Coriolanus: Situational Irony 1 key example

In a scene suffused with situational irony, Menenius and Volumnia eagerly await news of Coriolanus’s condition, hoping that he is badly injured in order to strengthen his case for the consulship of Rome: 

MENENIUS
Where is
he wounded?  (To the Tribunes.) God save your
good Worships! Martius is coming home;
he has more cause to be proud.—
Where is he wounded? 
 
VOLUMNIA
I’ th’ shoulder and i’ th’ left arm. There will
be large cicatrices to show the people when he
shall stand for his place. He received in the repulse
of Tarquin seven hurts i’ th’ body. 

MENENIUS
One i’ th’ neck and two i’ th’ thigh—there’s
nine that I know. 
 
VOLUMNIA
He had, before this last expedition, twenty-five
wounds upon him. 
 
MENENIUS
Now it’s twenty-seven. Every gash was an
enemy’s grave. 

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