Measure of a Man

In this impassioned speech, made right before his attempts to placate the public, Coriolanus seems to think that what he is about to do goes against every natural, masculine bone in his body. Coriolanus seems to think that being a man means being able to say whatever you want, whenever you want, with no foreseeable consequences thanks to the fact that one is in fact a man. Women's rights were not exactly taking off by leaps and bounds during the time when Shakespeare was writing, but it does seem interesting that all of the people around Coriolanus are encouraging him to humble himself in exactly the way he is so disgusted with the thought of. The people around Coriolanus do not seem to think it is as big of a deal as he does. Perhaps this speaks to the idea that Coriolanus' ideas about the unchecked nature of masculinity are analogous to his ideas about the unchecked nature of the nobility: that they are both incongruous in the world he now finds himself in.