English2
Literary Theory Summative Assignment Grade 12 College English
By: Rabaya Malik
Ms. Cece
1. How my chosen scene applies to Marxist theory and Archetypal theory
My chosen scene from the film Disney’s Robin Hood is when Sheriff of Nottingham comes to collect taxes from the church. The reason why this scene applies to Marxism is because it demonstrates how people can be categorized by classes, aware of their class, be taken advantage of and finally how people use sign value to impress others. One reason why I think this scene applies to Marxism is because the main conflict of this scene centers around the unfair taxation by the upper class led by the Sheriff and the ensuing poverty of the peasant class. The peasant class is forced to finance the Sheriff’s quest for power through burdensome taxes. They feel unable to protest this injustice because they are powerless and fragmented. Then Robin appears, a former member of the upper class, and encourages them to fight back against the ruling class who has taken everything from them. In order to do this they must unite. As Marx said capitalism divided people into the bourgeoisie, as being upper class, owning lands and factories, etc., and proletariats, as being lower class who potentially work for the bourgeoisie. “Hmm… well, what have we got here?, Now just a minute Sheriff! That’s the poor box!, It sure is, I’ll just take it for poor Prince John. Every little bit helps.” This quote demonstrates how greedy the bourgeoisie are and how little the proletariat will now have. When the sheriff collects the taxes from everyone and gives it all to Prince John, he is seen as a bourgeoisie who is known to have the highest status in the society and everyone who had to pay taxes can be seen as proletariats who fulfilled the Sheriffs orders and now are lower class, having little to no power. The second reason why this scene applies to Marxism is because this is very similar to Marx’s idea of the development of class consciousness
By: Rabaya Malik
Ms. Cece
1. How my chosen scene applies to Marxist theory and Archetypal theory
My chosen scene from the film Disney’s Robin Hood is when Sheriff of Nottingham comes to collect taxes from the church. The reason why this scene applies to Marxism is because it demonstrates how people can be categorized by classes, aware of their class, be taken advantage of and finally how people use sign value to impress others. One reason why I think this scene applies to Marxism is because the main conflict of this scene centers around the unfair taxation by the upper class led by the Sheriff and the ensuing poverty of the peasant class. The peasant class is forced to finance the Sheriff’s quest for power through burdensome taxes. They feel unable to protest this injustice because they are powerless and fragmented. Then Robin appears, a former member of the upper class, and encourages them to fight back against the ruling class who has taken everything from them. In order to do this they must unite. As Marx said capitalism divided people into the bourgeoisie, as being upper class, owning lands and factories, etc., and proletariats, as being lower class who potentially work for the bourgeoisie. “Hmm… well, what have we got here?, Now just a minute Sheriff! That’s the poor box!, It sure is, I’ll just take it for poor Prince John. Every little bit helps.” This quote demonstrates how greedy the bourgeoisie are and how little the proletariat will now have. When the sheriff collects the taxes from everyone and gives it all to Prince John, he is seen as a bourgeoisie who is known to have the highest status in the society and everyone who had to pay taxes can be seen as proletariats who fulfilled the Sheriffs orders and now are lower class, having little to no power. The second reason why this scene applies to Marxism is because this is very similar to Marx’s idea of the development of class consciousness