‘Seeking (The) Mean(s)’: Aristotle's Ethics and Shakespeare's Coriolanus

Abstract

Shakespeare's Coriolanus bears the stamp of Aristotelianism in ways affecting ethics, drama and politics. Steering a course between excess, defect and the mean enables Shakespeare to experiment with a new dramatic geometry; concerns with character excellence develop into questions of character types, and the political model of Aristotle is measured against that of Machiavelli. Coriolanus' quarrel with Aufidius harbours a conflict of doctrines in which virtus is eventually superseded by virtù. The mean is lost in the sense of ‘virtuous midpoint’ to assume that of ‘contrivance’, valued so far as the end is valued, regardless of ethicality.