"He was not of an age, but for all time." So wrote Ben Jonson in his dedicatory verses to the memory of William Shakespeare in 1623, and so we continue to affirm today. No other writer, in English or in any other language, can rival the appeal that Shake...

"He was not of an age, but for all time." So wrote Ben Jonson in his dedicatory verses to the memory of William Shakespeare in 1623, and so we continue to affirm today. No other writer, in English or in any other language, can rival the appeal that Shake...

William Shakespeare's reputation is based primarily on his plays. With the partial exception of the Sonnets (1609), quarried since the early nineteenth century for autobiographical secrets allegedly encoded in them, the nondramatic writings have traditio...

It's a shame that Karin Coonrod's bold and brilliant new production of Coriolanus has been so misunderstood. The director stands virtually alone in refusing to talk down to Shakespeare (and therefore to audiences). She isn't in the popularizing game. Nor, incidentally, was Shakespeare.We can say...

The disappointing new musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, adapted from the 1988 movie about two con men in the South of France, left me cold, I'm afraid. On the other hand, everyone was roaring with laughter around me at some of the worst gags in history,...

It started out amusing, in a way, but now it’s getting ugly—the little-noticed battle over The New York Times’ Shakespeare coverage. Earlier this month, invocations of creationism and Holocaust denial were injected into the debate by no less an authority than Harvard’s Stephen Greenblatt, author...

It started out amusing, in a way, but now it’s getting ugly—the little-noticed battle over The New York Times’ Shakespeare coverage.Earlier this month, invocations of creationism and Holocaust denial were injected into the debate by no less an authority than Harvard’s Stephen Greenblatt, author of...

In the following excerpt, Watson views Coriolanus's development in the play as a journey from his “natural self,” as a man with a questionable hereditary identity, to an “artificial self,”—an ideal, even divine, warrior.

In the following essay, Wilson interprets Coriolanus as Shakespeare's depiction of an emerging market economy, focusing particularly on his treatment of the fluctuation of values.

In the following essay, Wells reviews the conflict between war and peace in ancient Rome as it is depicted in Coriolanus and examines how these conflicts parallel the political situation of Shakespeare’s own time.

Provides an analysis of Volumnia, Coriolanus' Mother, in William Shakespeare's play Coriolanus. Discusses her role as villain. Examines the relationship between her and Coriolanus.

While all characters in Coriolanus act in the name of self-interest, most of their interest are ephemeral and lacking in passion. However, Coriolanus' mother Volumnia fervently pursues her interests which result in her triumph over Coriolanus psychologically. However this triumph does not bring successful conclusion. It sets the scene so that Aufidius can triumph over Corilanus physically.