Academic Information
Name : Dangar Rinkal Nathabhai
Roll no.20
Enrollment no.4049206420220007
Batch : M.A (2022-24)
Paper Name : History of English Literature from 1350 to 1900
Paper code : 22396
Paper no.105
Topic : Impact of the French Revolution on English Literature
Submitted to : S. B. Gardi Department of English M.K.U Bhavnagar
Submitted on : 07/11/2022
Preface : Every Historical, Political and Social event is having its influence on literature even some pandemics like Corona and Plague, natural disasters and wars are influencing people and inspires writers and poets to create a piece of Literature.
"The relation between art, literature and history is a complex one. The way in which broad historical processes affect art and literature is not a direct one. The poets and writers of England and other lands did not necessarily set out to express political ideas in a conscious way, though some did. The processes we are dealing with here are far more subtle and indirect. They do not express themselves as a conscious decision or trend, but rather a certain mood. However, unconsciously, or at best semi-consciously, poets and writers can and do reflect the general trends in society." - Alan Woods
An Introduction of the French Revolution
The French Revolution was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considered fundamental principles of liberal democracy,while phrases like liberté, égalité, fraternité reappeared in other revolts, such as the 1917 Russian Revolution, and inspired campaigns for the abolition of slavery and universal suffrage. The values and institutions it created dominate French politics to this day.
It sought to completely change the relationship between the rulers and those they governed and to redefine the nature of political power.
When the King sought to increase the tax burden on the poor and expand it to classes that had previously been exempt, revolution became all but inevitable.
Before the revolution Church and monarchy was in power people were not allowed to question The King bt after the revolution Catholicism had lost the power,
Revolution produced equality and career open for talents.
Impact of the French Revolution on English Literature
French Revolution led to the "Liberalism in Literature." The political liberalism of French Revolution inspired the liberation, individuality and rejection of prescribed rules in the Romantic Literature. The Romantic poets were inspired by the ideals of equality, fraternity and liberty.
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.
Many Romantic Poets and writers are having influence of French Revolution on their writting like..
William Wordsworth,
P.B.Shelley,
John Keats,
Jane Austen and
William Blake.
Influence of French Revolution on different poets and their writting :
William Wordsworth
• The French Captain Michel Beaupuy strongly influenced Wordsworth in forming political ideals, and his presence was so important to the young poet that Wordsworth mentions the captain in Book Nine of The Prelude.
• Wordsworth hoped that France would be a "work of honour" and a democratic government could not work unless there were men like Beaupuy to ensure there were radicals to stand for this honor and freedom.
• The young Wordsworth had great hopes for the Revolution, and he believed that once a republic was firmly in power in France, he and his contemporaries "should see the people having a strong hand/ In framing their own laws; whence betters day: To all mankind "
As a Romantic, Wordsworth believed in the equality of all men and saw the monarchy as an institution that sought to take away this equality.
• Wordsworth believed in the equality of all men like most Romantics of the time, and he viewed the monarchy as a means of taking away equality.
Wordsworth had great hopes for the Revolution, and he believed that once a republic was firmly in power in France, he and his contemporaries "should see the people having a strong hand/ In framing their own laws; whence betters day; To all mankind"
• Once the Reign of Terror and England's declaration of war against France, he became torn between his ideals of freedom and equality and all the bloodshed he saw going on around him.
• He went from being a Republican with dreams of equality for all men, to a conservative who wished to preserve the stability and resume order in England.
P. B. Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley was born in 1792, the year of the deposition of Louis XVI and the September massacres in Paris. Like those of the first generation of Romantic poets, Shelley's views were shaped by the French Revolution and its aftermath, but he came to maturity in a very different political climate.
He wrote a political pamphlet A Declaration of Rights, on the subject of the French Revolution, but it was considered to be too radical for distribution in Britain.
In 1822 Shelley, moved to Italy with Leigh Hunt and Lord Byron where they published the journal The Liberal. By publishing it in Italy the three men remained free from prosecution by the British authorities.
Shelley's views were shaped by the French Revolution and its aftermath, but he came to maturity in a very different political climate.
John Keats
The life-long creed of keats was beauty and he proudly remarked that "A thing of beauty is a joy forever." There was never a more ardent lover of beauty than keats had been. But this love of beauty led him to ignore the harsh realities of life Most of the poets of the romantic era came under the impact of the French Revolution but keats remained a great exception. Stopford Brooke, in this connection, remarks; "The ideas that awoke the youthful passions of Wordsworth, of Coleridge, that stirred the wrath of Scott, that worked like yeast on Byron and brought forth new matter, that Shelley re clothed and made into a prophecy of future - the excitement, the turmoil, the life and death struggle which gathered round the Revolution - were ignored and unrepresented by keats.... In keats the ideas of Revolution have disappeared.
He has, inspite of a few passages and till quite the end of his career, no vital interest in the present, none in man as a whole, none in the political movement of human thought, none in the future. of mankind, none in liberty, equality or fraternity, no inter est in anything but beauty. This led Brooke to conclude that keats was a pure poet who was just not interested in anything else but beauty.
Jane Austen
The French Revolution was a period of great progress as well as great chaos. This period lines up almost perfectly with Jane Austen's life. This great historical event left a significant impact on not just her life, but also on her family. It, in fact, had a great impact on her literary works.
Austen puts tragedy and war deaths into her fiction, too. In her novel Emma, the orphan Jane Fairfax is said to have lost her father in wartime. That father, Lieutenant Fairfax, was serving in an infantry regiment when he died in action abroad. It’s true that we’re not told about this action. But every reader would have understood that Lieutenant Fairfax was a casualty of the war in a battle with French forces.
How horrible it is to have so many people killed! And what a blessing that one cares for none of them!”
That is one dialogue of Jane Austen from one latter.
Jane Austen mostly wrote about human behaviour with each other and with surroundings
S.T.Coleridge
Coleridge was profoundly influenced by the French Revolution and the revolutionary enthusiasm of Wordsworth When the Bastille was thrown open and the prisoners released to bask in the sunshine of freedom he wrote
"Liberty the soul of life, shall reign Shall throb in every pulse, shall flow thro' every vein."
Stopford A Brooke remarks, "Almost all his best poetic work is co-incident with the Revolution; afterwards everything is in complete. The weakness of will was doubled by disease, and trebled by opium, and his poetic life, even his philosophic work, was a splendid failure. It was in the fitness of things that Coleridge should feel ashamed when England declared War on revolutionary leaders was even earlier than that of Wordsworth
Lord Byron
By the time the younger Romantics came on the scene the full significance of the French Revolution was lost to the people in general Byron was only one year old when the French Revolu tion broke out Naturally he could not have the revolutionary enthusiasm of Wordsworth. But being a true Romantic he was against all sorts of tyranny and oppression. He was deeply and abidingly influenced the revolutionary philosophy Although the political fallout of the French Revolution was considered disastrous by Byron, yet he was impressed by its social ideas.
Conclusion :
Romanticism was an age in which a group of ideas, a web of beliefs and assumptions held sway. None of the Romantic poets fully expressed all of those ideas, but each believed in enough of them to set him apart from earlier writers. The age was highly emotional as well as imaginative. The Romantic poets acted through inspiration and intuition it is the main influenced of French Revolution. And everyone therefore believed in democracy, humanity and possibility to achieve a better life. In this ways, The French Revolution inaugurated the golden era for mankind in general.
The political thought of Rousseau remained the basis of po litical democrats of Europe. His famous saying, "Man is born free and he is everywhere in chains" came as a challenge to: the old order. In this ways, the revolution has been seen as an impact on romantic poet of the new era.
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