Volumnia thinks that now, when the political opportunity has arisen, her son will adapt to circumstances, enter politics, and solicit the votes of the common people. But he initially refuses to do what his mother asks. After all, it was she, as Coriolanus points out, who taught him to call those very people “woolen vassals, things created/To buy and sell with groats” (3.2.9–10)—that is, for pennies.
