Coriolanus Lesson Plan

Consider the stakes of the final act of the play. What do you think would happen if Coriolanus and the Volscians invaded Rome?

Students will probably not be familiar with what a ground invasion of a major city is really like. Typically, however, urban warfare is even more brutal and deadly than warfare in open fields, and puts civilians in even greater danger.

Additionally, for European audiences and readers of Shakespeare's play, the idea of Rome being conquered by Coriolanus and the Volscians would have recalled the sack of the city in 455 CE, which cemented the final, catastrophic fall of the Western Roman Empire. During the 4th century BCE, when the Roman Republic was...