Coriolanus Snow: How the women he used shaped & elevated him and became his downfall (an analysis).

Hey everyone, two things I made a mistake, around 17:44 and said his sister, I meant his cousin lol my bad😭 And number two, it’s recently come to my attention that I tend to pronounce words like unfortunately like unfortunateckly? And it wasn’t untill this video did I notice that LOL💀 I have multiple accents and different enunciations, I use my American accent when making videos but I still mix words together sometimes: specifically with definitely & unfortunately hihi, I’ll definitely be aware of that! But if it comes out of me naturally, it is what it is😎🫶🏽 Thank you all sm, and I’ll be working a new analysis s

Rachel Zegler said “Lucy gray is a performer who had to fight, and katniss is a fighter who had to perform.” That’s a great way to describe them.

The fact that Tigris basically raised him even tho she was his age and he h still throw her away like she was nothing

Dr Gaul is definitely meant to be seen as a mother figure to snow. Her name is proof. Coriolanus is named after the general in the Shakespeare play about a very successful general with a distain for plebians. His mother in the play, who shapes his evilness, is named Volumnia. VOLUNMIA GAUL IS NAMED AFTER HER. Suzanne absolutely meant her to be his "mother". She was also an OBSTETRICIAN, someone who helps deliver babies and looks after them, before she worked in military strategy. Her whole character is based around motherhood. Also such an amazing point that Gaul could've seen punishing Clemmie as her way of protecting her "mutt", one of her "babies"

I also agree that Snow never loved Lucy. It was obsession. Throughout the book he (in a very possessive way) refers to Lucy Gray as "his". He doesn't even want her to have a life outside of him, and he couldn't care less about the songs she sings UNLESS it is about him. And just like with possessions, once he's done with her...he throws her away. In tbosas book this is all made much more clear. I guess the argument could be made that he loved her to the best of his ability..but even then I still think it was more obsession than anything.

this might be a stretch but that scene in the book talking abt his mothers eyes and how badly he wanted more traits of hers to me seemed almost like a foreshadowing that he was destined to see the world through his fathers eyes therefore taking actions like his father and the ideas bred into him by grandma’am like “when your president… you like your father…” etc almost makes him believe that being like his father and having power is the only way to survive

was it just me or did Snow give off major coloniser vibes? his mentality about the people of the districts in the original movies and books and the prequel is very reminiscent of the way wealthy European profiteers of imperialism felt towards the people they were colonising and stealing from. the relationship between the capitol and the surrounding districts also reflects that coloniser/colonised relationship.

Something I kept wondering while reading the book was whether Lucy even had any feelings for Coriolanus, for all there's quite a lot of focus on if Coriolanus was really in love with her or just the idea of her or even just the idea of love, there's so little discussion as to whether Lucy loved him. Especially as what we know about her personality, backstory and relationships with others is told through Coriolanus' gaze. I always felt like she was just pretending to love him in order to survive the games and then have an easier time of it back in District 12. But it made me wonder if Snow subconsciously picked up on that and that was why he was so harsh towards Katniss too, when she was pretending to be in love with Peeta. Not just because of the charged political situation, but that innate feeling of hurt and betrayal was running underneath too.

Such a good point about Dr Gaul 'mutating' Coriolanus into the cruel person she wants him to be. Amazing analysis!

You did excellent job, one thing many people also noticed is at least physical similarities of Katniss and Peeta and Snow and Lucy as couples. It must have been nightmare to see them on screen even if he knew that at least Katniss pretended to love Peeta in first game. In his twisted mind he thinks Lucy betrayed him, he even said something like "At what point he (Peeta) become aware of your indifference"

Okay snow losing his humanity as he gives the pieces he has left of his mother away!! Such a good point. I’m rereading the series now because of the movie and and the way Suzanne Collins deals with gender in the whole series is so interesting and this is such a great analysis.

I also appreciated that Snow recognized the kindness and selflessness in Sejanus, Ma Plinth, and Tigris but could only replicate those actions after he saw an example. He was after the comfort of his childhood. Being kind in a totalitarian society is NOT comfortable. He sought the well paved road to relatively easy glory as the next dictator. Even though he was well equipped to lead a revolution with Lucy Gray and the heir of a munitions giant at his side and could have had longer lasting glory as a savior for the districts.

I love your analysis. Here's what I think: Grandma'am did a lot. Thanks to her, the remaining Snow has lima beans to survive during the dark days. She placed huge expectations on Snow to restore Snow's family glory; her voice is probably why he favors power over compassions/goodness. Her warning Snow about district children is her imparting wisdom, though to us normal people it sounds classist. Dr. Gual groomed Snow. To say she influenced him is an understatement. Snow is an entitled character but not evil at the beginning of the story. He was an orphan with nothing to his name, and Dr. Gual targeted him. If his family riches are still available, would he still overstep and cheat the game to ensure his candidate wins? Maybe he'll do it for fame, or maybe he won't be so obsessed with winning, we'll never know. If his father is still alive and influential, would Gual throw him in the arena? would Gual target him? No. I think Snow, with the situation he's thrown at, has no choice but to be a monster to survive. He tried to do the right thing (study hard, get a ticket to university, restore his family name) but doing the right thing would not guarantee him success and in his case failure is unacceptable because he has no cushion to rely on (unlike Sejanus who has his family riches). To add to your point about Snow's discovery of Tigris's possible involvement in sex work to help the family survive, Snow instead of having compassion prostitutes tributes like Finnick later on in the series shows his complete transformation to be truly evil.

This book and movie seems like a good lesson on how to spot toxic\socio\narc men. There were several lines that Corio uttered that made me feel cold inside because they were verbatim lines my abusive ex had told me. Na example: yelling out at Lucy "are you trying to kill me? AFTER EVERYTHING I'VE DONE FOR YOU!".... As if acts of kindness are only a medium of exchange and not demonstrations of love.

After watching this, my mind went imediatly to one of the last scenes when Coriolanus asks Tigris How he looks and she says that he looks like like his father, but the way she says it (kudos to Hunter for so much depth in a simple scene) it's like she realized all her effort in raising the both of them was not enough. It's a sad, dissppointed expression with maybe a glimpse of fear too? Also, when Coriolanus Tells her of what happened when he had to do in the arena after he went there to "save" sejanus, we can see (or maybe that's Just me impressed by this video) how she's so desperate to keep a Sense of humanity and kindness in him. By the way, this analysis was SO brilliantly argumented and crafted, I'm glad you took time and a lot of work to post this!

Volumnia Gaul is 100% intended to be a mother figure to Snow based on her name, so this is a really great point on your part. In Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, the eponymous main character’s mother is named Volumnia, and she is the one that pushes for his political career.

As soon as I finished the book I wanted to write a thousand essays analyzing everything about it so I'm glad I'm not the only one with a lot of thoughts 😅

These ladies are foils of eachother. To give an example: Grandmam <-> Tigris Both represent survival (remember Grandmam choose the beans early in the dark days and Tigris saves him by mending his clothes). Coriolanus dislikes Tigris' help because it is an uncomfortable reminder of them having nothing. She makes beautiful clothes, that lose their lustre in the presence of others. Whereas his grandmam still has this reputation of actually growing beauty (the roses which Snow will wear throughout his life).

I think it's a cop out to call him a sociopath or a narcissist. It otherizes him and allows us to ignore the shadow in ourselves. Dr. Gaul is a sadist and probably a psychopath, but anyone of us, sociopath or not, could go down a similar path as Snow.

I think Dr Gaul remembered when Casca and Crassus were supposed to be working together and came up with the Hunger Games. I don't think she was trying to save Clemensia or anything, but she immediately realized that history was going to repeat itself and stopped it. Isolating her protege from yet another woman he might respect -and poisoning Clemensia. love this channel, love your analysis.