The characterisation of Caius Martius

Throughout the play, the character Caius Martius is exhibited to be emphasizing as an anti-hero, possessing qualities of dislike amongst the plebeians. Coriolanus’ first appearance in the play is presented toward the audience with a negative connotation in the play, providing conflict between two social groups of the Plebeians and the Patricians.  The intended audience is for and Elizabethan audience, in which we have discussed in class that this is in fact a political play where the Elizabethan audience would be very familiar with the political motives and situations of Kings James I.

The play starts of with he Plebeians as savages and un educated with how they hold up their pitch forks and weaponry, however we can see this juxtaposition of Coriolanus who walks in being far worse as a Patrician. The political play begins as how the grain isn’t easily distributed amongst the Plebicians, and blame Coriolanus’ social group. We can begin to see that Shakespeare has presented Coriolanus as being a villainous character as the Plebeians resent him and his attitude is seen as very rude and unliked. Perhaps Shakespeare has exhibited Shakespeare in this way due to the contrasting shocking first impression against the end character of Coriolanus, developing this character who embodies a political issue and is seen to change throughout the nature of the play.

Another things Shakespeare has revealed about Caius Martius’ character in the opening of the play is how these two social groups are both effected by this character, showing the development and how the political issue cannot move on without this development through the play as seen in the unsatisfying Roman citizens toward Coriolanus. Perhaps the social party plays part of a systematic society of how the characters are being portrayed in their development as Coriolanus is exhibited as rigorous in the opening in the play in contrast to the last scene.

Martius is also exhibited to clearly establish to the audience that his role in the play is very much separated from the social ranking of the Plebeians as they are in the lower class.  This results in how each character develops off one another, exhibiting that the Plebeians portray him as an anti-hero as in act one he is shown fighting charismatically in war. Coriolanus is a vital part to the opening of this play as Shakespeare clearly emphasizes on the foreshadowing of how the situations of political tension will further heighten to the later major conflicts of this play. His arrogance is something that could perhaps classify him as a classical hero, as many of them were arrogant, presenting to the audience of his three dimensional character.

Lastly, in the outcome of the play, Coriolanus is exhibited as a tragic hero after the development. The character as mentioned above is very important as highly developed throughout this play as they create contrast from the opening scene to the last scene as Shakespeare has used this to develop the key conflicts in this play. Its interesting that Shakespeare has used such a figure represented as a anti hero in the beginning to develop key conflicts within the play.