The Communist Manifesto

"By demonizing venal, abusive aristocrats, melodramas reflected the revolutionary shift in political and ideological power.” (Singer 132) Coinciding with what Singer says, the Communist Manifesto is a melodrama in the way that it describes the opposition between bourgeois and proletarians in the “good vs. evil” scheme.

Marx sharply criticizes the Bourgeois that they are interested in nothing but wealth, drowning religious fervor and chivalrous enthusiasm "in the icy water of egotistical calculation” (Marx 16). In the meantime he advocates the revolution of the proletarians who are constantly exploited and oppressed. In spite of their bad situation, the proletarians are “recruited from all classes of the population” (18) and represent “the interest of the immense majority” (20). They have a powerful public appeal for all professions. Once successful, this revolution will definitely result in a change in the ideology of the society.

According to Marx, the massive laborers are exploited not only by manufacturers, but also by landlords and shopkeepers. The laborers are at the bottom of the society. They are portrayed to be very powerless “within the harsh and unpredictable material life of modern capitalism” (Singer 134) However, by saying “the proletariat becomes concentrated in greater masses, its strength grows and it feels that strength more,” (19) Marx believes that “the workers are victorious” and “they have a world to win.” (34) This is the paradoxical response of the melodrama mentioned by Singer, “a higher cosmic moral force” (134) would govern everything just.

As we have discussed in class, melodrama is, more or less, a political rhetoric. Marx negates the value of bourgeois almost completely in order to advocate the proletarian revolution. Whether the bourgeois ideology has any advisable characteristics is yet to be discussed, the Communist Manifesto indeed serves as an encouraging piece.