Article: "We are undone already": disarming the multitude in 'Julius Caesar' and 'Coriolanus'.(Critical Essay)

For several recent critics, Shakespeare's shift from portraying the crowd as mob in early plays, like 2 Henry VI and Julius Caesar, to portraying the crowd as "political entity" in Coriolanus marks his "most radical position." (1) Shakespeare's presentation of "different political structures" generates tremendous "political risks," according to Thomas Sorge. For by offering the audience a choice of models--"the rule of one, the rule of the few, the rule of the many"--Coriolanus "potentially challenges authority's representation of monarchy as the only form of rule beneficial for England." While Sorge is correct in asserting that alternative models question the role of the ...

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