September 9, 2012
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Week 37: Coriolanus
So, it’s long been a goal of mine to get through all the works of Shakespeare. One good thing about this is that it’s relatively easy to find copies of all his plays when you’re on a college campus. According to my Shelfari account, the last time I polished off a piece of Shakespeare was in December of 2010, when I read “Julius Caesar.” I remember I started going through the Histories, which I had never had interest in before, because they were always on the shelf, and probably because I’d already read most of the Comedies and Tragedies.
Apparently, “Coriolanus” was the last Tragedy that Shakespeare wrote. I guess I’m reading them out of order. It was actually kind of a depressing story (fitting, I guess, being a Tragedy). The thing is, as you’re reading, you don’t really feel that anything Coriolanus says justifies his image of an arrogant, prideful man. So then he just comes off as sort of misunderstood, and his motives don’t seem all that bad. And that just makes his death that much more tragic.
Yeah, he dies. I don’t think this counts as a spoiler since you know “Coriolanus” is a Tragedy, and you know that in all Shakespeare’s Tragedies, pretty much everyone dies at the end. If they get married then it’s a Comedy.
Anyhow, I have one other Shakespeare play on my reading list at the moment, and then I will have to go back to the library and check what else I still need to read.
