Marxism In Hamlet

This sample essay on Marxism In Hamlet offers an extensive list of facts and arguments related to it. The essay’s introduction, body paragraphs, and the conclusion are provided below.

Marxist Theory In Hamlet

Marxism in Hamlet

When looking at the play Hamlet with a Marxist critical lens, a number of issues hit the observer’s eye. There is a definite boundary between the high class/nobles and the low class/peasants. Like what happens in such kinds of societies, the high class is treated in a better way than the low class.

The royalty members’ mistakes are forgiven or their mistakes covered up. For example, nobody condemns the act of Claudius murdering the existing king in order to sit on the throne. The low class has very few roles in the play to implicate that the play could still be complete even without it. Act 5, scene 1 can also be criticized using the Marxist lens. In this scene, the gravediggers act as the agents to develop Marxism in the play.

Act 5, scene 1 starts with the entrance of the two Clowns in a churchyard. These two have come to dig a grave for Ophelia’s body. These two seem not to be in agreement of whether she should be given a Christian burial ceremony or not. This is because Ophelia died after drowning herself in the water (committing suicide), “…she drowned herself wittifully”, (lines 239 and 240). The first Clown feels that she should not be given a Christian burial but the other one feels that since the crowner (line 231) declared that she was worth having a Christian burial, then she should be given one.

Get quality help now

Sweet V

Verified

Proficient in: Plays

4.9 (984)

“ Ok, let me say I’m extremely satisfy with the result while it was a last minute thing. I really enjoy the effort put in. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

According to the Christian customs, a person who has committed suicide should not be given a Christian burial. This is because she has committed a sin, which cannot be cleansed (RevSocialist, 2010).

The Clowns call Ophelia a “gentlewoman” (line 251), to refer to one of royal family. They also know that if she were not of the royal family, she would not have been given a Christian burial. The gravediggers want to portray that rules and customs can be bend a little to suit the high class. The clowns go ahead and ask themselves who builds stronger than the carpenter, the shipwright or the mason (lines 265 and 266). They answer that it is the gallows-maker (line 267). The gallows symbolize death. The clowns portray that death is above all. Whether one is of high or low class, death will still catch up with everyone and equalize him or her (Rummel, 2011).

When Hamlet and Haratio make an entrance, the second clown makes an exit in order to fetch some stoup liquor for the first clown. The first clown starts singing as he continues to dig. Hamlet inquires why the man is singing as he is digging a grave. In Hamlet’s view, digging a grave should be a sad activity. The place itself (graveyard) was not the right place to do such kind of singing. This shows that the gravedigger was disgusted by the fact that someone was being given a Christian burial just because she was of high class. To him, this activity was like any other he had done many times before and there were no feelings attached to it (Revsocialist, 2010).

As the gravedigger dug, he pulled out some skulls. This symbolized the presence of other people that had been buried at the same point. No one knew whether the skulls belonged to people who were from the low or high classes. The way the digger threw the skulls symbolized that everyone remained equal when they were dead. It did not matter the class or the place they came from once they turned into bones. The grave equalized everybody. On the other hand, Hamlet does not see the grave as an equalizing place. In his view, he still classifies the skulls according to what they were before they were dead. For example, he sees the first skull like it belonged to a singer, “That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once” (line 302). He also sees the second skull as one that belonged to a lawyer, “…why may not that be the skull of a lawyer?” (lines 324 and 325).

Hamlet does not associate these skulls with the poor. He associates the skull with the rich and the people who had careers that mattered. Prejudice still affects him even when dealing with death issues (Wolff and Karl, 2003). It as if the people of the lower class are thrown away while those of the higher class are buried. He asks Haratio while the gravedigger is throwing the skulls in such a manner. He sees as if the wealthy should be treated well at the time of their death and in the grave when they are bones. The digger further explains that one is of no gender or status when he/she is dead. This is seen when Hamlet asks whose grave is being dug. The clown answers by saying that it is for neither a woman nor a man, but for “one that was a woman” (line 360). This further shows how the grave equalizes everyone regardless of the status.

The conversation between the gravedigger and Hamlet greatly shows the differences between the social classes. the gravedigger is used by the playwright to point out the unfairness in the social status and the differences that occur between the two social groups. Hamlet is used to act as an advocator of the high class. It is quite odd to see that hamlet does not know about the death of Ophelia. He learns about this through the conversation they are having with the gravedigger. It shows how the high classes use the low class only when very necessary (Rummel, 2011).

As the priest states out his emotions, Ophelia should not have been buried in the way she was buried. She should have been thrown flints, shards and pebbles instead of wearing the “virgin crants and her maiden strewnets” (Lines 451- 453). However, since she came from a high-class family, she was given the exception of wearing these garments as though a virgin and a saint.

The jumping of the two in the grave was like a forecast of what would happen later. It showed that even for the high class, some things were inevitable. The way they behaved was unlike how the noble behaved. The graveyard brought some things that were hidden during the play. The true characters were brought as Lartes and Hamlet vowed to get back at each other even after the ceremony.

Works Cited

RevSocialist. A Marxist critique of Hamlet. Socialist Stories, 2 Feb., 2010. Web. 23 May, 2011.

Rummel, R.J. UNDERSTANDING CONFLICT AND WAR: VOL. 2: THE CONFLICT HELIX

Chapter 25 And The Class Literature, 2011. Web. 23, May, 2011

Shakespeare, Williams. Hamlet: A Tragedy. New York, NY: Harvard University Library, 2006. Print

Wolff, Jonathan and Karl Marx. Stanford Encyclopedia of philosophy. 14 June, 2003. Web. 19 May 2011.