Late in his career Shakespeare turned to the legend of the prehistoric Roman hero, Coriolanus, who, in deference to his mother's entreaties, abandoned his vengeance and spared ungrateful Rome. It is a tragedy ensuing from an Oedipal mother-son relationship. Volumnia, the mother, is a consumingly fierce, domineering woman and mother. Widowed when her only son was an infant, she reared him to be a harsh, contemptuous, intolerant, arrogant patrician and a ferocious, indomitable warrior. Upon this mighty man she then imposed the role of submissive son who must obey his mother and strive for her constant approbation. She so imposed her values upon him that she created in him a superego that made him a man of iron rigidity. Since his conscience does not permit compromises, he is a military hero but a failure as politician and statesman. Volumnia ultimately contrives his doom.

When extreme conflict arises between them because she can