Marxist perspective has the ability to alter the ordinary reading and understanding of a piece of literature into something much more complex and profound. Such is the case with Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s well-known sonnet “Work Without Hope”, when looked at with a Marxist perspective. This renowned poem can be seen to explore the ideologies of base, superstructure, class system, hegemony, and totality simply by taking on an unordinary perspective. It is with the help of Raymond Williams and his work from “Base and Superstructure in Marxist Cultural Theory” that these ideologies are pulled from the poem through the eyes of a Marxist. It is in the first line of the poem, “All nature seems at work.”(Colridge), that a Marxist ideology is presented.
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This is first obvious through the mood of the poem in general. The mood is reflected as melancholy and despairing through the imagery of contradictions made by Coleridge throughout the poem, one example being that nature is busily working while the narrator is doing nothing, seen here, And I, the while, the sole unbusy thing, Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing.”(Coleridge), and the expression of hopelessness in the last two lines. This gives the impression that Coleridge sees a despairing and hopeless future from the constraints of the exploitation of the proletariat and their apparent inability to change their own situation. The fact that the working class feels this apparent hopelessness and undeniable drawing to labour can come from Williams’s ideologies of hegemony. Hegemony causes the proletariat to not riot against the bourgeoisie and change their “hopeless” situation because of the ideologies that tell them to continue doing as they do as that is just the way it is. The ideologies and constraints on the proletariat tell this group not to fight back against hegemony and being controlled and exploited by the upper class. With this in mind it can be taken through a Marxist perspective that the poem expresses Coleridge’s hopeless feeling towards the separation of the …show more content…
This is evident specifically in lines, “Bloom, O ye amaranths! bloom for whom ye may, For me ye bloom not! Glide, rich streams, away!”(Coleridge). This expression of unsuccessfulness and victimization relates to the speakers feelings of entrapment in the proletariat class and his never ending cycle of work and lack of fruitfulness in life. Additionally the last two lines of the poem, “Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve, And Hope without an object cannot live.”(Coleridge), somewhat contradict the lines previously stated above as these lines express that hope is the only way the proletariat will continue to work in hope of gaining success and prosperity. These last two lines deeply express a Marxist perspective as they give insight as to why the proletariat bourgeois cycle continues as the proletariat continue to work with small hopes helping them continue to be misused. This relates to the ideologies of the base and superstructure. The proletariat constant work is the base, while the much smaller portion of society, the bourgeois, are the enjoyers of the proletariats labour making up the superstructure. Williams looks to alter this perspective slightly in stating the the base and superstructure are both feeding into one another and are held
This is first obvious through the mood of the poem in general. The mood is reflected as melancholy and despairing through the imagery of contradictions made by Coleridge throughout the poem, one example being that nature is busily working while the narrator is doing nothing, seen here, And I, the while, the sole unbusy thing, Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing.”(Coleridge), and the expression of hopelessness in the last two lines. This gives the impression that Coleridge sees a despairing and hopeless future from the constraints of the exploitation of the proletariat and their apparent inability to change their own situation. The fact that the working class feels this apparent hopelessness and undeniable drawing to labour can come from Williams’s ideologies of hegemony. Hegemony causes the proletariat to not riot against the bourgeoisie and change their “hopeless” situation because of the ideologies that tell them to continue doing as they do as that is just the way it is. The ideologies and constraints on the proletariat tell this group not to fight back against hegemony and being controlled and exploited by the upper class. With this in mind it can be taken through a Marxist perspective that the poem expresses Coleridge’s hopeless feeling towards the separation of the …show more content…
This is evident specifically in lines, “Bloom, O ye amaranths! bloom for whom ye may, For me ye bloom not! Glide, rich streams, away!”(Coleridge). This expression of unsuccessfulness and victimization relates to the speakers feelings of entrapment in the proletariat class and his never ending cycle of work and lack of fruitfulness in life. Additionally the last two lines of the poem, “Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve, And Hope without an object cannot live.”(Coleridge), somewhat contradict the lines previously stated above as these lines express that hope is the only way the proletariat will continue to work in hope of gaining success and prosperity. These last two lines deeply express a Marxist perspective as they give insight as to why the proletariat bourgeois cycle continues as the proletariat continue to work with small hopes helping them continue to be misused. This relates to the ideologies of the base and superstructure. The proletariat constant work is the base, while the much smaller portion of society, the bourgeois, are the enjoyers of the proletariats labour making up the superstructure. Williams looks to alter this perspective slightly in stating the the base and superstructure are both feeding into one another and are held