Dickens and Marx the England Essay

In other words, he changes, and for Marx, the capitalist cannot change until forced to do so, specifically by the revolution he and Engels call for in the Communist Manifesto. Marx sees the economic development of history as a matter of class struggle, following the dialectic of Hegel as opposing forces fight and through that revolution produce a synthesis, or a new social order. Dickens sees change as possible more simply by showing people the error of their ways and so getting them to change to a different way of behaving. Marx sees the need for a revolution to force any change into existence.

Again, the England described by Dickens was the England that helped produce Karl Marx and that contributed to his social theory.Both Marx and Dickens see the social ills of the time and ascribe these to the greed and single-minded pursuit of money on the part of the capitalist class, though Marx is more likely to see this issue as a matter of a given social class while Dickens is more likely to see this behavior as more individual, behavior engaged in by certain individuals and not necessarily by an entire class. The latter view allows more readily for change by the individual, while Marx wants all of society to change at once and see this as possible only through revolution.

Works Cited

Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol. Provided.

Marx, Karl. "The Duchess of Sutherland and Slavery." 1953. Provided.

Tucker, Richard C.….....