Let me twine / Mine arms about that body: The Queerness of Coriolanus and Recent British Stage Productions

(qtd. in Bedford 141) McKellen's comments exhibit the binary thinking that characterizes the attitudes of many actors and directors towards Coriolanus's sexuality: since he "seems to be extremely happily married and to be very much in love with his wife," he cannot be "gay," and no middle ground appears between these two polar and antithetical positions. [...]McKellen parts ways with Guthrie by denying that Coriolanus's sexual orientation constitutes a "major interest" of the tragedy. [...]the National Theatre production, despite its many homoerotic elements, did not convey a coherent or consistent interpretation of the queer bond between Coriolanus and Aufidius, perhaps because the director and lead actors were working at cross-purposes to each other. According to Doran, Shakespeare created his protagonist at a time when he himself was working through a combination of grief at the loss of his mother's love and sexual feelings toward other males. The same seductiveness that allowed Virgilia to obtain her husband's cooperation in 3.2 failed her at this even more crucial juncture. [...]for Rourke, Coriolanus's fixed heterosexuality became an essential element of her strategy to portray the strength of his will to disavow family ties, which was ultimately overcome by his even stronger love for his mother.