Shelley's utopian thought and marxism

ABSTRACTThe main point of my thesis is that Shelley's utopianthought shows a great deal of analogy with that of earlyMarx. The first chapter is an introduction to the centralconcern of Shelley and Marx who both aim at liberating manfrom alienating institutions. They believe that there 1S anatural order in man, which necessitates his absorptioninto both the human community and nature. In order to givea more complete illustration of Shelley's and Marx's utopianthought, I look upon world history as divided into fourstages. In the second chapter, I try to clarify Shelley'soften obscure intuitive thought in regard to religion,politics, economy and man's integration with nature byexpounding Marx's scientific thought on the same topics.In the third chapter, I show that the main differencebetween Shelley's and Marx's utopian thought is that Shelleyinsists that man's means of integration into nature isfound in love, sympathy, and imagination, while for Marx,the same goal is achieved through labor. In the fourthchapter, I analyze Prometheus Unbound as an artistic expressionof Shelley's idea of man's liberation from alienating,despotic institution. I conclude that Shelley'spoetic thought still retains an appeal for modern man,because it stresses the highest spiritual qualities in ma