Help Needed! School Assignment on Shakespeare and Politics

[ASOAK7]

Hello all. I have a school assignment that I am working on that requires me to pose some questions related to a certain work or theme my class has looked at over the course of the semester and dialogue with those who respond. I landed on Shakespeare's Coriolanus. In Coriolanus, Shakespeare explores the nature of a politician's nobility in the characters of Coriolanus and Menenius and considers the relationship between the "nobility" or morality of the politician-as-individual and the politician-as-representative. In light of this discussion and the current election season, I would like to pose three questions and would appreciate your feedback:

- Is there such a thing as a politician’s “morality� or “nobility� that is different from the standard by which common men are supposed to live, meaning should a politician make certain choices and cross certain lines that the common man cannot if it is for the sake of the “greater good�?

If no, why not?

If yes, what are some examples in which the morality of the politician and the morality of the common man differ?

- Should a politician’s decisions in office be determined by his own personal moral convictions or by the will expressed by those he represents?

- When faced with tough decisions, should a politician simply choose the lesser of the evils that are before him or be willing to stand by his convictions even if it costs him greatly?

[Divine Insight]

[Replying to post 7 by wiploc]

That was me too! I have found doing such surveys more effective if I post in multiple places so as to receive a greater variety in responses. You'll notice I have the same screen name there.

I certainly hope there's nothing wrong with posting the same question on different website forums. I do it all the time. Especially when I need help with something. When I have a problem with my computer for example, I write up my question, copy it and then paste it onto about five different computer forums. After all, different people give different answers.

On some forums people will actually post, "No, you can't do that with your computer".

But then on another forum someone else will post, "Oh yeah, I do that all the time, and here's how I do it."

So you never know where you might find golden information.