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Coriolano

Testo inglese a fronte

By William Shakespeare

(106)

| Others | 9788817165945

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Book Description

Più che un dramma storico, "Coriolano" è una tragedia politica ispirata alla nobile lezione delle "Vite parallele" di Plutarco. Come tragedia il suo compito è quello di dare voce e forma alle vanità e alle follie degli uomini, ancorando l'azione alle vContinue

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No doubt, I can say that Coriolanus is that kind of character I prefer, which I find more interesting for his various facets of pride, arrogance, hate above all, but humbleness as well. It may seem strange, but I see humility in Caius Martius, later named Coriolanus thanks to his own competence in w ... (continue)

No doubt, I can say that Coriolanus is that kind of character I prefer, which I find more interesting for his various facets of pride, arrogance, hate above all, but humbleness as well. It may seem strange, but I see humility in Caius Martius, later named Coriolanus thanks to his own competence in war. He exactly knows how far he can go: in the battlefield he is a hero and he is fully conscious of it; in his public life he is an antihero, and he is conscious of it as much. After all, if we watchfully read between Shakespeare's lines, it will appear obvious that he doesn't want to enter politics. He's not made for diplomacy: maybe this fact makes him frank and plain-spoken, or the other way around. He is a "hater", but, for the reasons above, he his easily hateful and odious as well. In this sense, he's a hero and an antihero at the same time, intimately.
Coriolanus is the least famous of all Shakespeare's tragedies, and yet there I found his best way with words, from the entrance of Caius Martius and even before. Shakespeare indirectly introduces Coriolanus and his haughtiness by the citizens' contempt for him, but even his value in the words of his friends. So, when the patrician makes his entry, it is like we already knew him. And, addressing harsh words to the mob, he do nothing to hide his disclosed hate. Afterwards, at all events, he does what others advise him to do, with much compliance. He can hardly contain his haughtiness, but he tries. He humbles himself, after all, angainst his natural instinct.
There couldn't have been a different end: Coriolanus leaves Rome, the city he has strenuosly fought for, because of her people.
"There is a world elsewhere", he says. Beautiful words, but we know that Rome is the whole world for him. Yet, he prefers to leave her: leaving Rome, he doesn't feel banished; rather, he banishes her people, "still their own foes".
In the end, he makes no compromises, even when he fight angainst the City. Going on with the reading towards the end, I just had one thought about this man: he seems to me so naive, so innocent in a way.
Without his awareness, twice he has been called "traitor" for being twice loyal to his homeland. "Traitor" for giving up his own pride, first time before the people, later in front of his mother. And in the end he dies without his glorious name: Coriolanus.

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Porphydo said on Nov 1, 2011 | Add your feedback