Marxist Readings of Hamlet
English Lit: OCR A Level - Hamlet, topic 7.4.2
Marxist Readings of Hamlet
Here are a few Marxist readings of the play.
Terry Eagleton
- One of the leading Marxist critics, Terry Eagleton, argued that Hamlet resists playing the roles that his society expects of him (e.g. “chivalric lover, obedient revenger or future king”) but that he is “unable to find self-definition”.
- Hamlet is therefore trapped between society’s expectations of him and his own inability to redefine himself. This will eventually lead to his destruction.
James Shapiro (2005)
- James Shapiro, in his book, 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare (2005), seems to offer a Marxist reading of Hamlet.
- He considers the tension in the play as resulting from the conflict between different “forces” of history in the context of an old world of “chivalry” fading away and a new society founded on Protestantism and global capitalism beginning to replace it.
Graham Holderness (1989)
- Graham Holderness (1989) sees the play as dramatizing fundamental changes in Elizabethan society.
- The “medieval world” of old Hamlet is fading into the past with Denmark no longer being ruled by the values of a “medieval warrior-king”.
- Claudius, representing a new vision of statesmanship, negotiates peace rather than engaging in battle.
Graham Holderness (1989)
- Holderness said Hamlet is “stranded between the two worlds, unable to emulate the heroic values of his father, unable to engage with the modern world of political diplomacy”.
Test yourself on Marxist Readings of Hamlet
What roles does Hamlet resist playing, according to Terry Eagleton?
What does Eagleton say Hamlet is “unable" to do?