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Definition of Metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor can be stated explicitly, as... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other... read full definition
Key Examples in Coriolanus
Act 1, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—The Body Politic:
A skilled orator and cunning diplomat, Menenius employs the common early modern political allegory of the “body politic,” which imagines the nation as a single biological body. In Act 1, Scene 1, he attempts to quell an angry mob, saying:
There was a time when all the body’s members
Rebelled against the belly, thus accused it:
That only like a gulf it did remain
I’ th’ midst o’ th’ body, idle and unactive
Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing
Like labor with the rest, where th’ other instruments
Did see and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel,
And, mutually participate, did minister
Unto the appetite and affection common
Of the whole body. [...]
Related Themes:
Act 1, Scene 9
Explanation and Analysis—The Grave:
At the end of the battle with the Volscians, Coriolanus has yet again proven himself a brave and capable warrior. However, he is hesitant to accept flattery or compliments, and he resists the desire of the Roman generals to be heralded in public upon return to Rome. Cominius, the commander-in-chief of the Roman army, condemns Coriolanus’s apparent modesty, using a series of metaphors to suggest that Coriolanus must accept the honors granted to him:
Unlock with LitCharts A+You shall not be
The grave of your deserving. Rome must know
The vaule of her own. 'Twere a concealment
Worse than a theft, no less than a traducement
To hide your doings and to silence that
Which, to the spire and top of praises vouched,
Would seem but modest. Therefore, I beseech you—
In sign of what you are, not to reward
What you have done.
Related Themes:
Act 2, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Crab Trees:
When Coriolanus finally returns to Rome after his victory on the battlefield, he is greeted by his mother, Volumnia, and his friend and mentor Menenius, who welcomes him with a series of botanical metaphors:
Unlock with LitCharts A+A hundred thousand welcomes! I could weep,
And I could laugh; I am light and heavy. Welcome.
A curse begin at very root on’s heart
That is not glad to see thee! You are three
That Rome should dote on; yet, by the faith of men,
We have some old crab trees here at home that will not
Be grafted to your relish. Yet welcome, warriors!
We call a nettle but a nettle, and
The faults of fools but folly.
Act 3, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Disease:
After Coriolanus’s disastrous public presentation in the Roman marketplace, the citizens call for his execution. Menenius attempts to quell the furious crowds, though Sicinius and Brutus, tribunes for the plebs, metaphorically compare Coriolanus to an infected limb that be amputated for the health of the body:
Unlock with LitCharts A+SICINIUS
He’s a disease that must be cut away.MENENIUS
O, he’s a limb that has but a disease—
Mortal to cut it off; to cure it easy.
What has he done to Rome that’s worthy death? […]BRUTUS
This is clean cam.
Merely awry. When he did love his country,
It honored him.SICINIUS
The service of the foot,
Being once gangrened, is not then respected
For what before it was.BRUTUS
We’ll hear no more.
Pursue him to his house, and pluck him thence,
Lest his infection, being of catching nature,
Spread further.
Related Themes:
Act 3, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Bastards and Syllables:
Urging her son to return to the Roman marketplace in an attempt to quell the angry crowds that have called for his execution, Volumnia uses a metaphor that imagine lies as “bastards” or illegitimate children:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Because that now it lies you on to speak
To th’ people, not by your own instruction,
Nor by th’ matter which your heart prompts you,
But with such words that are but roted in
Your tongue, though but bastards and syllables
Of no allowance to your bosom’s truth.
Now, this no more dishonors you at all
Than to take in a town with gentle words,
Which else would put you to your fortune and
The hazard of much blood.
Related Themes:
Act 4, Scene 3
Explanation and Analysis—The Main Blaze:
After his banishment from Rome, Coriolanus turns to Corioli, the capital city of the Volscians and the home of his longstanding enemy, Aufidius. In the streets, a Volscian and Roman soldier meet to exchange information, using a series of closely related metaphors that imagine the political turbulence of Rome as a fire:
Unlock with LitCharts A+VOLSCE
Hath been? Is it ended, then? Our state thinks
not so. They are in a most warlike preparation and
hope to come upon them in the heat of their
division.
ROMAN
The main blaze of it is past, but a small thing
would make it flame again; for the nobles receive
so to heart the banishment of that worthy Coriolanus
that they are in a ripe aptness to take all power
from the people and to pluck from them their tribunes
forever. This lies glowing, I can tell you, and
is almost mature for the violent breaking out.
Related Themes:
Act 4, Scene 5
Explanation and Analysis—Son and Heir to Mars:
After his banishment from Rome, Coriolanus travels to Corioli, a Volscian city, where he finds the court of his former nemesis Aufidius and declares his loyalty to the Volscians, hoping to revenge himself upon Rome. Rather than turning Coriolanus away, Aufidius welcomes him with open arms, treating the Roman warrior with a high degree of honor, respect, and admiration. The Third Servingman, a commoner employed by Aufidius, uses simile, metaphor, and allusion in describing Coriolanus’s treatment in the Volscian court:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Why, he is so made on here within
as if he were son and heir to Mars; set at upper end
o’ th’ table; no question asked him by any of the
senators but they stand bald before him. Our general
himself makes a mistress of him, sanctifies
himself with ’s hand, and turns up the white o’ th’
eye to his discourse. But the bottom of the news is,
our general is cut i’ th’ middle and but one half of
what he was yesterday, for the other has half,
by the entreaty and grant of the whole table. He’ll go,
he says, and sowl the porter of Rome gates by th’ears.
Act 5, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—One Poor Grain or Two:
As the Volscians prepare to attack Rome, word spreads through Rome that the Volscian troops are led by none other than Coriolanus, who has switched allegiances in order to revenge himself upon his home nation, from which he has been banished. While telling Menenius about his own failed attempt to reach out to Coriolanus and seek mercy on behalf of Rome, Cominius conveys a metaphor originally spoken by Coriolanus:
Unlock with LitCharts A+COMINIUS
I offered to awaken his regard
For ’s private friends. His answer to me was
He could not stay to pick them in a pile
Of noisome musty chaff. He said ’twas folly
For one poor grain or two to leave unburnt
And still to nose th’ offense.
MENENIUS
For one poor grain or two!
I am one of those! His mother, wife, his child,
And this brave fellow too, we are the grains;
You are the musty chaff, and you are smelt
Above the moon. We must be burnt for you.
Related Themes:
