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Volumnia Pleads With Coriolanus
Volumnia is a character in William Shakespeare's play ''Coriolanus'', the mother of Caius Martius Coriolanus. She plays a large role in Coriolanus' life, encouraging him in his military success and urging him to seek political office. When the people of Rome put her son in exile and he joins their military enemies, she manages to persuade him not to besiege Rome and becomes a heroine to the city. Scholars have noted her profound control over her son and her effect on his attitude towards life throughout the play. Rather than offering nourishment, Volumnia constantly urges her son towards aggression. Psychoanalytic literary scholars even suggest that she protects him as if he were her sexual partner, even keeping Coriolanus' own wife away from him. Performance of the role has changed over time as focus shifted from male roles to female roles. During the Romantic Period, she was portrayed as a stately, calm woman. More recently roles have made her much more emotive. Scene 3 als ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coriolanus
''Coriolanus'' ( or ) is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1605 and 1608. The play is based on the life of the legendary Roman leader Caius Marcius Coriolanus. Shakespeare worked on it during the same years he wrote '' Antony and Cleopatra'', making them the last two tragedies written by him. Coriolanus is the name given to a Roman general after his military feats against the Volscians at Corioli. Following his success he seeks to be consul, but his disdain for the plebeians and the mutual hostility of the tribunes lead to his banishment from Rome. He presents himself to the Volscians, then leads them against Rome. Characters ''Romans'' * Caius Marcius – later surnamed Coriolanus * Menenius Agrippa – Senator of Rome * Cominius – consul and commander-in-chief of the army * Titus Larcius – Roman general * Volumnia – Coriolanus' mother (historically, Veturia) * Virgilia – Coriolanus' wife * Young Martius – Coriolanus' son ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Veturia
Veturia was a Roman matron, the mother of the possibly legendary Roman general Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus. According to Plutarch her name was Volumnia. Veturia came from a patrician family and encouraged her son's involvement in Roman politics. According to Roman historians, Coriolanus was expelled from Rome in the early fifth century BC because he demanded the abolition of the office of Tribune of the Plebs in return for distributing state grain to the starving plebeians. He settled with the Volscians, a people hostile to Rome, while formulating his revenge. Coriolanus and the Volscians marched upon Rome and laid siege to the city. The Romans sent envoys to Coriolanus, but to no avail. Then Veturia, together with Coriolanus' wife Volumnia, plus other family members and matrons of Rome, successfully entreated Coriolanus to break off his siege. The precise versions of the entreaties differ. According to Plutarch, when Veturia came to her son's camp, Coriolanus embraced her and b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plutarch's Lives
Plutarch's ''Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans'', commonly called ''Parallel Lives'' or ''Plutarch's Lives'', is a series of 48 biographies of famous men, arranged in pairs to illuminate their common moral virtues or failings, probably written at the beginning of the second century AD. The surviving ''Parallel Lives'' (Greek: Βίοι Παράλληλοι, ''Bíoi Parállēloi'') comprises 23 pairs of biographies, each pair consisting of one Greek and one Roman of similar destiny, such as Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, or Demosthenes and Cicero. It is a work of considerable importance, not only as a source of information about the individuals described, but also about the times in which they lived. Motivation ''Parallel Lives'' was Plutarch's second set of biographical works, following the Lives of the Roman Emperors from Augustus to Vitellius. Of these, only the Lives of Galba and Otho survive. As he explains in the first paragraph of his ''Life of Alexander'', Pl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the " Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. He remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted. Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gaius Marcius Coriolanus
Gnaeus (or Gaius) Marcius Coriolanus was a Roman general who is said to have lived in the 5th century BC. He received his toponymic cognomen "Coriolanus" following his courageous actions during a Roman siege of the Volscian city of Corioli. He was subsequently exiled from Rome, and led troops of Rome's enemy the Volsci to besiege the city. In later ancient times, it was generally accepted by historians that Coriolanus was a real historical individual, and a consensus narrative story of his life appeared, retold by leading historians such as Livy, Plutarch, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus. More recent scholarship has cast doubt on the historicity of Coriolanus, with some portraying him as either a wholly legendary figure or at least disputing the accuracy of the conventional story of his life or the timing of the events. According to Plutarch, his ancestors included prominent patricians such as Censorinus and even an early King of Rome. The story is the basis for the tragedy of '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism
Psychoanalytic literary criticism is literary criticism or literary theory which, in method, concept, or form, is influenced by the tradition of psychoanalysis begun by Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalytic reading has been practised since the early development of psychoanalysis itself, and has developed into a heterogeneous interpretive tradition. As Celine Surprenant writes, "Psychoanalytic literary criticism does not constitute a unified field. However, all variants endorse, at least to a certain degree, the idea that literature ... is fundamentally entwined with the psyche." Psychoanalytic criticism views artists, including authors, as neurotic. However, an artist escapes many of the outward manifestations and end results of neurosis by finding in the act of creating his or her art a pathway back to sanity and wholeness. Overview The object of psychoanalytic literary criticism, at its very simplest, can be the psychoanalysis of the author or of a particularly interesting character ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Romanticism
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate period from 1800 to 1850. Romanticism was characterized by its emphasis on emotion and individualism, clandestine literature, paganism, idealization of nature, suspicion of science and industrialization, and glorification of the past with a strong preference for the medieval rather than the classical. It was partly a reaction to the Industrial Revolution, the social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment, and the scientific rationalization of nature. It was embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music, and literature, but had a major impact on historiography, education, chess, social sciences, and the natural sciences. It had a significant and complex effect on politics, with romantic thinkers influencing conservatism, libe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virgilia
Virgilia is the wife of Coriolanus in William Shakespeare's play ''Coriolanus'' (1607–1610), in which same play Volumnia is his mother. Origins The life of the legendary figure Caius Marcius Coriolanus has been recorded more than once. In the very influential account most familiar to Shakespeare, Plutarch's ''Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans'', Coriolanus' wife's name is ''Virgilia'', or in John Dryden's translation, ''Vergilia''. However, some accounts (Brewer, 1898) say that his wife's name was actually ''Volumnia'', probably following the Roman historian Livy, wherein the wife is called Volumnia and the mother Veturia. Role in the play Virgilia is Coriolanus' wife and the mother of his son. She goes with her mother-in-law and son to the Volsce' camp to sue to Coriolanus not to make war against Rome. She, like Volumnia, is honored for making this peace. It is also through Virgilia that audiences see a new side of the warrior. Critic Unhae Langis argued that " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Literary Characters Introduced In 1603
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include oral literature, much of which has been transcribed. Literature is a method of recording, preserving, and transmitting knowledge and entertainment, and can also have a social, psychological, spiritual, or political role. Literature, as an art form, can also include works in various non-fiction genres, such as biography, diaries, memoir, letters, and the essay. Within its broad definition, literature includes non-fictional books, articles or other printed information on a particular subject.''OED'' Etymologically, the term derives from Latin ''literatura/litteratura'' "learning, a writing, grammar," originally "writing formed with letters," from ''litera/littera'' "letter". In spite of this, the term has also been applied to spoken or s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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