French Revolution

The French Revolution is a period in the History of France, covering the years 17891799, in which the monarchy was overthrown and radical restricting was forced upon the Roman Catholic Church. The Revolution: the Old Regime deposed The King of France, Louis XVI was overthrown in a popular rebellion, caused in part by the rise of a middle class no longer controllable by the old regime, by ideological changes brought about by such authors as Voltaire, Denis Diderot, Turgot, and other theorists of the Enlightenment, and most proximately by the financial disarray of the government resulting in sharply higher taxes. The Revolution: the causes France was stricken by financial problems for over a century. The wars of Louis XIV caused debts that grew when wars were fought in the 18th century. These debts were not exceptional as Great Britain had the same debts. Why did these debts cause a bankruptcy in France but not in Great Britain? The cause laid in the tax system. In Britain everyone, clergy, nobles and citizens paid taxes. In France, where society was dominated by status, clergy and nobility were exempted from taxation. Because of this system government couldn't levy enough taxes to fill up the deficit. Citizens were upset because they were the thriving spirit of the nation. The nobles did nothing but were exempted. Peasants who had pieces of land just enough to feed themselves had the heaviest tax weight of all. The second problem was food scarcity. Different crop failures in the 1780s caused these shortages, which of course led to high prices for bread. The peasants were double stricken by the economical and agricultural problems. Under the reign of Louis XV and Louis XVI different ministers tried to tax the nobles. This measures encountered much resistance from the parliaments (law courts), which were dominated by the nobility. When in 1788 all attempts were failed, the King decided to summon the Estates-General, the first since 1614, which would met in May 1789. The King tried to make the Estates meet in a modern way but the parliaments decided that the Estates-General would meet in the same way as it met in 1614: in different chambers for every class. But society had changed. The bourgoisie had grown in the last 200 years and were the persons who had the money. Now they had the chance to seize the power they wanted to have.

The history of the Revolution Right from the beginning the Estates-General were divided about what to do. Instead of discussing the taxes of the king, they began to discuss the way in which decisions should be made. The Third Class wanted that the Estates would meet as one body and the voting would proceed per person, not per class. When the King doubtfully rejected, the members of the Third Class declared themselves the National Assembly, the true representatives of the people. They swore that they wouldn't break up until France had a new constitution. Under the influence of conservative nobles the king decided to send troops to Versailles to disperse the Assembly. The people saw this as a provocation and the poor laborers of Paris attacked the Bastille. The storming of the Bastille prison on July 14th, 1789, is commemorated today as Bastille Day. Although only seven prisoners were released -- four forgers, two lunatics, and a dangerous sexual offender -- it became a potent symbol of all that was hated of the ancien rgime. After this violent act nobles fled the country. In August the Assembly abolished feudalism and published the Declaration of the Rights of Man and in 1790 the church lands were confiscated and new paper money was introduced. The paper money caused high inflation. The King tried to flee in June 1791 to join the fled nobles, but his flight to Varennes did not succeed. He reluctantly accepted the new constitution in September 1791, which made France a constitutional monarchy. The king had to share power with the elected National Assembly. New factions emerged such as the Feuillants (constitutional monarchists), Girondins (liberal republicans) and Jacobins (radical revolutionaries). The King, the Feuillants and the Girondins wanted to to wage war. The King wanted war to become popular or be defeated: both actions would make him stronger. The Girondins wanted to export the Revolution through Europe. War was waged on Austria (April 20, 1792) and on Prussia (a few weeks later). The fighting went badly and prices rose sky-high. In August 1792 a mob assaulted the Royal Palace in Paris and arrested the King. On September 21, 1792 monarchy was abolished and a republic declared. The French Revolutionary Calendar commenced. The legislative power in the new republic was vested in the National Convention, while the executive power was vested in the Committee of Public Safety. The Girondins became the most influential party in the Convention and on the Committee. On January 21, 1793 King Louis was executed with a Convention majority of 361 to 360 (only 1 vote!). The execution caused more wars with European countries.

When war went badly prices rose and the sans-culottes (poor laborers and radical Jacobins) rioted and counter-revolutionary activities began in some regions. This caused the Jacobins to seize power through a parliamentary coup. The Committee of Public Security came under the control of Maximilien Robespierre. The Jacobins unleashed the Reign of Terror. Thousands of innocent people found the death under the guillotine after accusations of counter-revolutionary activities. In 1794 Robespierre had ultraradicals and moderate Jacobins executed, so eliminating popular support. On July 27, 1794 Robespierre was deposed by moderate Convention members and executed the next day. In 1795 a new constitution was drafted, which installed the Directoire. The executive power was vested in five directors who were annually appointed by a bicameral parliament (500 representatives, 250 senators). The new regime met with opposition from remaining Jacobins and royalists. Riots and counter-revolutionary activities were supressed by the army. Through this way the army and its successful general, Napoleon Bonaparte gained much power. On November 9, 1799 Napoleon staged a coup which led to his dictatorship and eventually to his proclamation as emperor, which brought the republican phase of the French Revolution to a close.

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The Influence of the French Revolution on English Literature Introduction: It would be peremptory to treat the French Revolution as just another historical incident having political significance alone. The French Revolution exerted a profound influence not only on the political destiny of a European nation but also impinged forcefully on the intellectual, literary, and political fields throughout Europe. It signalised the arrival of a new era of fresh thinking and introspection. The conditions prevailing in England at that time made her particularly receptive to the new ideas generated by the Revolution. In literature the French Revolution was instrumental in the creation of a new interest in nature and the elemental simplicities of life. It accelerated the approach of the romantic era and the close of the Augustan school of poetry which was already moribund in the age of Wordsworth. Poetry and Politics: The age of Wordsworth was an age of revolution in the field of poetry as well as of politics. In both these fields the age had started expressing its impatience of set formulas and traditions, the tyranny of rules and the bondage of convention. From the French Revolution the age imbibed a spirit of revolt asserting the dignity of the individual spirit and hollowness of the time-honored conventions which kept it in check. Thus both in the political and the poetic fields the age learnt from the Revolution the necessity of emancipation-in the political field, from

tyranny and social oppression; and in the poetic, from the bondage of rules and authority. The French Revolution, in a word, exerted a democratizing influence, both on politics and poetry. Inspired by the French Revolution, poets and politicians alike were poised for an onslaught on old, time-rusted values. It was only here and there that some conservative critics stuck to their guns and eyed all zeal for change and liberation with suspicion and distrust. (Thus, for instance, Lord Jeffrey wrote in the Edinburgh Review that poetry had something common with religion in that its standards had been fixed long ago by certain inspired writers whose authority it would be ever unlawful to question.) But such views did not represent the spirit of the age which had come under the liberating influence of the French Revolution. It is perhaps quite relevant to point out here the folly of the belief that the new literary and political tendencies, which had a common origin and were almost contemporaneous with each other, always influenced a given person equally strongly, that a person could not be a revolutionary in politics without being a revolutionary in literature, and vice versa. Scott, for example, was a romantic, but a Tory. Hazlitt, on the contrary, was a chartist in politics but was pleased to call himself an "aristocrat" in literature. Keats did not bother about the French Revolution, or even politics, at all. Wordsworth and Coleridge, the two real pioneers of the Romantic Movement in England, started as radicals and ended as tenacious Tories. The Three Phases of the French Revolution: It is wrong to think of the French Revolution as a sudden coup unrelated to what had gone before it. In fact, the seeds of the Revolution had been sown long before they sprouted in 1789. We can distinguish three clear phases of the French Revolution, which according to Compton-Rickett, are as follows: "(1) (2) (3) The Doctrinaire phase-the age of Rousseau; the Political phase-the age of Robespierre and Danton; the Military phase-the age of Napoleon." All these three phases considerably influenced the Romantic Movement in England. The Influence of the Doctrinaire Phase: The doctrinaire phase of the French Revolution was dominated by the each thinker Rousseau. His teachings and philosophic doctrines were the germs that brought about an intellectual and literary revolution all over England. He was, fundamentally considered, a naturalist who gave the slogan "Return to Nature." He expressed his faith in the elemental simplicities of life and his distrust of the sophistication of civilization which, according to him, had been curbing the natural (and good) man. He revived the cult of the "noble savage" untainted by the so-called culture. Social institutions were all condemned by him as so many chains. He raised his powerful voice against social and political tyranny and exhorted the downtrodden people to rise for emancipation from virtual slavery and almost hereditary poverty imposed upon them by an unnatural political system which benefitted only a few. Rousseau's primitivism, sentimentalism, and individualism had their influence on English thought and literature. In France they prepared the climate for the Revolution. Rousseau's sentimental belief in the essential goodness of natural man and the excellence of simplicity and even ignorance found a ready echo in Blake and, later, Wordsworth and Coleridge. The love of nature and the simplicities of village life and unsophisticated folk found ample expression in their poetic works. Wordsworth's love of nature was partly due to

Rousseau's influence. Rousseau's intellectual influence touched first Godwin and, through him, Shelley. Godwin in Political Justice embodied a considerable part of Rousseauistic thought. Like him he raised his voice for justice and equality and expressed his belief in the essential goodness of man. Referring reverently to Political Justice Shelley wrote that he had learnt "all that was valuable in knowledge and virtue from that book." The Influence of the Political Phase and the Military Phase: The political phase of the Revolution, which started with the fall of the Bastille, sent a wave of thrill to every young heart in Europe. Wordsworth became crazy for joy, and along with him, Southey and Coleridge caught the general contagion. All of them expressed themselves in pulsating words. But such enthusiasm and rapture were not destined to continue for long. The Reign of Terror and the emergence of Napoleon as an undisputed tyrant dashed the enthusiasm of romantic poets to pieces. The beginning of the war between France and England completed their disillusionment, and Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey, who had started as wild radicals, ended as well-domesticated Tories. The latter romantics dubbed them as renegades who had let down the cause of the Revolution. Wordsworth, in particular, had to suffer much criticism down to the days of Robert Browning who wrote a pejorative poem on him describing him as "the lost leader." Let us now consider briefly the influence of the French Revolution on the important romantic poets one by one. Wordsworth: As we have already said, Wordsworth's theory and work as a poet were much influenced by the teachings of Rousseau. It was under this powerful influence that he came out with his epoch-making work (in collaboration with Coleridge), the Lyrical Ballads (1978), which, in the words of Palgrave, "was a trumpet that heralded the dawn of a new era by making the prophecy that poetry, an unlimited and inimitable art of expressing man's inner and deep-seated joys and sorrows, would not be fettered by the narrow and rigid bonds of artificial conventions and makebelieve formalism." The Lyrical Ballads led a revolt against the artificial sentiment and equally artificial and mechanical poetic style of the eighteenth century, as also established he truth that poetry, if at all it is to remain poetry, must express the feelings and joys and fears of common men and women close to the soil, and interpret their day-to-day activities of life. Thus the sense of mystery which led many persons to a remote past was believed by Wordsworth to be capable of satisfaction closer at hand. Wordsworth found it-instead of the Middle Ages and Greek art-in the simplicities of everyday life-an ordinary sunset, the fleecy clouds, a morning walk over the hills, a cottage girl, the song of the nightingale and so forth. He turned for the subjects of his poetry to the life of the unsophisticated village folk who lived away from the recognised centres of culture. At the time of the Revolution (1789) Wordsworth was a young man of only nineteen. In The Prelude he describes how thrilled he was by the occasion. He felt that Europe itself was thrilled with joy, France standing at the top of golden hours, And human nature seeming born again. And further: Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very heaven.

He believed that in front of the Frenchmen shone a glorious world, Fresh as a banner bright unfurled To music suddenly. He visited the land of his dreams twice-in 1790 and 1791. But his youthful rapture came to an end with the Reign of Terror and the emergence of Napoleon. This rude blow sent him reeling into the arms of his first love-Nature. Thus Wordsworth passed through a mental and spiritual crisis, and though he recovered himself finally yet the influence of the Revolution remained as vital impression on his mind. Though he ultimately became a Tory yet he continues believing in the dignity of man, and consequently, applying his poetic faculty to the commonest objects and the lowest people. It is a noteworthy point that the best poetic work of Wordsworth was done during the period of his revolutionary fervour. Coleridge and Southey: The impact of the French Revolution on Coleridge and Southey was of the same pattern as in the case of Wordsworth-youthful exuberance at the rising of the masses ending in despair and disillusionment with the Reign of Terror. But after this disillusionment Wordsworth and Coleridge followed different paths in search of an anodyne. Whereas Wordsworth found consolation in Nature, Coleridge sought to burke his discontent with abstract philosophy and intellectual idealism. Coleridge failed to receive from Nature the joy which he was wont to. Metaphysics interested him and claimed his almost full attention. His poetic spirit also declined with the decline of his revolutionary fervour. By 1811 he had become not only an "antirevolution" Tory but also an incorrigible "antiGallican." Byron: On Byron the French Revolution exerted no direct influence. But he was a revolutionary in his own right. He was against almost all social conventions and institutions, and felt an almost morbid pleasure in violating and condemning them with the greatest abandon. In his poetry he most vigorously championed the cause of social and political liberty and died almost as a martyr in the cause of Greek independence. A critic observes: "Byron excelled most other poets of England in his being one of the supreme poets f Revolution and Liberty. His poetry voices the many moods of the spirit of Revolution which captured the imagination of Europe in the early years of the last century. A rebel against society but also against the very conditions of human life, Byron is our one supreme exponent of some distinctive forces of the Revolution. Of its constructive energy, its social ardour, its utopianism, there is no trace in his work.'' Byron was excited by the imposing personality of Napoleon who appealed to him as a "Byronic" hero. Shelley: When Shelley started writing, the French Revolution had already become, as a historical incident, a thing of the past However, the spirit of the Revolution breaths vigorously in his poetry. After his characteristic way he overlooked physical realities, and was attracted by abstractions only. Says Compton-Rickert: "Ideas inspired him, not episodes; so he drank in the doctrines of Godwin, and ignored the tragic perplexities of the actual situation." To Shelley the Revolution, to quote the same critic, appealed "as an idea, not as a concrete historical fact." In all his important poems, such as The Revolt of Islam, Queen Mab, Prometheus Unbound, and the incomparable Ode to the West Wind, breathes a revolutionary spirit impatient of all curbs and keenly desirous of the emancipation of man from all kinds of shackles-political, social, and even moral. Love and liberty are the two ruling deities in Shelley's hierarchy of values, and in his

exaltation of them both he comes very near the Rousseauistic creed. The French Revolution had failed miserably in the implementation of its three slogans "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity." But Shelley always envisioned ahead a real Revolution which would rectify all wrongs once and for all. This hope for the millenium is the central theme of much\df his poetry. Keats: Keats was almost entirely untouched by the French Revolution, as by everything earthly. A critic observes : "In the judgment of Keats, philosophy, politics and ethics were not suitable subjects for verse. While, therefore, Wordsworth and Coleridge were reflecting upon the moral law of the universe, while Byron was voicing the political ideas of Europe in the poetry of revolt, and Shelley was writing of an enfranchised humanity, the music of Keats luxuriated in classical myths and medieval legends, and was inspired by an insatiable love of Beauty." From a study of Keats's poetry it is hard to believe that such an incident as the French Revolution ever took/place at all! Conclusion: From what has gone before it is clear how powerful an influence the French Revolution exerted on English literature. The ideas that awoke the youthful passion of Wordsworth and Coleridge, that stirred the wrath of Scott, that worked like leaven on Byron and brought forth new matter, that Shelley reclothed and made into a prophecy of the future, the excitement, the turmoil, and the life-and-death struggle which gathered round the Revolution were ignored by few poets of England. Henceforth their poetry spoke of man, of his destiny, and his wrongs, his rights, duties, and hopes, and particularly, the gyved and fettered humanity. One is tempted to endorse G. K. Chesterton's paradoxical remark that the greatest event of English history occurred outside England! Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to Facebook

The Influence of the French Revolution on 19th Century Literature and Romanticism
The literature of a country is affected and influenced by how the people of that country live. This paper will prove that The French Revolution greatly influenced 19th Century French Romanticism. First, the cultural values of the revolution will be identified. Then, the different aspects of Romanticism will be presented. The cultural values of The French Revolution and Romanticism will then be linked. Finally, literary examples will be shown to support this connection between the two movements. Before the Revolution, the citizens of France lived in a strict, confined society with no freedom to express their feelings. Government had imposed strong, unfair laws on the common people (Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia "French Revolution"). They wanted a voice in a stable government with a strong economy (Johnson 105) and a strong sense of individuality and independence within the people. (Moss and Wilson 180)

Eighteenth- century literature was much like the society in which it was produced, restrained. Society was divided into privileged and unprivileged classes, (Leinward 452) with Eighteenthcentury writers focusing on the lives of the upper class. (Thompson 857) These writers followed "formal rules"(Thorlby 282), and based their works on scientific observations and logic (Thompson 895). The Revolution gave the common people and writers more freedom to express feelings and stimulated them to use reason. According to Thompson, The Revolution "had a major impact on Nineteenth- Century European Life." (895) It sent a strong wave of emotion and revival throughout France (Peyre 59). This lead to new laws and standards for the citizens, including newer, less imposing literary standards. Romanticism marked a profound change in both literature and thought. Romanticism, according to Webster's Dictionary, is defined as "a literary movement (as in early 19th century Europe) marked especially by an emphasis on the imagination and emotions and by the use of autobiographical material." Although this may be true, there is no single commonly accepted definition of Romanticism, but it has some features upon which there is general agreement. First, it emphasized upon human reason, feeling, emotion, and expression (Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia, "Romanticism") while emphasizing the love of nature, beauty, and liberty. (Leinward 528-529) Thompson defines Romanticism as " a major literary and cultural movement" that was inspired by the imaginations, inner feelings, and emotions of the Romantics. (895) If one term can be used to describe the forces that have shaped the modern world, it is Romanticism. (Peyre, 2) Romanticism has had such a profound effect on the world since the late 18th century that one author has called it "the profoundest cultural transformation in human history since the invention of the city." (Compton's Encyclopedia, "Romanticism") Harvey and Heseltine state that "The outstanding characteristic of 18th-century French literature had been attached to reason.... About the turn of the century.... literature became a matter of senses and emotions." (633) They also say that the movement of Romanticism "gave practical expression to the new spirit..." because it recognized that the bounds on literature were "too rigid". (634) There are many direct relations how the French Revolution influenced the French Romanticism that followed it in the Nineteenth- century. The French Revolution had a major impact on the timeline and progression of Romanticism. Vinaver states that "Neither a revolt or a reaction, Romanticism was a revolutionary fulfillment... And this in turn explains why the European event known as the French Revolution is at once the climax [of Romanticism]...It's [French Revolution} date, 1789, conveniently divides the PreRomanticism [era] from the full flowering of the new culture." (6) Romanticism starts in about 1774, but does not take off until the last decade of the 18th- century, the same time as the Revolution. The French Revolution provided for many of the problems and basis for many Romantic literary works. First of all, the political change brought by the Revolution, along with the intellectual reverberations brought upon Romanticism. (Harvey and Heseltine 634) Also, Thompson states

that " [Romanticism was] shaped by the ideals of the French Revolution." (895) Finally, Vinaver declares that the Revolution served as "a great source of the problems and tendencies of Romantic proper." (6) The Revolution also inspired many writers to write romantically. Peyre points this out when he says that it is wrong to call writers "revolutionaries" but when he writes about revolutioninspired works, he states: "in almost all of them [revolution- inspired romantic writers] could be detected a feeling of revolt...inspired by passion and directed against morals which were considered too constraining." (59) This shows how the writers stood for and supported the revolution that had occurred forty years before. Thompson makes a clear point along this line when he states that "Romanticism was a major literary and cultural movement that emerged out of the French Revolutionary spirit of the late 1700's..." (895) In France, the Romantic Poets, especially Victor Hugo and Alfred de Vigney, gave their attention towards the problems arising out of the French Revolution. (Peyre 59) Alfred de Musset wrote philosophically moving lyrics. (Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia "French Literature") Alphonse de Lamartine "delicately analyzed his own emotions". (Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia "French Literature") Joseph de Maistre, another major figure whose strong political views made him totally oppose the war, still took the Revolution in to consideration when writing. (60) Leinward supports this idea when he says "Poets were moved by the great events of their lives, including the French Revolution." (528) Hugo, the greatest poet of the 19th century France, perhaps of all French Literature, was the major figure of the Romantic Movement. (Harvey and Halestine 350) His Hernani helped win the revolt against the classic rules of literature. (Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia, "French Literature") His most famous work, Les Miserables, was a novel about the suffering of humanity during the Revolution. (Leinward 529) Vigney, a poet, dramatist, and novelist, played a large role in the Romanticism of the 1820's. His play, Chatterton, dramatized the misfortune of the poet in a "materialist and pitiless" society. (Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia "Vigny") Alfred de Musset's philosophical poetry played a major role in the Romanticism of the 1820's. (Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia "French Literature") Harvey and Heseltine say that "Musset is usually classed with Hugo, Lamartine, and Vigny as one of the four great figures of the Romantic Movement..." (Harvey and Heseltine 502) His lyrical poetry mixed suffering and passion such as in Le Souvenir. (502) Lamartine, described by Harvey and Heseltine as "one of the four great poets of the Romantic Movement" (390), expressed his appreciation for nature as a "reflection of his own moods" in his Meditations poetiques. (390) This shows how Romantic poets could display their love for nature and human qualities of thought at the same time. Joseph de Maistre whose "inconsistent and impassioned ideas [about the Revolution] influenced Vigny, was impressed by the divine greatness of the Revolution...." (Peyne 59) The Revolution

and the idea how it was "controlled by a mighty force" inspired him to write and celebrate it as being divine in Te Deum. (59) The research presented in this paper has shown that the French Revolution of 1789 greatly influenced the Romantic literature of the proceeding 19th century France. The French cultural values before and during the revolution have been presented. The different aspects of Romanticism have been reviewed in detail. Then relations with examples between the Revolution and Romanticism were presented.

Romanticism and the French Revolution

Romanticism originated in the second half of the 18th century at the same time as the French Revolution.[1] Romanticism continued to grow in reaction to the effects of the social transformation caused by the Revolution. There are many signs of these effects of the French Revolution in various pieces of Romantic literature. By examining the influence of the French Revolution, one can determine that Romanticism arose as a reaction to the French Revolution. Instead of searching for rules governing nature and human beings, the romantics searched for a direct communication with nature and treated humans as unique individuals not subject to scientific rules.

The influence of the French Revolution

The French Revolution played a huge role in influencing Romantic writers. As the Revolution began to play out, the absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in only three years. This resulted in a complete transformation of society. A majority of the population was greatly in favor of this as the working class had been suffering oppression for many years.[1] According to Albert Hancock, in his book The French Revolution and the English Poets: a study in historical criticism, The French Revolution came, bringing with it the promise of a brighter day, the promise of regenerated man and regenerated earth. It was hailed with joy and acclamation by the oppressed, by the ardent lovers of humanity, by the poets, whose task it is to voice the human spirit.[2] A common theme among some of the most widely known romantic poets is their acceptance and approval of the French Revolution. William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, and Percy Shelley all shared the same view of the French Revolution as it being the beginning of a change in the current ways of society and helping to better the lives of the oppressed. As the French Revolution changed the lives of virtually everyone in the nation and even continent because of its drastic and immediate shift in social reformation, it greatly influenced many writers at the time. Hancock writes, There is no need to recount here in detail how the French Revolution, at the close of the last century, was the great stimulus to the intellectual and

emotional life of the civilized world, how it began by inspiring all liberty-loving men with hope and joy.[2] Literature began to take a new turn when the spirit of the revolution caught the entire nation and turned things in a whole new direction. The newly acquired freedom of the common people did not only bring about just laws and living but ordinary people also had the freedom to think for themselves, and in turn the freedom to express themselves. Triggered by the revolutionary spirit, the writers of the time were full of creative ideas and were waiting for a chance to unleash them. Under the new laws writers and artists were given a considerable amount of freedom to express themselves which did well to pave the way to set a high standard for literature.[3] Prior to the French Revolution, poems and literature were typically written about and to aristocrats and clergy, and rarely for or about the working man. However, when the roles of society began to shift resulting from the French Revolution, and with the emergence of Romantic writers, this changed.[4] Romantic poets such as Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, and Shelley started to write works for and about the working man; pieces that the common man could relate to. According to Christensen, To get the real animating principle of the Romantic Movement, one must not study it inductively or abstractly; one must look at it historically. It must be put beside the literary standards of the eighteenth century. These standards impose limits upon the Elysian fields of poetry; poetry must be confined to the common experience of average men The Romantic Movement then means the revolt of a group of contemporary poets who wrote, not according to common and doctrinaire standards, but as they individually pleased there are no principles comprehensive and common to all except those of individualism and revolt.[5]

A closer look at the influence of the French Revolution on selected Romantic poets
Although the poets mentioned earlier (Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, and Shelley) all share the common theme of approving the French Revolution, they each have their own unique ideas regarding the Revolution itself that have greatly shaped their work. This can be seen by analyzing some of each of their works.
Shelley

Ever since he was young, Percy Shelley was very nontraditional, in fact he is said to have been opposed to tradition. He was born a freethinker and in spite of all his lovable and generous traits he was a born disturber of the public peace. At school he was known as Mad Shelley, the Atheist. According to Hancock, The Goddess of Revolution rocked his cradle.[2] Throughout his life Shelleys opposition toward religion grew less violent, however he never professed a belief in immortality or religion of any sort.[6] His poems declare a belief in the permanence of things that are true and beautiful. Common themes that Shelley incorporated into his works include the hatred of kings, faith in the natural goodness of man, the belief in the corruption of present society, the power of reason, the rights of natural impulse, the desire for a revolution, and liberty, equality and fraternity.[5] These are all clearly shaped by the French Revolution.

Byron

While Shelley had faith that was founded upon modern ideas, Byron had faith in nothing. He stood for only destruction. Because of this he was not a true revolutionist and was rather the arch-apostle of revolt, of rebellion against constituted authority.[2] This statement is easily defended as Byron admitted that he resisted authority but offered no substitute. This is supported by what Byron once wrote, I deny nothing but I doubt everything. He then said later in life, I have simplified politics into an utter detestation of all existing governments. [7] Byron believed neither in democracy nor in equality, but opposed all forms of tyranny and all attempts of rulers to control man. In Byrons poetry, he incorporated deep feeling, rather than deep thinking, to make his characters strong. Often, Byron portrayed his characters as being in complete harmony with nature, causing the character to lose himself in the immensity of the world. The French Revolution played a huge role in shaping Byrons beliefs and opposition to monarchy.
Wordsworth

While Shelley and Byron both proved to support the revolution to the end, both Wordsworth and Coleridge joined the aristocrats in fighting it.[8] Wordsworth, however is the Romantic poet who has most profoundly felt and expressed the connection of the soul with nature. He saw great value in the immediate contact with nature. The French Revolution helped to humanize Wordsworth as his works transitioned from extremely natural experiences to facing the realities and ills of life, including society and the Revolution. From then on, his focus became the interests of man rather than the power and innocence of nature.
Coleridge

Unlike Wordsworth, Coleridge was more open and receptive to the social and political world around him. He was a very versatile man and he led a life that covered many fields and his work displayed this.[8] He was a poet of nature, romance, and the Revolution. He was a philosopher, a historian, and a political figure.[4] The French Revolution played a great role in shaping Coleridge into each of these things. According to Albert Hancock, Coleridge tended to focus his life on two things. The first, being to separate himself from the surrounding world and to submerge himself in thought, as a poet. The second, to play a role in the worlds affairs, as a philosopher, historian, and politician, as mentioned earlier.[2]

The French Revolution of 1789

The French Revolution and the fall of the Bastille in July 1789 had an enormous impact on British public opinion in England and influenced the terms on which political debate would be conducted for the next thirty years.

The settlement of 1689 and the British Constitution

Since the constitutional settlement of 1689, which balanced the powers of Parliament and the monarchy, the British system of government had enjoyed support across the political spectrum and was much admired by observers from other countries. This system gave distinct roles in the process of governance and legislation to:

The Crown The House of Lords The House of Commons

It was felt to combine the best aspects of monarchical, aristocratic and democratic modes of government. It was believed that this combination of forces worked to offset the dangers inherent in allowing any one of them to predominate:

Monarchy could easily degenerate into tyranny Aristocracy could degenerate into oligarchy, or the concentration of power in a ruling elite Democracy could become anarchy and the rule of the mob

If anything occurred to upset the balance, such as the emergence of corrupt practices in appointments to political offices, the system would work to restore equilibrium.

The growth of political dissent

By the 1760s, however, this consensus of opinion was beginning to break down. There had been political dissent earlier in the eighteenth century but it had tended to object to and seek to remedy abuses of the system without questioning the system itself. In the 1760s and 1770s, various strands of radical political opinion began to question the basis on which the British Constitution was founded:

It was argued that democracy was only partial and that this limited the representativeness of the House of Commons. The right to vote, as well as being granted only to men, depended on a property qualification, thus excluding the great mass of the population. Religious dissenters, including Roman Catholics as well as members of nonconformist sects, did not enjoy such full voting rights as were available. Because MPs were required to swear an oath of conformity to the Church of England, religious dissenters were not eligible for election to public office.

The road to reform

Attempts to introduce Parliamentary reform in 1809, 1818, 1821 and 1826 were defeated in the House of Commons. It was only in 1832, the year after the revised edition of Frankenstein was published, that the Reform Act, with a major extension of the Parliamentary franchise, was passed into law. The Test and Corporation Acts, removing most of the political restrictions on

religious dissenters, had been repealed in 1828, and the Roman Catholic Emancipation Act followed in 1829.

Richard Price
In 1789, Richard Price (1723-91), a Welsh dissenting minister who had supported the American Revolution, published Discourse on the Love of Our Country. In this work, he argued that the Revolution of 1789 represented an improvement on the 1689 settlement in the following areas:

Matters of the liberty of conscience The right to resist abuses of power The right to choose and dismiss governments

Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke (1729-97) was the son of an Irish Protestant lawyer and his Roman Catholic wife. He also studied law, and became a politician and man of letters. His work An Enquiry into the Origins of the Sublime and the Beautiful (1757) was extremely influential in the formation of aesthetic taste in relation to the natural world:

He argued against the way in which the House of Commons was dominated by the King and his supporters He spoke and wrote on behalf of Roman Catholic emancipation He supported the American Revolution

The French Revolution, however, horrified Edmund Burke:

In Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) he refuted Richard Prices argument that the people had the right to dismiss the elected government and form a new one, and he appealed to the lessons of history in support of his view He believed that society was an organism rather than a purely administrative or legislative mechanism He thought that the revolutionaries in France were atheists who had offended against history by overthrowing the monarchy

When he was in France in 1773, he had seen Queen Marie Antoinette; she had come to represent for Burke all that was sacred in the principle of monarchy, and he wrote a eulogy of her in Reflections. For Burke, then, the principles of the 1689 English settlement remained the best basis for government.

Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine (1737-1809) was born in Norfolk, his father a Quaker and his mother an Anglican. He emigrated to America in 1774 after being dismissed from his job as an excise officer for seeking an increase in pay. He worked on behalf of American independence and served in

Washingtons army, fighting against British troops. He returned to England in 1787 and published the two parts of The Rights of Man in 1790 and 1792 as a direct response to Burkes Reflections:

He advocated the idea of fundamental inalienable rights that should be enjoyed by all human beings He challenged Burkes notion of society as a binding contract between the past, present and future, and argued that for society to progress towards greater freedom and justice it was vital to break free from the chains of the past

The Reign of Terror and disillusion with the Revolution

Excitement among those who had welcomed the French Revolution turned to disillusion. The years 1793-4, beginning with the execution of Louis XVI in January 1793, saw bitter conflicts in France as different political groups fought for supremacy. During the Reign of Terror, thousands of people from all parties were executed in Paris and elsewhere in the country.