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marx theory essay
functions of criticism in english literature
marx theory essay
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Catherine Llewellyn December 19, 2014 Western Civilization II HU2211, C: Moore Week 8 - Assignment: Final Paper Voltaire, Marx, and Dostoevsky all use writing as a means of social critique. What are they critiquing, and how do their methods differ? What kind of reaction do they want from their readers, and how (what kind of language do they use, what kind of appeals do they make) do they attempt to elicit this reaction? Voltaire, Marx, and Dostoevsky all use writing as a means of social critique. The term social criticism often refers to a mode of criticism that locates the reasons for malicious conditions in a society considered to be in a flawed social structure. Voltaire, Marx, and Dostoevsky all saw some sort of flaw within their social structures. …show more content…
In Notes from Underground the narrator is anonymous, but he is known as the Underground Man, who describes his life, both past and present, his feelings, and thoughts. The reader can observe him struggling with many issues both internally and externally. Ultimately the reader can understand that the Underground Man is struggling with an identity crisis. “I am a sick man.... I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man.” He has basically gone crazy simply due to his inabilities to cope and work with the people and the world around him. In his opinion, he believes that hypocrisy, bureaucracy, as well as wealth and power will always take over and be the ones in power. Overall, Dostoevsky is critiquing the society that the Underground Man lives in, and all the changes that Russia was going through during this time. We see the Underground Man try to save, and change, a young lady named Liza, who is a prostitute. His goal here was to save her and take her out of the evils of society, but because he has never been loved or had the feeling of affection, he ultimately falls in love with her but knows they cannot be
Dobie, Ann B. "Chapter 5: Marxist Criticism." Theory into Practice: An Introduction to Literary Criticism. Florence, KY: Heinle, 2011. N. pag. Print.
As the story unfolds, Dostoevsky introduces the reader to Raskolnikov, a troubled young man who is extremely isolated from those who surround him. He lives in a small, dingy, dusty, and dirty room in a small unattractive house. He lives in an abstract world neglecting the real. He is quite separate from all the people with whom he has contact. In the opening chapter, Raskolnikov is said to be, "so completely absorbed in himself, and isolated from his fellows that he dreaded meeting, not only his landlady, but any one at all" (1). People come physically close to him, but everyone is forced to remain distant mentally. He walks through the crowded, noisy, dirty streets of St. Petersburg physically but somehow he never does so mentally, moving through the streets like a zombie, not a man. He is not aware of his location and often jostles bewildered pedestrians. Therefore, at the outset of the novel Dostoevsky illustrates the apparent schism between the mind and body of Raskolnikov.
In Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes from the Underground and Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, discuss the modification of the natural world and human nature. The books come from different perspectives but discuss these same ideas. Notes from the Underground comes from the perspective of a man who is somewhat in hiding in a small corner of a room with a servant in an attempt to escape the outside world of Petersburg, Russia. While Oryx and Crake comes from a boy who is also living on the outskirts of society but travels in an effort to escape the tragedy at home.
Social criticism analyzes flaws in a social structure. It then exaggerates the structures and places them in a new society to attract attention to the problems. In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury exaggerates the overuse of technology, a flaw of American society, in his novel’s society. In this society, the inhabitants spend the majority of their day in front of screens. Bradbury criticizes the use of technology in America which has gotten even worse in the fifty years since the book was published. He suggests that instead of sitting in front of screens, people socialize, read, or learn. Overall, Ray Bradbury is saying that if people continue relying on technology, they will become distant and unsocial, resembling the world in Fahrenheit
The Influence of Voltaire’s Philosophical Works on the French Revolution. The philosophical works of Voltaire, such as Candide, influenced the beginning of the French Revolution, promoting new ideas and concepts. Voltaire used both wit and sarcasm to prove his points against injustice and cruelty. Voltaire was exiled to England for many years, and while there, he became influenced by the English government systems, associated himself with Sir Isaac Newton, John Locke, and Sir Francis Bacon.
The Underground Man is spiteful. He tells us this and we really ought to believe him. The Underground Man is not only bothered by the class system of Russia but he is also plagued by everyone that he happens to glance at. Namely, I think that he is tormented by the fact that he is not free. He will never be free. He is a prisoner of himself.
For centuries, many stories have been told about the war and sexual relationships with non-humans, such as the Trojan War, Hercules, and some mythological creatures such as the centaur. Before the twentieth century, all wars that happened were primitive which did not have any modern weapons such as the air force or tanks. Moreover, Voltaire, the fearless writer from French (Voltaire 98), although he lived at the end of the seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth, wrote some incredible stories in an era where liberal people have one place to reside solely in the jail. Besides, Voltaire was the lead writer of the French Revolution and has become a symbol of all revolutionaries. To write
A traditional method assumes that the criticism involves both explication of what actually went on when the speaker engaged his or her audience, and an evaluation of how well the speaker performed the task of changing the audiences’ perspective of reality. It is also assumed that the traditional method will create a feeling of identification and sense of relatedness between the speaker or writer and the
Dostoevsky’s St. Petersburg is a large, uncaring city which fosters a western style of individualism. As Peter Lowe notes, “The city is crowded, but there is no communality in its crowds, no sense of being part of some greater ‘whole.’” Mrs. Raskolnikov initially notices a change in her son marked by his current state of desperate depression, but she fails to realize the full extent of these changes, even after he is convicted for the murder. The conditions and influences are also noticed by Raskolnikov’s mother who comments on the heat and the enclosed environment which is present throughout the city. When visiting Raskolnikov, she exclaims "I'm sure...
Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Notes from Underground: A New Translation, Backgrounds and Sources, Responses, Criticism. Norton Critical Edition. New York: Norton, 1989.
The tone of “Notes from Underground” is sharp, strange and bitter. The bitterness of the book is traced to the multiple personal misfortunes the author suffered as he wrote his novel. Through these personal tragedies it can be argued that the author presented the position of the “underground man” through his own experiences. Additionally, the research holds the second belief that the novel’s presentation of “underground man” is founded on the social context the novel addresses (Fanger 3). Through this, it was found that Dostoevsky presented the suffering of man under the emerging world view directed by European materialism, liberalism and utopianism. As he began writing his novel, Dostoevsky had been directed by the romantic error that looked at utopian social life and the social vision of satisfying and perfecting regular life for man. The failure for the society to gain these achievements was as a result of the distant liberalism and materialism that reduced the power of reasoning and...
Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Notes from Underground: A New Translation, Backgrounds and Sources, Responses, Criticism. Norton Critical Edition. New York: Norton, 1989.
The reader is forced to ask why Dostoyevsky would bother writing about this troubling man and his problems. The answer is that Dostoyevsky does not believe in the norms society sets for people. This man is the absolute opposite of everything society holds to be acceptable. Here is a man, with intelligent insight, lucid perception, who is a self-admitted to be sick, depraved, and hateful. A man who at every turn is determined to thwart every chance fate offers him to be happy and content. A man who actively seeks to punish and humiliate himself. Dostoyevsky is showing the reader that man is not governed by values which society holds to be all important. The point of Notes from Underground more than anything else is that humans actions cannot be calculated.
Dostoyevsky's characters are very similar, as is his stories. He puts a strong stress on the estrangement and isolation his characters feel. His characters are both brilliant and "sick" as mentioned in each novel, poisoned by their intelligence. In Notes from the Underground, the character, who is never given a name, writes his journal from solitude. He is spoiled by his intelligence, giving him a fierce conceit with which he lashes out at the world and justifies the malicious things he does. At the same time, though, he speaks of the doubt he feels at the value of human thought and purpose and later, of human life. He believes that intelligence, to be constantly questioning and "faithless(ly) drifting" between ideas, is a curse. To be damned to see everything, clearly as a window (and that includes things that aren't meant to be seen, such as the corruption in the world) or constantly seeking the meaning of things elusive. Dostoyevsky thought that humans are evil, destructive and irrational.
The arena for this ideological contest is Petersburg, full of slums, revolutionary students and petty titular councilors. Scientifically and artificially constructed in the midst of marshland, the city itself is a symbol of the incompatibility of logical planning with humankind's natural sensibilities. The city did not grow randomly or organically, but entirely by czarist decree. Nonetheless, it is a dank and depressing place to live, at least for those in the vicinity of Haymarket Square, where the story takes place. Joseph Frank, Dostoevsky's biographer, says of ...