INFLUENCE OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION ON ENGLISH LITERATURE

The significance of the French Revolution and its impact upon English literature

 

The storming of the Bastille in 1789

One of the greatest events that ever happened in the history of humanity and rightly observed by Professor Laski that the French revolution in 1789 stands in the same relation to the 19th century as the Russian revolution stands in relation to the 20th century. Though many critics compare it with Russian Revolution in the 19th century, my personal belief is that French Revolution has much wider spectrum of influence on different aspects of life than any other historical or political event. It actually changes the world order or at least the common man’s belief about the rulers around the world and it actually influences a lot of future revolutionary events in different fields. The French Revolution proclaimed the natural rights of man, and the abolition of superficial class distinction in society. It was a protest against slavery, age-old operation and exploitation influenced by philosophers like Rousseau, Voltaire and Montesquieu.

 

          The social and political upheaval in neighbouring country France played a considerable share in influencing the course of English Romanticism. It exercised a powerful influence upon all great Romantic writers; particularly the poets Wordsworth hailed in his autobiographical poem The Prelude during the early days of the French Revolution in the following manner:

Bliss was in that dawn to be alive,

But to be young was very heaven.

The Industrial Revolution paralleled revolutions in the political order. In fact, Britain was at war during most of the Romantic period, with a resultant political instability. Political movements in Britain were gradual, but in countries such as France and the United States, political change was both more rapid and more radical. The American Declaration of Independence (from Britain) in 1776 struck an early blow for the principle of democratic freedom and self-government, but it was the early years of the French Revolution, with its slogan of ‘Equality, liberty and fraternity’, which most influenced the intellectual climate in Britain. In this respect the storming of the Bastille in 1789, to release the political prisoners, acted as a symbol that attracted the strong support of the liberal opinion. It clearly gave a stern message to all the ruling classes around the world to rethink their dealing of common people in their respective constituencies.

 

          Debate in Britain was, however, polarized between support for radical documents such as Tom Paine’s Rights of Man (1791), in which he called for greater democracy in Britain, and Edmund Burke’s more conservative Reflections on the French Revolution (1790). Later in the 1790s, more measured ideas are contained in the writings of William Godwin, an important influence on the Romantic poets like Wordsworth and Shelley, who advocated a gradual evolution towards the removal of poverty and the equal distribution of all wealth in society. Such an optimistic social philosophy caused much enthusiasm and intellectual excitement among many radical writers and more liberal politicians, but these ideas also represented a potential threat to the existing order because it directly challenges the old conventional world order. Positive use of the words ‘Jacobin’ or ‘radical’ was dangerous in the 1790s. ‘Jacobin’, in particular, which derived from French, implied strong sympathy with ideals of absolute social equality.

 

          Shelley may be considered as the child of the French Revolution whereas Byron was the great interpreter of revolutionary iconoclastic. The influence of the French Revolution converted Shelley into a revolutionary idealist and a great prophet of faith and hope. Shelley made his poetry an announcement of the radicals for the denouncement of kings, priests, injustice and tyranny. In his significant poems like Queen Map, The Revolt of Islam, Prometheus Unbound, Ode to the West Wind, Shelley breathed a revolutionary spirit and prayed to the revolutionary spirit to act as an inspiration for doing changes to live freely without the burden of old orthodox prejudices.

                                        

          Byron’s poems voiced the many moods of the French Revolution. He himself fought for the cause of Greek liberty and died as a mystery in defending it. He wrote The Prisoner of Chillon in defence of liberty and established the hero of the poem Francois Bonivard as a Genevan patriot who fought for liberty.

 

          Wordsworth himself was also profoundly influenced by the revolution but when the French Revolution converted itself into the reign of terror, Wordsworth gradually withdrew his mind from it. Later he recorded that the French Republic leaders had:

          Become Oppressors in their turn,

Frenchmen had changed a war of self-defence

For one of Conquest, losing sight of all

Which they had struggled for.

Imagination fails. Memories fade, shine brightly and then fade again. With the gradual failure of the French Revolution with time, Romantic poets came out of their imagination of a better world in the hand of new politicians. Wordsworth revised his masterpiece, The Prelude throughout his life; in each version, he tries to capture more accurately the lasting insights of his glorious past. But later drafts lack the excitement of earlier versions of the poem. It is also possible that the failure of the French Revolution (1789) affected greatly the course of Wordsworth’s own poetry and life. However, the influence of this revolution remained in him through the celebration of the common man in his poetry (like An Idiot Boy or A Last Ride Together) strengthened by his adaptations of the works of Rousseau in forming his concept of nature.

 

          Coleridge also penned a number of poems like France: An Ode and Ode on the Departing Year under the influence of the French Revolution. However, Coleridge was frustrated and disappointed when the French attacked Switzerland and that made him realize that French Revolution was gradually taking a different course. Though Coleridge gradually becomes a conservative, the best works were done under the influence of the revolution undoubtedly.

 

          Robert Southey (1774–1843) was also influenced by the French Revolution and expressed the most violent radical ideas in the epic Joan of Arc. In the poem The Battle of Blenheim, he denounces the horror and terror of war. Walter Scott has been influenced by French Revolution (1789). But he grew soon disgusted with the Reign of Terror which made him lose much of his faith in the Revolution. Instead of looking into the political future of the French Revolution, Walter Scott started taking back towards the Romantic past and vitalized it with full vigour and zeal in his poetry and his historical fiction.

 

          Finally, we may say that the French Revolution exerted a paramount influence upon most of the Romantic poets (1798-1832). It stimulated and strengthened their imagination and provided them with the principles of love towards the common people on one hand and love towards nature on the other. The observation of nature and the use of more common lucid language in poetry come into being due to the influence of the Revolution. Now literature becomes more common man’s exercise of expressing the feeling than the aristocrats.