (essay date 1962)
Eugene M. Waith (essay date 1962)
SOURCE: Waith, Eugene M. “The Herculean Hero.” In William Shakespeare's Coriolanus, edited by Harold Bloom, pp. 9-31. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1988.
[In the following essay, originally published in 1962, Waith dissects Coriolanus's character, finding him to be a praiseworthy, though flawed, hero. Waith maintains that Coriolanus's greatness may be observed in his valor, generosity, and his faithfulness to his personal honor.]
As Coriolanus marches on Rome at the head of a Volscian army, the Roman general, Cominius, describes him thus to his old enemies, the tribunes:
He is their god. He leads them like a thing Made by some other deity than Nature, That shapes man better; and they follow him Against us brats with no less confidence Than boys pursuing summer butterflies Or butchers killing flies. …...
[The entire page is 8545 words long]
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