Augustine Martin takes a look at Coriolanus by William Shakespeare in this episode of Telefís Scoile.
Academic, writer and broadcaster Augustine Martin introduces Coriolanus as a drama of ideas, politics and class war. A play which dramatises forcefully the power struggle between the haves and have nots, capital and labour. This drama makes it relatable to modern readers.
It's a play, in fact, about how the city should be governed.
The play is also a tragedy of one man, Caius Marcius, a man of exceptional character and high station who bears all the marks of a tragic hero. His fatal flaw is pride which leads to his destruction and brings about serious consequences for others.
For Augustine Martin, the problem of Coriolanus is how the reader feels about him. The primary issue of the play is that the people of Rome are starving and they claim that the city's granaries are full. However, the Senate refuses to feed them and the most hostile of senators is Caius Marcius who hates the people.
This episode of 'Telefís Scoile' was broadcast on 21 February 1974. The presenter is Augustine Martin.
‘Telefís Scoile’ was an educational television programme that gave school lessons in maths, science and literature to both junior and senior secondary school level.
