Coriolanus Context
- Created by: AliceMay1234
- Created on: 03-11-20 01:16
View mindmap
- Coriolanus Context!
- Socio-cultural context
- History based plays v. popular and a means of indirectly addressing authority at the time
- Renaissance historical writing = Wheel of Fortune – a swift rise to fame always accompanied by an equally swift decline.
- Shakespeare used Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland + Ireland for his English history plays + Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans for Roman plays
- Political and Cultural background
- General interest in the ancients
- Literature of Rome, its institutions and history, studied as object lessons for the day
- Coriolanus deals w/ dangerous topics to present to monarch- hides this in ancient basis
- Varying patterns of government under scrutiny in Shakespeare’s day
- James I’s first parliament 1604-10 marked by incessant disputes - no parallel directly to the king
- Question of absolutism central both to Coriolanus’ character and to the play – prime Jacobean issue
- James and Coriolanus both polarised friends and enemies into distinct groups in a way which threatened the state
- Popular uprisings
- Class conflict
- Materialism
- Literary - the classical hero
- Based on precepts of the classical Greek drama of the 5th century
- Highly formal, strict pattern
- Stories drawn from ancient history
- Hero
- High-birth, high social stature, endowed w/ many admirable qualities, widely admired
- Has one flaw in his character, suelo excess of virtue rather than vice - will prove fatal to him
- Endures a great fall and is brought low, suelo by lesser people
- General
- Probably written in 1607-08 and first performed in 1609-10 at the Blackfriars Theatre in London
- The next-to-last tragedy that Shakespeare composed
- Shakespeare's interest in Roman history = general Renaissance fascination with the classical world
- Limited character appeal
- Limited scope as a play
- Interesting political messages
- Socio-cultural context
Comments
No comments have yet been made