Menenius and Failed Storytelling

I was really drawn to the character of Menenius from the very beginning of Coriolanus. I found it both amusing and troubling that he was able to quell the plebians of Rome, who are presumably hungry, by telling a story. And he doesn't just tell a story, he uses rhetoric, and dramatic pauses to catch and control the attention of the citizens. We can liken the citizens to the audiences of Shakespeare who came to "hear" plays and not see plays. At the beginning, there is definitely a controlling aspect of speech, which reminds me of earlier plays we read such as Othello where Iago manipulates Othello with speech.

However, later in the play (precisely 3.1 beginning line 179), Menenius' speech is troubled under the demands of the citizens. He says, "What is about to be? I am out of breath; / Confusion's near, I cannot speak." (3.1 187-88). Menenius, who was so gifted in speech, is losing his influence. His lines in this scene are now only about one to two lines long. This confusion is reflective of Rome's confusion regarding its identity. There's the whole issue of virtus and civitas being incompatible. But I find the idea of theater falling into the spectacle, more interesting. Menenius had so longed relied on speech, and now his speech is futile under the demands of the plebians/audience for visual.

Rachel Humphrey
sec. 1c