Importance Of Superstructure In Hamlet

Crumbling Under the Superstructure

Superstructure, Religion, Rugged Individualism within William Shakespeare’s Hamlet

The bourgeoisie: comprised of the ruling class, the class that owns everything and everyone. Being the most important in the means of production, the bourgeoisie exploits the working, “wage-earning” class, otherwise referred to as the proletariat. Within this context, in William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet he utilizes this concept surrounding the bourgeoisie through the ideas of the super structure, religion, and rugged individualism to showcase the crumbling society in Denmark which eventually leads to Ophelia and Hamlets deaths as well as the demise of Denmark as a whole.

Within the text Shakespeare spares no chance to poke fun at the superstructure. The superstructure mocks woman because they are not worthy of such a high stature, they can have money and they can even be in a place of exaggerated power but only because man has gotten them to this point. This is shown within the play during one of Hamlets soliloquies when he exclaims, “Frailty, thy name is woman!” (Shakespeare Act I Scene II, 146). In this line he is referring to his mother Gertrude and her lack of will power to mourn the death of his father. But not only

The play would not have nearly had the same effect if he did not reveal his underlying thoughts on society through the idea of the bourgeoisie. With all of this being said, Shakespeare utilizes the strategic combination of the literary Marxist devices of the superstructure, religion, and rugged individualism throughout his piece of work Hamlet to help portray the writers true underlying views of the patriarchy and its hand in aiding in the downfall of Denmark depicted throughout the entirety of the