Coriolanus: Act 2, Scene 2 Summary & Analysis

Two Roman officers enter the Roman Senate House, laying cushions for senators to sit on. There are three candidates for the consulship, but everyone thinks the position will go to Coriolanus. One officer notes that Coriolanus is brave, but also proud, and he doesn’t love the common people. The second officer responds that many great men have flattered the common people without loving them, and many men have been loved by the common people for no reason; the people hate and love without much legitimate reason. In not caring whether the people love or hate him, Coriolanus thus has “true knowledge” about the people’s disposition; he lets them see that he doesn’t care what they think only out of his “noble carelessness.”

The first Roman officer says he would agree if Coriolanus didn’t actively try to get the people to hate him even more than they were willing to; trying to be despised by the commoners is just as bad as flattering them. They ultimately agree that Coriolanus has done much for his country and is worthy, and the second officer goes as far to say that if the people are silent about his greatness it would be a kind of malice and “ingrateful injury.”

Roman Senators enter along with the tribunes, Cominius, Menenius, and Coriolanus. Coriolanus stands, and Menenius says it’s time to honor the noble service Coriolanus has done for his country. The current consul, Cominius, will speak on behalf of Coriolanus and chronicle his latest deeds. A senator tells Cominius to tell the story in full, leaving no details out for brevity’s sake, and the senator also asks the tribunes to listen. They say that they will listen, so long as Coriolanus starts valuing the common people more than he has in the past. Menenius says that Coriolanus loves the people, just not an excessive amount. Coriolanus offers to leave the room while Cominius speaks, but the senator tells him to sit down, since it is not shameful to hear someone recount one’s noble deeds.

Coriolanus, though, says he would rather have his wounds heal all over again than hear talk about how he received them. While he would never run away from a fight, he has “fled from words,” and he assures the tribunes that he loves the people “as they weigh.” Coriolanus would rather be idle during battle than hear his deeds, which he calls “nothings,” be “monstered” in a retelling. He exits, and Menenius tells the people that there are a thousand worthless flatterers for every good man, and Coriolanus would rather risk losing all of his limbs in battle than be flattered himself. Menenius tells Cominius to proceed in recounting Coriolanus’s deeds.

Cominius begins humbly, saying “I shall lack voice,” and he notes that Coriolanus’s deeds should not be spoken of lightly. If it’s true that valor is the most important virtue, then Coriolanus is certainly the most virtuous person in the world. At age sixteen, while Tarquin raised an army to conquer Rome, Coriolanus fought better than anyone else. Coriolanus, with his “Amazonian chin,” fought against bristled, bearded men and killed three men. He even fought with Tarquin himself and wounded him in the knee. That day, Cominius says, Coriolanus might have acted “the woman in the scene,” but instead “proved best man” in the battle. For his valor, he was crowned with a garland of oak leaves. At the age of a student, he became a man, grew like a sea, and has fought valiantly in seventeen battles since then.

As for this last battle at Corioles, Cominius claims, he cannot even do Coriolanus justice. Coriolanus stopped soldiers from fleeing, and by his valiant example he inspired cowards to “turn terror into sport.” Everyone obeyed him, and his sword acted as “Death’s stamp,” killing wherever he marked, until Coriolanus became “a thing of blood, whose every motion was timed with dying cries.” Coriolanus entered the gates of the city alone, and without reinforcements he “struck Corioles like a planet.” When he began to tire from the battle, he immediately revitalized himself and joined the battle once more, never stopping fighting or slaughtering until the city was won and the battle was completely over.

Menenius cries out that Coriolanus is a “worthy man,” and a Roman senator says that Coriolanus cannot be honored enough for these deeds. Cominius tells of how Coriolanus denied all the spoils of war he was offered, since for him fighting and serving Rome are rewards in and of themselves. The senators call for Coriolanus, and he reenters. Menenius informs him that the senate wishes to make him consul. All that remains before he is named consul is that he needs to speak to the people.

Coriolanus asks if he can skip that custom, since he cannot wear the candidate’s robe and stand exposed in front of the people, using his wounds to ask for their votes. But Sicinius responds that the people must have their voices. Menenius tells Coriolanus to follow custom, and Coriolanus agrees, though he says it’s a part that he’ll “blush in acting.” He doesn’t want to brag to them about his deeds and show them his scars, as if he only got them so the people would give him votes.

But Menenius tells him not to worry—the senators and tribunes are supporting him and want only joy and honor for him. The senators cry out in support, and then everyone exits except Sicinius and Brutus. In private, the two tribunes note how Coriolanus seems to dread asking the people for votes, as if he doesn’t believe they should even have the power to vote at all. The tribunes plan to inform the Roman citizens of what has happened in the Capitol.