ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that if Coriolanus is a tragedy that tragedy consists in the autonomous citizens' degeneration into a destructive mob, from body politic to many-headed monster. It begins with the overarching argument that the play stages a disintegration of the body politic into the crowd, taking as its point of departure Menenius's fable of the belly. The chapter addresses Shakespeare's technique of delaying the emergence of the crowd by picturing the people as autonomous citizens. It examines the motifs of the marketplace and of multiplication in their relation to the crowd, and identifies the rhetorical strategies pursued by Coriolanus and the people. Based on with the underlying motives of Coriolanus's fanatical fight against the people, the chapter analyzes the people's countering of his attacks by a critique of the term 'many-headed monster'. It addresses the emergence of the many-headed monster as an effect of Coriolanus's rhetoric, and deals with some meta-theatrical aspects of the crowd.
