Marxist Reading of The Prince and Me

In the Prince and Me, Julia Stiles is a common American student. She is trying to do very well in school and trying to become a doctor. Then the Prince of Denmark decides to leave Denmark and come to America in disguise to experience more then his own royal-ness. The two meet and despite her attempts to stay focused on school they fall for each other and start to date. Then of course comes the twist and she finds out he is the Prince. This puts a huge strain on everything because she is from a very different social class than he is. He says he doesn't care but he leaves none the less. She chases after him and goes to Denmark, and although there they both finally seem to be over there social class and economic class differences the rest of the country of Denmark are not.

The queen in particular is very much against the two being together and marrying because Julia Stiles character is not on the same level as the royal family. The big issue here is the money and the power that the upper class or royal family holds over everyone else. Marx says that this is a problem and that one day the lower class will revolt, but this movie has an interesting sort of twist. Instead of the lower class revolting, a powerful member of the upper class, the prince, rebels against this presupposed set of divisions and tries to bring the classes closer because he is marrying the lower class.

In the end she wants to finish school and he says he will wait for her. And then of course there is a terrible sequel that they get married in. Even in text class issues still appear and have an effect on the audience that watches the movie. Balibar and Macherey said, "Class struggle is not abolished in the literary text and the literary effects which it produces. They bring about the reproduction, as dominant, of the ideology of the dominant class." I think this is basically saying that in fact the text actually just re-enforces the fact that there is one upper class that is dominant and their ideology will then remain the dominant one.