Marxist Reading Of Hamlet Essay

Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, Adolf Hitler, and Vladimir Lenin were leaders of communist and fascist countries throughout history that have shaped their infamy through the power structure of government. Despite the various country’s they ruled, their motivation toward one thing created decades of injustice; the pursuit of capital. Wealth. Fortune. Greed and the prosperity for one’s self. It is what every human desires. Many critics have read Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet, and can see the various Marxist ideologies when analyzing the play through the perspective of the antagonist, King Claudius. When studying Claudius through a Marxist lens, it becomes clear that his treatment of the working class, his illegitimate legal system, and

Claudius performs similar tactics by exploiting working class people, the proletariat, to get a job done without any repercussions. In a dialogue between hamlet and Claudius in scene 4.3, Hamlet points out to Claudius how a king is able to “progress through the guts of a beggar" (line 31). The despotic rule of Claudius helps him ensure his power over the people. His iron fist mentality gives him the opportunity to manipulate and control the public to expand his wealth and power. Claudius is able to sit on his throne while he watches the bourgeoisie do all the work for him. Karl Marx himself stated that capital and wealth is “vampire like, [and] lives only by sucking living labor.” Marx is saying that the pursuit of capital and wealth only be achieved by using human labor, living labor. The common folk of are being used and sucked dry all for the sake and well-being of Claudius. His rule as king feeds off the people beneath him, like a vampire. The Marxist lens helps the reader see that the tyrannical rule and power that Claudius has, gives him the ability to pursue extensive amounts of wealth at the public’s