코리오레이너스--정치적 관계 속의 개인

Abstract

Coriolanus, Shakespeare's most political play, shows how an individual in politics is always facing the nullification of himself. Unlike someone in a natural human relationship such as family, he is always on the verge of being other than himself. The moment he steps into politics, he becomes a signifier which has a variety of meanings regardless of his own unique, constant nature. The hero of the play, Martius, is called, by turns, “enemy of the people, demi-god of war, hero home in triumph, Consul-elect, and then public enemy and banished man.” So Martius' ‘unpolitical’ actions, which are political in his own way, can be explained as the result of his effort not to lose his truth even in the political arena. Before he becomes a political being, his virtues, whether they are natural or trained, are accepted as such; they are not the cause or means of power. But once in politics, his true self is forced to be replaced by the “little” he has done or the limited virtue he possesses. The problem with politics is that it forces its members to change to suit its own needs regardless of who they are. A man vulnerable enough to be swayed by the vagaries of politics is left only with the choice between accepting the falsehood the society gives as if it were true or asserting himself at the risk of being destroyed by its current whimsical in nature. The latter is what Martius chose and it explains, this essay argues, his extraordinary behavior which seems too childish for a political being; it is the result of his being both natural and political.