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Compare And Contrast Marcus And Pontus

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That Which Binds: A Look at Marcius and Pontius Blood pumps through our veins as we toil under the stresses of labor, and blood surges through our arteries with each shift in battle: a parry, a block, a riposte. The adrenaline rushes in this shared carrier, and with each passing second, there is a chance of letting. Through this blood, men leak wounds. Whether these wounds are the cause of mental or physical activity—these wounds are shared. Caius Marcius of William Shakespeare’s Coriolanus and Pontius of Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play are two such men who share wounds both physical and mental. However, Pontius has three different forms within Passion Play, while Caius has only his beginning and end. Pontius first appears as a fish-monger, then a soldier, and finally “P.” Caius can be categorized into pre-banishment and post-banishment. The …show more content…

In the beginning of Corilanus, Caius addresses a large crowd, “He that depends/ Upon your favors swims with fins of lead” (1.1.180 Coriolanus). Pontius uses a similar image of a fish when by himself on the stage, “I gutted a fish today – I thought it was dead – I slit open its belly – and five live fishes wraggled in the guts of their mother” (Passion 32). The motif running between these quotes is the presence of a fish, be it with fins of lead, or pregnant. However, one quote explains the other. The leaded fins can be associated with Pontius and his sullen nature, being the only one to stay on stage and give a whole-hearted speech—something not a single other character does. Pontius’s quote of a pregnant fish best describes Caius’s situation before the crowd. The crowd is of one opinion, and when that crowd is silenced, offspring simply appears to back the rabble once more. Pontius and Caius understand one another in their positions just from the juxtaposition of these quotes, and both men share a similar thinking

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