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Patriarchy's Victims: Coriolanus and Volumnia in Shakespeare's Coriolanus
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Date
2014-08-01
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Indiana University South Bend
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Abstract
Shakespeare's Coriolanus depicts the Roman Republic full of uncertainty and upheaval. This play shows how patriarchal expectations directly lead to the demise of a man who, along with his mother, attempts to uphold these expectations. As a grown man, Coriolanus attempts to be the perfect patriarch yet fails due to the inherent faults in the patriarchal system concerning masculinity and gender roles. While seemingly logical, the strict organization of society under a patriarchal system allows for no deviancy, and therefore, some people fail to be the men or women they are expected to be. After reviewing the nature and history of the patriarchal system in Early Modem England, I will pursue this argument first by situating it in respect to two dominant critical approaches to the play and by providing additional historical background on child rearing and masculinity in Shakespeare's day, and then by examining in detail the full breadth of the play, focusing in particular on the relations between Volumnia and Coriolanus and how this relationship is perceived by others. Through this reading, a new vein of criticism emerges displaying the destructive power of patriarchy when its ideals are fully embraced by a vulnerable family.--pages 1-2.
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Thesis (M.A.) Indiana University South Bend, 2014.
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Patriarchy in literature, Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Coriolanus
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Thesis