A Comparison of Compassion and Identity between King Lear and Coriolanus Shakespeare's Lear and Coriolanus have much in common. Both are initially seen as proud and stubborn rulers, unwilling to compromise. This causes Lear to lose his kingdom to his scheming daughters, while Coriolanus is betrayed and exiled from Rome due to the influence of the tribunes. Cast out to face a world without friends, Lear learns to sympathize with his fellow man, who every day endures trials like the ones he now faces. Coriolanus, in contrast, immediately goes to Aufidius after being banished and prepares to return, this time to conquer his home state. His identity as a soldier remains constant, untroubled by internal reflection, and allows no room for empathy for others. We first see Lear as an autocratic dictator when he divides his kingdom and banishes Cordelia. He rules with an iron fist, refusing to take advice from anyone. His main flaw is the tendency to believe he must always be right. This self-imposed perfection leads to a separation between him and his imperfect human subjects. He simply can't relate to their way of looking at life, can't see himself in any way connected to humanity as a whole. His concern does not go beyond what immediately affects him and he cannot embrace the interests of his subjects, as he should. An example of Lear's inability to understand anyone's perspective but his own occurs when Kent attempts to persuade him to abandon his madness. Lear cannot accept what he sees as Kent's criticism and banishes his advisor. He states: You tried to make us break our vows, which we never dared yet, and with strained pride, to come between our sentence and our power, which neither our nature nor... half of the paper... . "King Lear's 'Immoral' Daughters and the Politics of Kingship." Shakespearean Criticism, vol. 61. Ed. Michelle Lee. The Gale Group: Farmington Hills, 1999. Brooke, Stopford, A. On ten plays of Shakespeare. London: Constable and Company Ltd., 1948. Campbell, Oscar James. "Shakespeare's Satire: Coriolanus. Twentieth-Century Interpretations of Coriolanus. Ed. James E. Phillips. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1970. 25-37. Dennis, John. "Selected Criticisms." Reader's Encyclopedia of Shakespeare. Ed . Oscar James Campbell New York: Thomas Crowell Company, 1966. 148-149. Farnham, Willard "Shakespeare's Tragic Frontier: Coriolanus. Twentieth-century interpretations of Coriolanus. Ed. James E. Phillips. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1970. 55-61.Shakespeare, William. King Lear. Ed. RA Foakes. Surrey: Thomson International Publishing Company, 1997.