For his victories against the Volscians, the god-like warrior Coriolanus is nominated by a grateful Senate to become consul. His ambitious mother is happy with the news, as she has reared him since he was a small boy to be a great warrior to do honor to Rome. She is fond of having trained Coriolanus to be a warrior since he was a child. She even becomes delighted over the sight of blood, even though it is her sonÆs, ôIt more becomes a man / Than gilt his trophy. The breasts of Hecuba / When she did suckle Hector, lookÆd not lovelier / Than HectorÆs forehead when it spit forth blood / At Grecian sword contemningö (Shakespeare I.iii.39-44). It is from this kind of upbringing and nurturing that Coriolanus has become the fiercest warrior in Roman history.

Despite CoriolanusÆs ability on the battlefield, he ha

The meeting does not go well when the tribunes of the people renew their charges against Coriolanus and instigate the crowd to anger against him. Coriolanus is furious, as this merely proves he is correct about their fickle nature. He lacks the skills off the battlefield to win this encounter. Instead, he is banished when he threatens violence against the Romans. In a speech that shows that excessive pride and lack of compassion for others equates to CoriolanusÆs tragic flaw, he berates the crowd with defiance and contempt: ôYou common cry of curs! whose breath I hate / As reek oÆthÆrotten fens, whose loves I prize / As the dead carcasses of unburied men / That do corrupt my air: I banish you! / And here remain with your uncertainty!... / For you the city, thus I turn my back. / There is a world elsewhereö (Shakespeare III.i