Volumnia: The Woman Who Made a Warrior

Volumnia raised Coriolanus to be what he is. She tells us in Act 1 that she would rather have eleven sons die nobly for Rome than one live in comfort. She is proud of his wounds. She sees his military glory as her greatest achievement.

She is also a skilled political operator, far more pragmatic than her son. She understands compromise. She knows the market-place performance is distasteful but necessary. Her frustration with Coriolanus is partly the frustration of someone watching a brilliant student refuse to apply the lessons that aren't about war.

Her final appeal, in Act 5, is the play's emotional climax. She uses everything she has (his duty, her love, the image of his wife and son) to stop him sacking Rome. She wins. And it destroys him.