Coriolanus Characterization

In the beginning of Shakespeare’s play, Coriolanus, many events happen in which helps directly and indirectly characterize Marcius. This is something average and that any play should accomplish. However, a deeper look at the characterization can reveal the larger purpose of his characterization in act one.

Let’s start with the genre. Usually a play like this from Shakespeare is heralded as a tragedy. Although it does have qualities that inherently make it a tragedy, it is considered a political play. The characterization usually begins to fulfil at the apex of the climax in a play. This is to indirectly characterize the character’s qualities though his actions. But this play does not have that copacetic layout that we are accustomed to. The climax of the play is the start of the play. The action and combat takes place at the beginning of the play rather than the middle. The battle of the Volsces. The climax would be the most coherent place to indirectly show the characteristics of a Coriolanus in battle. What does this mean for the purpose. Well as this looks more at politics and less at “your average tragedy play”, it makes sense that the layout of the plot would be so paramount compared to tragedies. And that it makes it easier for the viewer to understand why Coriolanus might do what he is doing. Instead of questioning themselves, the viewer can now understand the character of Coriolanus.

Another, would be the setting. The act largely takes place at a battle setting. This would be the rising action of the play already before he gets exiled (more on that later). In the setting, there wouldn’t be many moments were a character can start a dialogue constantly or have a conversation with another character. It just continuous battle. But the author takes advantage of this scene to indirectly characterize Coriolanus. The battlefield would be the best place since most of his accomplishment or his qualities would be expressed through his actions rather than his words.

Lastly would be conflicts and the consequences in the coming acts. Later in the play, he tries to force people to vote him into consul. But the people start to recall the time Coriolanus mocked the people who voted for him, which were usually poorer, less noble people than he was. And he gets exiled from the city as his opposition uses the situation to their advantage. This again links back to the point I made previously. The incipient part of the play characterizes Coriolanus so the audience does not question his future actions and instead can grasp the reason why he would do so.

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Examine the Resurgence of Endangered Languages in Ireland and New Zealand. In these Instances how could Language be Considered a Tool for Resistance?

Before we examine the return of these close to extinct languages, we should now what an endangered language is and how they could become extinct. An endangered language basically means a language that is close to extinction. A small community might speak it, but the community might be the only community that communicates in that language. One of the main ways they can become extinct is through colonization (A country might enforce its language on the country it is colonizing), or communities might adapt to the surrounding language that dominates the country that they are in and the generation might just forget eh language completely. Now we answer, how they can be used to be a tool for resistance. Using the example = of colonization, people might use it to show their defiance against the rules they enforce on the people of the country. They might use it to attack the colonizers by using their language in the vicinity of the colonizers. This can show that they don’t want to follow what they set on them. This can also be shown as a way of retaliation or revival of a community that has been discriminated against where they have been put in a lower class just for speaking the language or put in a lower class because of the origins of where the culture of their language comes from. Language can also define the class and privileges a person might have during a time period. People might learn their under-privileged language as a way to show that they are proud with their privileges. Or they might learn a higher-class language just to prove the flaws of the class-being-defined-by-language system.

Stereotypes

Do you think that advertisers have a moral duty to avoid stereotyping people?

Personally, I think people have the freedom to promote, advertise, and endorse their product however they feel like necessary. Maybe the product itself is for a specific audience and the producers want to advertise their products so that it will appeal to the audience that it desires. 

This will also depend on the medium that the company chooses to advertise its audience. The reason why they might choose different mediums is to appeal to their audience who use the platform. For example, Video Sharing Sites (YouTube, Vimeo), and Social Media Sites (Facebook, Twitter). If people decide to advertise their product on YouTube and Facebook, who’s audience are older millennials who won’t have an easily offended audience, then there won’t be numerous complaints about offensive content. However, if the company decides to promote their product on TV, which people viewing TV can’t decide what is televised and broadcasted to them, then they will probably get many criticisms about offensive content being aired publically taking in the audience.

People can also be offended very easily as well. Many people may have had either experienced the situation before hand, or are just people are offended easily. This can cause protests against the product and could lower the reputation of the company.