ADDITIONAL FREUDIAN COMMENTS

This is a picture from the Shakespeare Theatre's 2000 production of Coriolanus.

Click on picture for more information about the Shakespeare Theatre of Washington D.C.

It is also interesting to consider the names Shakespeare chooses for the women in Coriolanus' life: Volumnia and Virgilia. Shakespeare, an actor himself, is said to have been extremely interested in word sounds. For instance, he will give a sinister character a lot of "s" sounds to make him/her sound evil, reminiscent of a serpent. The names Volumnia and Virgilia sound unmistakably like female sexual organs. What would Freud say?

According to Freud's Oedipus Complex, a young boy has sexual urges for his mother. Coriolanus' mother's name, Volumnia, sounds like voluptuous or vulva, both words largely associated with sex. The woman he marries, Virgilia, has a similar name, and it also calls to mind sexual images. Both names are three syllable words that start with the letter "v," have the emphasis on the second syllable, and sound like female sexual organs. Therefore, because Coriolanus cannot have sexual relations with his mother, he marries a woman with an almost identical name, who can provide a healthier outlet for his unresolved sexual tensions.