Menenius Symbolism

Volumnia’s character in Coriolanus both supports and breaks the normal gender roles and basis of what is feminine and what is masculine. Since Coriolanus’s father is not around, Volumnia plays both parts of a mother and a father in the family. Volumnia raises her son to be masculine and to exude power despite that she is a woman. She sends him to war and does not think about the consequences or hardships he must face. Unlike a regular mother, she loves seeing Coriolanus’s wounds because they represent strength and show his manly struggles. How Volumnia raises Coriolanus is reflective of herself because she thinks that men who do not fight in the war should not be respected by their country, and furthermore, that one is not a “man” but only a boy before going to war. Like his mother, Coriolanus sees the plebeians as cowards because they have done nothing and have not fought in the war. Because of this, Coriolanus believes he is better than them and that they should respect him and not the other way around. Coriolanus’s masculinity makes him all the more powerful-- his violent and aggressive behavior gives him more power than those men who have not fought in war. Evidently, masculinity is a foundation for power and Volumnia has raised her son to adhere to masculine qualities in order for him to be more powerful. By being a man and fighting for Rome, he is to be made council, giving him power to rule over others. Furthermore, Volumnia acts more as a general to a soldier than is

William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and 2016 presidential candidate Donald Trump shared undeniable similarities. From the use of rhetoric and oratory to emotional manipulation, Donald Trump and characters like Marc Anthony, were able to persuade the poor and uneducated into making them their leaders. Both individuals, targeted a demographic that was tired

When Cyclops set a curse on Odysseus, it set the course for the rest of the story. Cyclops asked his father, Poseidon, to make Odysseus’s journey home long and torturous, because Odysseus put out the Cyclops’s eye. The Cyclops prayed to his father, Poseidon, “He shall see his roof again among his family in his father land, far be that day, and dark the years between. Let him lose all companions, and return under strange sail to bitter days at home.” For the next six chapters, Odysseus fights the elements, losses all of the men in his company, and returns home to witness scores of suitors eating his food, living in his home, and attempting to marry his wife. The

5. The third plebeian’s cry of “Let him be Caesar,” (3.2.52) is ironic because, while the people do not know of the truth being the conspiracy, the goal was to take out Caesar, not replace him. While their quest seems successful, the true hardships have yet to begin.

All heroes have unique aspects that make them special and considered heroic. These aspects can be anything from a role to a characteristic and are shown through many ways, such as descriptions and explanations. Most of these aspects are shown through symbolism, such as in the works of Alexandre Dumas, Homer, and Kenneth Branagh. Symbolism plays a key part in showing different aspects of a hero, such as the elixir in the book The Count of Monte Cristo, the hammer Mjölnir in the movie Thor, and Odysseus’s hunting bow in the book The Odyssey.

The narrative iterates the theme that honor is more sought after than all else through the character of Menelaus. He is no doubt known

Throughout Quintus Cicero’s Running for Office: A Handbook one can see the many connections current politics has with that of the ancient world. Amidst America’s present-day elections and focusing on presidential hopefuls such as, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and Bernie Sanders, this paper seeks to highlight the parallels and disparities between Quintus Cicero’s Handbook and today’s campaign.

Thesis: Having been known as the man who rose from poverty to reform the Roman government, he is surely one of the most religious, cunning, and somehow weak rulers the world has known.

Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar presents Rome at a time of political volatility. The first scene of the first act of the play depicts the Tribunes of the people incensed by the Plebeians love of Caesar and abandonment of Pompey. However, in a significant departure from the role the Tribunes played in Coriolanus, in which they sought to protect the freedoms and political rights of the people (2.1) , the Tribunes instead urge the Plebeians, “Run to your houses.” It is significant that the first scene of Julius Caesar presents the tribunes as such dramatically different roles than how they acted, and with what power they acted, in Coriolanus. While the Tribunes are limited to the first scene of the play, the fact that the Tribunes fail to appeal

Menenius is a man of words whereas Coriolanus is a man of action. This will be explored with reference to Coriolanus as whole.

Marcus Tullius Cicero was a powerful politician in Ancient Rome. He was revered and respected by many, and he also had a unique quality to him: he was a “novus homo”, a man who was new to the Roman political scene and did not have any ancestors that took part in it. He is still renowned today as one of the most prominent orators of Ancient Rome, not unlike many US Presidents of our modern world. Despite his status as a novus homo, however, his speeches are more similar to those of John F. Kennedy, a man from a long line of politicians, than with those of politicians such as Barack Obama, who never was involved with his father’s political work in Kenya. Textual evidence shows that Cicero’s speeches and strategies align much more closely with

Since he is temporarily filling in for Odysseus, the king’s stories become a guide for Telemachus to follow. Menelaus affectionately refers to him as “dear boy”, and through telling his own stories to Odysseus, he does more than merely helping Telemachus find his father and reinstate his former authority. He also enlightens him on the other aspects of manhood, which are often buried under long-established Hellenic generalizations of one simply attaining kleos through demonstrating excellence in athletic games, bravery and cunning through military victories, perpetuating the patriarchal hierarchal system in households and society at large, and other “masculine” qualities. King Menelaus does not share his story merely to convince Telemachus to disregard the importance of these values; his purpose was to open the boy’s mind to all the facets of manhood that he was not exposed to earlier. His story is told to show Telemachus that the real value and happiness of a man lies not only in the heroism derived though his myriads of adventures, his victory souvenirs, or the fame he receives, and that a home also cannot be made solely from his wealth, his property, or his grand gestures of authority. Our identities are also composed of our

The gravity of Egeon's predicament, and the play's potential for tragedy, is rendered even more poignant by the senex's constant grief. In direct contrast, the prologue of Menaechmi is witty, urbane, and very informal. Not only does the speaker slyly mock the audience ("Please listen with your whole attention span; / I'll tell it in the very fewest words I can" ), he delivers a rather sharp jab to other Roman comic playwrights, who proudly boast of their authenticity and "their fidelity to the Greek models, a practice which evidently had some snob appeal." Ironically, this jab seves as a basis for the playwright to assert his own authenticity and dramatic authority:

Even without the crowd, Titus’s behavior in the coliseum expresses authority. His voice echoes forcefully. He speaks the language of power—patriotism, bravery and religious ritual. Titus does not equivocate. At the beginning of the play, Titus reacts as if problems are black and white. When Mutius dishonors Titus by defending his brother and sister, Titus simply kills him. He asks Mutius right before killing him, “Barr’st me my way in Rome?” as if Titus was most offended by Mutius’s attempt to control his power in Rome. (1.1.295) He calls his other sons traitors for defending Lavinia.

“The pen is mightier than the sword.” As a youth, I disagreed with this statement. How could a pen ever defeat a sword? Over time, I have come to understand how words and speech can influence generations more than just fear or force. Cicero’s speeches are prime examples of how rhetoric is more powerful than military prowess or use of arms. His rhetoric influenced public policy and successive generations. Unlike Caesar and Pompey, he had no significant military command yet; his reputation was just as strong. Cicero’s general objectives in the First Catilinarian Oration were to portray Catiline as a traitor, achieve support for an action against Catiline, and protect himself from any repercussions. To demonstrate this rhetoric I will analyze sections 3 and 4 from his First Catilinarian Oration. I have choses these sections because they best show how Cicero uses rhetoric to achieve his objective. In order to classify and understand Cicero’s rhetoric, first I will define the kinds of speech and parts of rhetoric. Second, I will analyze his rhetoric by commenting on his chosen rhetorical techniques and topics.