Marxism is a theory developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the late 1840s that analyzes the relationship between different social classes and concludes that there will eventually be no social classes. The political theory points out that the government has worked to benefit the elite, called the bourgeoisie, and suppress the lower-middle class, called the proletariat. The bourgeoisie is the class in charge of production, while the proletariat are the people working for them. Marxism claims that this is a position of conflict, which will inevitably lead to the proletariat challenging the bourgeoisie. Throughout literature, the class struggle between proletariat and bourgeoisie is ever present. Readers can use a Marxist literary lens …show more content…
The doctor represents the upper class, while Dick Boulton, along with the Native Americans, represent the lower class. The doctor hires Boulton and the natives to collect logs from the lake shore. Hemingway wrote that Boulton and the other natives “came from the Indian camp to cut up logs for” the doctor (100), making it clear that the doctor is in charge of the operation, while Boulton and the natives are just the working-class people. Marxism defines the bourgeoisie as the people who own the means of production, and those who also own a majority of the society’s money. The doctor owns the means of production in this short story. It is also evident that he has some wealth, since he has “pile[s] of medical journals on the floor... still in their wrappers unopened,” which represents the excess knowledge and wealth of the doctor’s family (103). On the other hand, it is clear that the natives do not have the same access to knowledge as the doctor’s family, since “Billy Tabeshaw... did not understand English...” (102). Billy Tabeshaw is a representation of the proletariat’s subordination to the bourgeoisie, in both wealth and education. Hemingway is able to represent the two contrasting social classes through the doctor, Dick Boulton, and Billy …show more content…
While Dick Boulton was able to confront the doctor about his illegal operation, he was unsuccessful in overthrowing the doctor’s authority, yet Boulton was able to make the doctor feel as if he was losing his grip on power. The doctor goes back to his cottage afterwards; he “sit[s] on his bed... cleaning a shotgun,” and then he “pushe[s] the shells back in against the spring of the magazine,” as he “[sits] with the gun on his knees,” (103). The shotgun can be seen as a metaphor for power and pride, since the doctor meticulously and lovingly takes care of it after his argument with Dick Boulton, which bruised both his pride and his power. Although he had been challenged, he was still able to maintain his power, which he shows by cleaning the shotgun. Hemingway is able to use the character of the doctor as a representation of the bourgeoisie class, and their utmost desire to maintain power and control over the proletariat
Even in the medical field, male doctors were dominate to the hundreds of well educated midwives. “Male physicians are easily identified in town records and even in Martha’s diary, by the title “Doctor.” No local woman can be discovered that way” (Ulrich, 1990, pg.61). Martha was a part of this demoralized group of laborers. Unfortunately for her, “in twentieth-century terms, the ability to prescribe and dispense medicine made Martha a physician, while practical knowledge of gargles, bandages, poultices and clisters, as well as willingness to give extended care, defined her as a nurse” (Ulrich, 1990, pg.58). In her diary she even portrays doctors, not midwives, as inconsequential in a few medical
In order to understand Hay’s article, it is important to have a basic understanding of the fundamentals of Marxism – this will provide the necessary context to identify and understand the Marxist perspective in the article. Marxism is a political philosophy which focuses on social class and conflict as one of its main ideas. This is where one political class (the
Marxism is an economic and social system developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels during the mid-1800s (What is Marxism). A Marxist literary criticism deals with class consciousness and ideology.
One thing I found interesting while reading this chapter was the quote in regards to building a playground at the edge of Toms River Chemical's property. "One of the board members, a physician, had objected—“We don’t know what’s back there,” he had warned—but was outvoted." I found it interesting how no one listened to a physician. Physicians typically hold some type of weight and generally
McMurphy’s dereliction of Nurse Ratched’s rules not only provides entertainment for Bromden and the other patients, but also acts as an impetus for their own rebellion.... ... middle of paper ... ... Works Cited Fassler, Joe. A. "The Endless Depths of Moby-Dick Symbolism."
While McMurphy tries to bring about equality between the patients and head nurse, she holds onto her self-proclaimed right to exact power over her charges because of her money, education, and, ultimately, sanity. The patients represent the working-class by providing Ratched, the manufacturer, with the “products” from which she profits—their deranged minds. The patients can even be viewed as products themselves after shock therapy treatments and lobotomies leave them without personality. The negative effects of the hospital’s organizational structure are numerous. The men feel worthless, abused, and manipulated, much like the proletariat who endured horrendous working conditions and rarely saw the fruits of their labor during the Industrial Revolution in the United Kingdom and United States in the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century (“Industrial Revolution” 630).
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde features a setting based in various locations throughout Victorian London, including a variety of areas in different ends of the economic class spectrum. The primary characters, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, represent these opposite ends: Dr. Jekyll’s home is located in Soho, on a “dingy street” (Ste...
Any visitor to the French Riviera in the mid-1920s, the setting of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night, would describe Dr. Richard Diver as a charming, respected, well-mannered physician. Dick is a noble man who has dedicated his life to the health and protection of his beloved wife without thought to himself. Furthermore, he gives wonderful parties and is a reliable source of help to any friend in need. In fact, "to be included in Dick Diver's world for a while was a remarkable experience" (Fitzgerald, Tender, 27).
In The Communist Manifesto written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the two German philosophers saw history as the struggle between the working class and the Bourgeois, or middle class (textbook 708). The Communist Manifesto was written in 1848, during the peak of the Industrial Revolution, a time when the Bourgeois made huge profits in manufacturing at the expense of the working class. According to Marx and Engels, the fruits of the Industrial Revolution created a new class of the oppressed modern working class, the Proletariat, which had never before existed because it was neither like serfdom or slave hood in that it was dependent on the Bourgeois to hire them for wage labor. This was the class the two philosophers envisioned would set off a revolution that would overthrow capitalism to end the perpetual class struggle and create a fair society known as Communism.
While literary critics do attempt to elaborate or develop ideas articulated by Karl Marx, it is important and necessary to make a distinction between Marx's specific socio-economic and political agenda and the body of literary theory which emerged years later. Marxist literary criticism proceeds from the fundamental philosophical assumption that "consciousness can never be anything else than conscious existence...Life is not determined by consciousness, but consciousness by life" (Marx 568-9). Marxist critics use this challenge to the notion of an innate, prefigured, individual human nature to reexamine the nature of creative or literary authority.
Marxism is a theory of revolution and a rudimentary account of how societies deal with and go through change that is inevitable. Its roots can be traced back
The Marxist theory “is the belief that the struggle between social classes is a major force in history and that there should eventually be a society in which there are no classes” – Karl Marx In the book “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood there are significant examples of the Marxist theory because of the way social classes are represented, how religion is manipulated in the society, and what values the text reinforces in the reader.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’ The Communist Manifesto explores class struggles and their resulting revolutions. They first present their theory of class struggle by explaining that “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles” (Marx 14), meaning that history is a repeated class struggle that only ends with a revolution. Marx and Engels’ message in The Communist Manifesto is that it is inevitable for class struggles to result in revolutions, ultimately these revolutions will result in society’s transition to communism.
Marxism is a philosophy coined by Karl Marx with the help of Friedrich Engles in the early nineteenth century. Marx’s writings inspired many progressive thinkers throughout the European continent and the United States. The Marxist doctrine stated that first a bourgeoisie revolution, which will ignite a capitalist fire. The political philosopher believed that communism could only thrive in a society distressed by “the political and economic circumstances created by a fully developed capitalism” With industry and capitalism growing a working class develops and begins to be exploited. According to Marx, the exploiting class essentially is at fault for their demise, and the exploited class eventually comes to power through the failure of capitalism:
Classic Marxism is a socioeconomic ideology concerning the major division between the working class or the proletariat, and those in power also known as the bourgeoisie. In the short story “The Brave Little Tailor,” the motif of class