Coriolanus vertebrate: an Ortega interpretation of Shakespeare’s tragedy

Abstract

Although William Shakespeare's works have inspired a multitude of philosophers, this has not translated into a profuse philosophical analysis of their themes. This article aims to contribute to this endeavor by presenting a dialogue between William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Coriolanus and the theoretical model of social analysis outlined by José Ortega y Gasset in Spain Invertebrate. The premise of this text is the possible overlap of the themes addressed in the latter (through the degeneration of the so-called "social elasticity" and "exemplarity") in Shakespeare's work, where the protagonist's heroic merits are disregarded by the people of Rome, who end up seeing his pride as sufficient reason to condemn him to ostracism.