Steve Kesler: "Transcending Tragedy: Shifting Tragedy From the Individual to Society at Large in Shakespeare's Coriolanus"

"Transcending  Tragedy:  Shifting Tragedy From the Individual to Society at Large In Shakespeare’s Coriolanus"

One of the many parameter that Aristotle placed on tragedy when he defined the genre was that it exists only in the individual. The plethora of tragedies that have been written since have largely followed this rule until William Shakespeare.  While many of his tragedies do follow the rules as defined by Aristotle his Roman tragedies, written later in his illustrious career, tend to push the envelope of the genre. Specifically looking at Coriolanus I argue that Shakespeare transcended the classic idea of tragedy that Aristotle established by taking away the emphasis on the individual and placing it on society as a whole.