Friday, May 3, 2019
RESEARCH PAPER Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words
Research Paper ExampleHence, it would be apt to apply a Marxist critical approach to any of the works of Shakespeare, and more so to critical point. The more traditional approaches towards literary criticism do coax and cajole the text to yield the internal meanings inherent in it. However, a Marxist approach towards the understanding of Hamlet, rather than delving on bringing prohibited the hidden meanings, will rather try to approach the text as a material creation that needs to be understood in a historical context. To be able to interpret Hamlet in a Marxist context, the readers need to approach the theory wearing a Marxist lens of the eye that places a more than regular stress on as to how the fictional characters affiliated to wide-ranging classes tend to move with each other, particularly in the backdrop of the class oppression and the involving socio-economic inequity, and especially considering those words and dialogues emanating from any character that propose or are indicative of the rebellion against the swiftness classes. This is because form a Marxist perspective, the master(prenominal) element of interest will tend to be a determining base and then the immovable superstructure imminent on it. In that context in the play Hamlet, the mannerisms inherent in the interactions between varied social classes, and the way the society is structured in the play indeed happens to be a fond driving force in the play (Joughin 57). In Hamlet one could indeed trace a strict representation of the avowed Marxist social classes that are the Aristocracy, represented by the royal family and the volume of the court, which constitute the ruling class and make the pivotal socio-economic decisions in the play, the Bourgeoisie that are the characters that stand unspoiled below the aristocracy and earn a living by trading in the resources required by the other classes, and then the lowest class that are the Proletariat or the working class or the serfs that ek e out a living by selling their labor and skills. There is no denying the fact that without frequently elaborating on the characters akin to each of the respective social class, it is amply evident in Hamlet that every character in it could be placed in one of the three Marxian social classes. The very prototypical scene in Act I in Hamlet is replete with the indications of class struggle and thereby constitutes an ideal subject for a Marxian dissection. The scene begins by showing one of the guards on the palace walls relieving his dude of the night vocation. Now, in the times of Shakespeare, night watch was a work that was never assigned to the members of the upper class, and hence it could be concluded that the two guards, though being officers, hailed from the lower social strata. Irrespective of their coarse greeting of Long Live the King which seems to evince their loyalty for the aristocracy, this loyalty seems to smack of falsehood and desperation as no good member of the lower class made to perform the watch duty on a cold night will prefer to be so supportive of the upper classes who made one undergo such an ordeal. Hence, the truth that leaps forward is that perhaps Shakespeare happened to be an opportunist who alone could not help supporting and sustaining the socio-economic status quo of which he was a part of, that is, the monarchy,
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