Here is a little slideshow (you can view it at your own pace) about Marxism in Hamlet. This slideshow gives a background on Karl Marx, how Marxism is applied to movies (this helps because you get an idea of how marxist ideas can be applied to Hamlet), and lastly how Marxism functions in the play, Hamlet. https://prezi.com/horsqseodug6/marxism-in-hamlet/
Marxism is a very effective method in analyzing literary works across many different time periods. However there are a few constraints this particular theory because of the way they look at society. Marxism doesn’t recognize that there are separate subdivisions within social classes, like gender and ethnicity. Instead, Marxism focuses heavily on the outer class structure itself. This creates a narrow mindset for people that follow this theory, it makes them blind to other divisions amongst classes and populations. Other divisions amongst classes, like gender, race, sexuality…etc., are completely ignored in Marxist theory, even though when analyzing literary works they can play a more important role then social classes. Marxist theory is also constrained by a focus on media being the only thing that “blinds” people to larger problems in society. It neglects to look at political or religious leaders as a source of influence over the population. Even though Marxist theory is an effective way at analyzing works throughout time, it hold a narrowed sight with regards to the information that it uses to judge literary works and the society that they were constructed in.
Marxism helps to tell a story of human history, it combines a deep understanding of social ideas in literature while also including a sense of its political ramification. Marxist criticism introduces the idea that different works of literature are just products of history that are all analyzed by the conditions, both social and material, that the works were constructed in. An element of Marxism is that it looks at literary works as reflections of the social institutions that influenced them at the time that they were developed. Another element of Marxist theory is that it is based around socialist ideas and dialect.
There are two key elements to Marxist literary criticism. The first is it's attempt to locate literature in its social, economic, and historical context from where is originated. This theory aims to understand how ideas introduced in a work of literature related to values that circulated at the time the work originated. This makes Marxist criticism particularly interesting because it makes a connection between literature and class. The second element in Marxist criticism is that it is a critique of ideology. Ideology is "the ruling ideas of the ruling class." It is used as a way of legitimizing/justifying social and economic arrangements in society that may seem unfair to a certain class because of the fact that they are characterized by inequality. According to the theory of Marxism, ideology has a few natural divisions within it. The final element of Marxism is that it relies upon the presence of social classes in society and the continuous political and economic development of society. Overall these separate elements are put together to create a theory that criticizes different literary works based off of the social and economic standing of the surrounding society at the time of the development of the works. References Literary Theory: A Practical Introduction by: Michael Ryan en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxist_literary_criticism Marxism has been grouped with social movements such as sexism and racism. Sexism is defined as prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination on the basis of sex or gender. Racism is the belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human racial groups determine cultural or individual achievement,usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to dominate others or that a particular racial group is inferior to the others. All these ideas are similar in that they have an uncompromising hostility to all forms of domination in common.
However, Marxism stands out from other progressive movements due to the fact that Marxists struggle always to overcome the manifold forms of domination and exploitation in and through the self-emancipation of the working class. This makes Marxism fit into the category of Revolutionary Socialism, which refers to socialist tendencies that follow the idea that social revolution is necessary in order to effect structural changes to society. An opposing idea to Marxism is Anarchism, a political philosophy that advocates stateless societies. Marxism has its origins in the struggle for this perspective, unlike anarchism, which seeks to undermine all forms of authority. Anarchism also seeks the destruction of the capitalist state without promoting and preparing the working class for the seizure and holding of public political power. The two ideas have come together in the past as working class movements, however, the groups often clash when it comes to issues of state and class. For Anarchists, classes exist because of the state. However, for Marxists, the state arose as a result of class conflict to assure the victory of a powerful minority class against the majority. Definitions from Dictionary.com http://workerscompass.org/anarchism-marxism-their-similarities-differences/#sthash.feej0xw4.dpuf How does this theory explain or otherwise apply to Hamlet?In Marxism, getting and keeping economic power is the motive behind all social and political activities. There are a few substantial examples of Marxism throughout Hamlet, one of them being the continuous tension between the dialogues of Hamlet and Claudius. Hamlet’s rhetoric conveys notions of the more lowly classes, as his dialogue shows him being rather respectful to those lesser than him and identifying the significance of things other than money and power in one's life. For example, Act 3, scene 2, line 61 shows Hamlet telling Horatio, “that no revenue hast but thy good spirits." This shows that Hamlet recognizes the worth of Horatio’s life because of his charm and happiness, rather than needing money to be happy and move forward. In addition to this, Hamlet also mocks those whose true motives of getting economic power (Claudius) rule their lives. An example of this is in Act 3, scene 2, lines 99-101 Hamlet is seen responding to Claudius in a sarcastic manner, saying, “Excellent, i' faith, of the chameleon’s dish. I eat the air, promise-crammed. You cannot feed capons so." Hamlet speaks to Claudius in a nonsensical, almost vulgar way, one which boldly clashes with Claudius’s more poised and elite language, saying “I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet. These words are not mine.” This is a reserved response to a vulgar claim. Overall, the king speaks in a more authoritarian, direct and “royal” manner, compared to Hamlet’s playful and sarcastic banter. This clash between the two verbal styles creates a socially charged energy throughout Hamlet, as the literary styles throughout the play and seen in the royal court seem to be constantly changing between the respectful and disrespectful. This clash between the vulgar and elite is still evident in the streets and in some cases even in courts today. Hamlet denounces Marxism, whereas Claudius reinforces it.
Another significant Marxist element in Hamlet is the character of Claudius himself. Claudius's killing of the king shows the struggles of the lower classes to move themselves up in the social hierarchy. Claudius will do absolutely anything to keep his new found power, and his murder of Hamlet's father proves to show to what lengths he will go to for wealth. Power itself seems to have a strong grip over Claudius, as he is willing to send his wife's son to England rather than have himself be dethroned for his previous actions. Lastly, one of the most prominent Marxist elements in Hamlet is the parallel between Claudius and Hamlet's relationship and class struggles. It seems that as the tension builds between Claudius and Hamlet, the status of Fortinbras's nation seems to become less stratified as well. In the beginning of the play, the issues of Fortinbras’s nephew are briefly mentioned, while the conflict between Claudius and Hamlet begins to brew. Just as Hamlet is sent away from his home, a climactic scene in the play and a significant moment between Hamlet and Claudius, he runs into Fortinbras, who is fighting for land for his nation. Just as Hamlet has struggled against his now superior step-father, a nation is struggling against others. In this section of the play, Hamlet makes an extremely Marxist remark after having witnessed the struggles of Fortinbras and his people. Hamlet claims, “This is th' impostume of much wealth and peace, That inward breaks and shows no cause without Why the man dies” (Act 4 scene 4 lines 28-30). Hamlet directly denounces how wealth can destroy a nation, just as Marxists say capitalism can destroy a nation because it takes the focus away from the real issues of society. "Derrida's Hamlet", an article by Christopher Prendergast, discusses Jacques Derrida's Specters of Marx, and how his ideas apply to Shakespeare's writing in Hamlet. Derrida is a major and controversial figure associated with post-structuralism and postmodern philosophy who often addressed ethical and political themes in his work. This article is focused on his book entitled Specters of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning & the New International. In the article, Prendergast focuses in on the ghost of Hamlet- the move from the metaphysical to the historical to the ethico-political, as well as discussing the ever present question of Action and Justice, and their relation in the play and Derrida's Specters of Marx.
Marxism was embraced by many countries around the world, one of them being Russia. The largest Marxist party that existed at this time was the Russian Social Democratic Party which was formed in 1898.
The socialist revolution was most likely in countries with an advanced state of capitalism. Russia was mostly agrarian and industrialization was one of the recent developments at this time. At this time, there was about three million Russian industrial workers, or about 2% of the population. Marx wrote in 1877 about his expressed doubts about Russia's potential for socialism. He states that Russia must first abolish peasant communes and move towards a more democratic phase. The Russian Revolution is often classified, by those who led it, as the imminent rise of Russia's long-exploited working classes, and like many revolutions it was a strongly rooted against economic oppression. As there was much workers unrest in Russia, they largely accepted Marxist ideas. However, Russian Marxism had many ideological and logistic challenges. At one point Marx wrote of Socialist revolution being most likely in countries in an advanced state of capitalism, as mentioned earlier, with a large industrial sector as well as a sizeable mass of industrial workers, and Russia met none of these standards. Later, Lenin, the Russian communist revolutionary, politician, and political theorist, adapted Marxist theories to include his own, and the result was known as Leninist-Marxism. Leninist-Marxism combined Lenin's concept of imperialism as the final stage of capitalism and shifts the focus of struggle from developed to underdeveloped countries to Marxism's original ideas. Lenin claimed that social revolution was possible in Russia as long as the capitalist-democratic phase was bypassed. This became Lenin's ideological justification for the overthrow of the bourgeois Provisional Government. This adapted form of Marxism became critical to the development of the Russian Revolution in the last few months of 1917. http://alphahistory.com/russianrevolution/marxism/#sthash.xEUuqnYk.dpuf http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Marxist-Leninist Marxism is the movement which fights for self-emancipation of the working class which was founded by Karl Marx and Frederich Engels. Karl Marx was a German philosopher and a revolutionary socialist. Marx's work in economics actually laid out the fundamental basis for the current understanding of labor and economics. Frederich Engels was a German social scientist and political theorist; he also authored and co-authored with Karl Marx.
Marxism arose in the mid 19th century. At this time, the advocates of socialism were fascinated individuals who promoted a vision of the future and how society would be. Karl Marx did not claim himself to be the creator of some "new kind of knowledge". Marx defines a philosopher to be an "alienated human being" who deals with "idea entities" as if they had some "existence seperate from the material life of human beings". During the first decades, Marxism was just a few people coming into the workers' movement and promoting revolutionary perspectives and criticizing ideologies of ther critical theories during this time. The Marxist movement included a great number of figures, such as Georgi Plekhanov (founder of Russian Marxism), Karl Kautsky (worked with Engels), and many more important figures. All of these figures produced a kind of orthodoxy, which is summarized in Georgi Plekhanov's "Materialist Conception of History" which was published in 1897 http://www.marxists.org/archive/plekhanov/1897/history/part1.htm |