Characterization in Shakespeare

Characterization in Shakespeare : Coriolanus act 1

Shakespeare names the character "Caius Martius," but, after he leads an army that defeats the city of Corioles, he earns himself a new nickname: "Coriolanus".  We see how Shakespeare uses characterization in the play to make the audience not like Coriolanus as a person and build his character into a tragic hero. One of the first pieces of characterization we get is in Act 1 Scene 1 when we see Martius as an aggressive, brutally honest, arrogant military general that doesn’t care about the phelbians and believes they shouldn’t have any power in Rome. In the same act we find out that when he was a young man, he took down Rome's tyrant King Tarquin and has many battle scars. Volumnia, his bloodthirsty and patriotic mother,  brags about her son's wounds and victories to Virigilia and Valeria. Declaring that 'He had, before this last expedition, twenty-five wounds upon him' (Coriolanus) and “then his good report should have been my son; I therein would have found issue. Hear me profess sincerely; had I a dozen sons, each in my love alike ad none less dear thine and my good Coriolanus, I had rather eleven die nobly for their country than one voluptuously surfeit out of action.”