This is my academic thinking activity. We have a very interesting subject to study. That is cultural studies, in which I am going to practice cultural studies in William Shakespeare's Hamlet and Andrew Marwell's "To His Coy Mistress".
Two character in Hamlet : Marginalized with a Vengeance
Through the power relationship's lens Hamlet is studied in Cultural studies. How power works in the whole play, so let's see Hamlet with a view to seeing power in its Cultural context.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Hamlet's fellow students from Wittenberg. If we look at how power works then we can say that they are eager to curry favor with power even if it means spying on their erstwhile friend. Both characters are marginalized people.
They are the pawns for Claudius first, for Hamlet second.
So, they are pawns, sponges and monkey food, the message of power keeps coming through. But their more constant motive is to please the king, the power that has brought them here.
In the twentieth century the dead or never living, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were resuscitated by Tom Stoppard. In his famous absurd play " Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead " has given the contemporary audience a player that examines existential questions in the context of a whole world that may have no meaning at all. In Stoppard's version also they are even more obviously two ineffectual pawns, seeking constantly to Know who they are.
So here Stoppard was not repeating that story but through that story he notes that the essence of marginalization is here in this view Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Archetypal human beings.
Example :
In Indian democracy we find that those people who don't get any power are marginalized by powerful people. Indian poor people who don't speak out. Currently one incident is happening in Ahmedabad. There is an opening ceremony of Motera stadium at that time America's president Dronald Trump is coming for this ceremony for 3 to 4 hours. So the slums are living in the nearby area in Motera stadium. So here 45 families are living in this area, and they all get eviction notices. But the power who doesn't accept all the things. The government doesn't think about that slum , what are their problems. What will they do ?
Whether slums are happy with this decision or not. They don't think about it. The voiceless poor people are today's marginalized people.
Ahmedabad Municipal Commissioner Vijay Nehra (click here to know more : https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/ahmedabad/ahmedabad-slum-amc-motera-stadium-6276587/) told The Hindu that the “decision to build a wall to prevent encroachment on the road was taken two months back” and has nothing to do with the visit of U.S. President.
“It is not correct to link the building of the wall to the VIP visit. After my visit to the area, we had decided in consultation with slum dwellers to build a wall to prevent encroachment and secondly to save trees which were getting damaged,” Mr. Nehra said.
"To His Coy Mistress": Implied Culture Versus Historical Fact :
The poem "To His Coy Mistress" written by Andrew Marwell. We know that the speaker is knowledgeable about poems and conversations of classic Greek and Roman literature, about other conventions of love poetry ,such as the country love conversations of medieval Europe and about biblical passages.
Jules Brody Posits " Implied readers " . In this poem we point out how the writer expresses his views in which event. He has thoughts about love , beauty and wealth rather than current issues at that time , what is the reality of the society. He was not talking about reality and the history of the era but he showed implied Culture over reality. For this we don't conclude that he was not a good poet and knowledgeable person, but he was a highly educated person, one who is well read.
In a way the poem tells the reader a good deal about the speaker of the poem , much of which is already clear from earlier comments in this volume, using traditional approaches. In this poem might appear to be the Culture and the era of the speakers,his lady and his implied reader.
In every literary work we find glimpses of the particular era. But in this poem he has not expressed the real Culture of the age but there is implied Culture. But he explained wealth and leisure and sexual activity are his currency , his coin for present bliss worms and marble vaults and ashes are not present, hence not yet real.
But What does he ignore from his Culture? What is the history of the time?
He does not think about poverty. During this era at least one quarter of the European population was below the poverty line.
Don't think of disease as a daily reality that they might face.
In the consideration of Historical reality , a dimension that the poem ignores. The probable time of composition of the poem in the early 1650s. At that time a recurrence of the Black Death, in the Great Plague of London.
Everyday life is absent in this poem. It was for elite people, not about the whole society.
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