Coriolanus [Act 1]

What is Shakespeare’s larger purpose in his characterization of Coriolanus in Act I?

Coriolanus was play written by Shakespeare in the 1600s and it deviated from his usual writing genres, as it was mostly a political play written about the Roman leader Caius Martius Coriolanus, it was one of 2 of tragedies he has written. 

In Act 1, Shakespeare introduces, to the audience, all of the main characters and he allows the reader to develop their own opinions on the characters; he mainly allows us to develop our own opinion on Martius in Act 1, when he is not present, however his name very much is. In the first act, the citizens are endlessly complaining about the lack of food and they express their concerns and dislike towards Martius.

In Act 1, Scene 2, Martius enters the play and immediately the reader can note that he is a very direct, self-absorbed and overly confident individual, this is because as soon as he comes face to face with the citizens, he begins to bash them and ignore all of their requests, whereas Menenius actually listened to them.

Perhaps Shakespeare gives the audience a bad first impression of Martius Coriolanus, because he wants the audience to dislike him as much as the citizens do (put themselves in their shoes), however he occasionally reminds the reader of how much of a powerful individual he is, suggesting that it would be extremely difficult for anyone to take him down. We, as the audience, are given the choice to either support the citizens on their hatred towards him or side with him for his power and bravery in the battle against the Volsces. 

In this act, Shakespeare expects the reader to read between the lines and make their own personal judgements on Coriolanus' character, before revealing his hidden identity; one way he does this, is by presenting Menenius and Martius very differently (when both enter the play, the reactions they receive and their attitudes towards the people differ largely).

Many people could argue that Shakespeare's larger purpose of this specific characterisation in the first act is to foreshadow the ending of the play; Martius seems to be eager to get rid of the complaining citizens and he seeks for a war between the Romans and the Volscians so that some of the citizens are 'gone' with the battle, Shakespeare hints that perhaps because Coriolanus was full of hate and bad intentions, he was like one who ended up getting the biggest punishment.