Just as the name would suggest, Marxist Criticism is related to the backings of Karl Marx. Essentially, the theory looks at the way money, economics, and class conflict. While literature is often to be considered a way of expressing true thoughts, feelings, and important themes, Marxism is not focused on any parts of the humanity of literature. In fact, Marxism considers all of human nature to be centered around economic and material beings. Instead of looking at how the author wrote the literature, the focus is more on what surrounded the author at the time of writing. For Marxism, it is said that every piece of writing, no matter the size, is entirely determined by material and historical causes. Everything in literature can be explained by what was happening in time in relation to socioeconomic statuses. In many pieces of literature, it can be very obvious which group is benefitting economically over another. However, it becomes the job of a Marxist critic is go into pieces that may not as obviously show this. Marxist criticism also touches on religion. It is not necessarily concerned with religion itself, but rather what people choose to do economically for their religion. Many will choose to do things for their religion that honestly have a more economic or power driven motive. Overall, whether or not the author ever intends it, Marxist criticism ensures that all writing is affected by the socioeconomic and historical context in which it was written.

Karl Marx made a large impact in terms of the way we ought to look at literature. He is the center for this critical theory. As he was such an economically focused man, he stated that literature ought to be looked at as such. For Marx, a text is always going to reinforce oppressive ideologies that affect groups economically. So, class conflict in some manner is always going to be relevant to a piece of literature.