ABSTRACT
In Coriolanus William Shakespeare portrays the Roman ideal of virtus in its most extreme form. Coriolanus’ rise and downfall is, therefore, only credible when viewed as a process which is co-created between him and the other participants and between him and those ideological discourses which have shaped him and to which he seems so subservient. Coriolanus bursts on to the scene in Act 1, fully performing ‘hard man.’ He abuses the citizens, mocks their hunger, sets out his own repressive credentials; he would never have agreed to grant the citizens their tribunes. Coriolanus’ relationship with Aufidius is often noted for its strong homo-erotic overtones, or, in psychoanalytic terms, as a narcissistic object choice that, because it must contain strong elements of rivalry, is inherently unstable. The relationship between the tribunes and the citizens is mirrored to some extent by that of the senators and Coriolanus.
