Causes of the French Revolution

Causes of the French Revolution Revolutions are not simply actions committed from impulses, rather, they are a set of protests to express disagreements with the current society. This was the case of the French Revolution. Around the 18th century, British colonists in North America accused England for unequal treatments. Inspired by Enlightenment ideas, Americans overthrew the British power and created a republic. Driven by the successful American Revolution and the new ideas of liberty and equality, the French were inspired to do the same with the ruling royalty and to establish a new political order. This was mainly because France continued the system of the â€Å"Old Regime†, a type of feudal system where the king held absolute power. Under the Old Regime, there was an unequal distribution of wealth and rights of citizens. In addition, the enormously high prices of life necessities were also critical because many people had barely enough to eat and live. Consequently, the observed of Enlightenment ideas an d witness of American Revolution’s success, disparity in wealth and rights of the citizen, in addition of corruption in the ruling royalty’s power over government inspired the occurrence of the French Revolution. Among one of the factors that had played into the French Revolution was the philosophical view of human right and government structure. At the Age of Reason, many philosophers created new ideas about the government and questioned the basic rights of all humans. Such ideas influenced the French Revolution. There were three major enlightenment thinkers, and they were John Locke, Montesquieu and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Locke was an English philosopher who witnessed political turmoil in England during the 17th century. One of his most influential ideas on French Revolution was the equality of human and the three natural rights, which are life, liberty and property. In France, serfs and peasants didn’t have the same rights as aristocracy because they didn’t enjoy the same freedoms and property that the wealthy population enjoyed. Furthermore, they made up 80 percent of the population (Kreis). Thus, they were unsatisfied with their unequal rights. In addition, the â€Å"bourg eoisie†, or the middle class, could be as rich as the some nobles because the bourgeoisie were the people to get engaged in trades and a variety of businesses that helped them to gain a good amount of wealth and influence the French economy. However, the bourgeoisies were still considered as commoners because their statuses in society were not heritable as nobilities (Kreis). Consequently, the bourgeoisies wished the government to open more positions to base on the individual’s merits. But it was impossible to do this under the Old Regime due to the huge differences in social classes and privileges. Hence, the commoners, including both peasants and bourgeois, were inspired to revolt from the new philosophical ideas that were widely spread and accepted of the individual human rights. In addition, Montesquieu published The Spirit of the Laws in 1783 and claimed the best government was a kind of constitutional monarchy, which was a monarchy that shared its political powers with another governing power. Consequently, Montesquieu suggested that France should model this kind of government in order to achieve the same success as England did. With this form of government Montesquieu suggested the sharing of sovereignty with the aristocracy. Hence, his view didn’t represent the whole population of the country, including the bourgeoisie and peasants. (The French Revolution: Ideas and Ideologies). The king also rejected the sharing of power, so it was considered as an impractical solution. However, Montesquieu had made an essential influence on the French Revolution with this new idea of sovereignty, which was expressed in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The clause three stated that no individual could exercise the power of controlling over others. Another Enlightenment philosopher, Rousseau, however proposed the idea of self-ruling and direct democracy. The idea stated all citizens have the equality to participate in politics (MacAdam). According to an authority of philosophical studies, Jim MacAdam, concluded Rousseau impacted French Revolution by the idea of human equality. This was because the proposal of self-ruling outlined the equality among all citizens to have the rights participating the affairs of the nation. The idea that the general population could participate in politics was also deeply appealing because compared to clergies and nobilities at the time, commoners had no social status, privileges, and rights to manage political affairs. Inspired by the idea of equality in politics from Montesquieu and Rousseau, the commoners were inspired to take actions to fight for their political freedom. Combining the ideas proposed by philosophers and American Revolution, the French was very inspired to create a revolution in the overall societal structure. During the 17th century, America was a colony to the Great Britain. Unfair treatment such as over-taxation and a monarchal government, spurred the American Revolution (Mackey), so that they could fight for freedom, liberty and reasonable taxation (Emerich, Dalberg, Acton). Observing the Americans, the French commoners also wished to have the equal freedom and liberty that they gained. Due to the similar reasons in France and America, it provided a suitable explanation to start a revolution. Moreover, Paris was the origin the enlighten ideas, so it was easy for revolutionary ideas to spread around France and the French people. Hence, the new idea for equality promoted action to commence a revolution in France. In addition, the poor economic condition provided a demonstrated factor to revolt. The poor economic condition in France included accumulated debts and issues of the deregulatory market of grain after a drought in 1788. As a participant of the Seven Years War and American War of Independence, huge debts were accumulated in order to fund armies. The assistance to the American Revolution had built up the debt in France to 13 billion livres (Schiff). Hence, the French government was bankrupted. However, England, also a participant of both wars, was able to manage the financial problems brought by the wars (Karan). The financial problems in France were not as manageable as England due to the lack of advisers and the inefficient tax collecting system (Smith). Since France was still controlled by an absolute monarchy, who believed in absolute control, most decisions, including economical decisions, were only made by the monarchy alone. Without others advisors to suggest practical solutions , the financial problems were hard to improve solely with decisions from the monarchy. In addition, the tax collecting system was also unsuitable, because the monarch gave power to local officials to collect taxes (Smith), which caused some corrupt officials seize the tax money for themselves, rather than turning the money back to the state. Thus this made the financial problems even more difficult to resolve, because there was no taxation money into the state, so the debt was unable to be paid off. Apart from economical issues, the agriculture in France suffered a deadly blow. A devastating drought in 1788 caused peasants to have difficulty maintaining their health mainly due to lack of food caused from the lack of growth of grain. The failure of grain growth resulted the increased pricing on bread, because bread was made from the grain. Bread was a daily staple in France, so peasants couldn’t live without bread (The French Revolution: The causes of the revolution). However, due to the drought in 1788, the prices of bread inflated. The portion of income spent on bread thus increased eighty-eight percent, compared to fifty percent before the drought (Walinger). In addition to the increase in bread prices, the peasants also had to pay taxes, which created unsatisfactory living conditions for many peasants. There was also an unequal societal structure in France at this time, because the Old Regime divided French social structure unequally. The monarch held all power of the state and there was no parliament in France. Around 1770 to 1780, Louis XVI was in charge of the throne. However, he wasn’t prepared to become king, because he was too shy and irresponsible (Louis XVI biography). Also because France was controlled under an absolute monarchy instead of a constitutional monarchy, most decisions were based on the monarch himself. However, the monarch wasn’t fully considerate of the whole nation due to lack of consideration from Louis XVI. For instance, Louis XVI’s construction of the palace of Versailles wasted over seven to ten percent of the national treasury (Smith), which had put more stress on the treasury from the debts created the American Revolution and the Seven Years Wars. To resolve the debt problems in France became a critical issue, so Louis XVI turned toward the â€Å"Third Estate† that generated most of the country’s income. The Old Regime was divided into three Estates. The First was composed of clergy, the Second of the nobility and the Third of the commoners, which comprised of 25 million people. Because this social structure was based on customs and traditions, it created inequalities in law (Keris). For instance, although the Third Estate formed 80 percent of the French population, including the bourgeoisie who owned 25 percent of the land, they only held one vote in the Estate General (a general meeting of the three Estates). (Unit 4: French Revolution Napoleon). Compared to the other two Estates, this was generally not fair. The First Estate owned ten to fifteen percent of land in France and constantly received tithe and did not pay taxes. The Second Estate owned thirty percent of the land and they usually get their wealth fr om rents from the peasants who lived on their land. However, the people of the poor Third Estate used their little income to live and pay taxes to the Church, monarchy and landowners (Keris). Compared to the First and Second Estates, the people of the Third Estate were extremely unsatisfied with unequal privileges, heavy taxes, and inequality on voting rights in the Estate General. The French Revolution was a remarkable event on French history, and it was created mainly from new ideas of Enlightenment philosophers, enormous economic problems, and inequality of rights, which were also observed from the success of the American Revolution. Moreover, the economic problem resulted over taxation and the raised of the daily staple created an unsatisfied living condition for the peasants. In addition, the failure of the ruling monarch, such as the fact that the monarch managed all decisions of the state without putting the population into consideration and unwillingness to adapt to new form of political structure. Works Cited Cranston, Maurice. â€Å"The French Revolution: Ideas and Ideologies.† History Today, HistoryToday Ltd., 5 May 1989. Web. 3 Dec. 2014. Choi, Insun. â€Å"Economic problem that caused French Revolution.† KIS World History. n.p., 26 Oct. 2009. Web. 6 Dec. 2014. Emerich, John. Dalberg, Edward. Acton, Lord. â€Å"Lectures on the French Revolution: The Influence of America†. Google online book. Google, Mar. 30 2006. Web. 3 Dec. 2014. The French Revolution. Go Social Studies Go. n.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2015. Karan, Priya. â€Å"Economic Causes of The French Revolution: Debt.† Suite.com. n.p., n.d. Web. 3 Mar. 2015. Kerise, Steven. â€Å"Lecture 11: The Origins of the French Revolution.† Historyguide.org. The History Guide, 30 Oct. 2006. Web. 28 Sep. 2014. â€Å"Louis XVI biography.† Bastille-day. n.p., 1 July. 2012, Web. 28 Sep. 2014. MacAdam, Jim. â€Å"Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Revolution.† Montreal Symposium. n.p., 28 May 1989. Web. 3 Dec. 2014. â€Å"Marie Antoinette biography.† Bastille-day. n.p., 1 July. 2012. Web. 28 Sep. 2014. Mackey, Richard. â€Å"American Revolution Influences of the French Revolution†. Google online book. Google, n.d. Web. 3 Dec. 2014. Prest, William. â€Å"The French Revolution, Locke and Rousseau. † HubPages. n.p., 31 Jan 2013. Web. 10 Mar. 2015. Smith, Nicole. â€Å"France’s Pre-revolutionary Financial Crisis: The Lead-up to the French Revolution.† Article Pyramid. n.p., 7 Dec. 2011. Web 10 Mar. 2015. Waldinger, Maria. â€Å"Drought and the French Revolution: The Effects of Adverse Weather Conditions on Peasant Revolts in 1789.† Academia.edu, n.p., 7 Oct. 2013. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.

At Mornington and Father and Child Essay

Gwen Harwood’s poetry explores ideas of the rejuvenating powers of memory, the inexorable nature of time and the adversity of advancing through various stages of human psychological development and the extent of life and death. â€Å"At Mornington† and â€Å"Father and Child† are poems which both demonstrate Harwood’s distinctive voice that transcends the barriers of time and examine universal issues that are pertinent to all. Moreover, the ability for these two poems to provide different interpretations makes them relevant to differing contexts with differing values. This is seen with two variant readings, a psychoanalytical reading and a post-modern reading. ‘At Mornington’ is a reminiscence of the persona’s life, evaluating the extent of life and death through memories, as shown by the first person point of view and past tense. It contains â€Å"memories of early childhood† that are described as â€Å"light in a sea-wet shell†, fragile and fleeting. The persona also continues to explore a collection of other memories and meandering thoughts, which the persona draws strength from in order to cope, understand and make sense of the present and the inevitability of her future death. The idea of memories in turn leads the poems into a psychoanalytical reading, in conjunction with a post-modern interpretation. The poem starts with the persona stating: ‘They told me that when I was taken to the sea’s edge’, implying that her memories are dependant on what ‘they’, her authoritative figures have told her, implying how they are dictated by that of authority. However memories can sometimes be unreliable as there are points of doubt where the persona ‘seem to remember my father fully clothed’. A post-modern view also shows authority losing power and individuals challenging them, as when the persona â€Å"leapt from my father’s arms† after being â€Å"taken to the sea’s edge. † The scene is a metaphor for an individual escaping from the passive grasps of authority, represented in the father, and acting upon their own interests. The fact that the persona was taken to their current position illustrates their lack of control over the situation, however, the persona later asserts control, breaking free of the authoritative figure and is controlling her own life. The inexorable nature of time is contemplated by the persona to make sense of her life. Through language and the lifecycle of the pumpkin as a metaphor of her own life, the persona defines herself in order to gain solace. The ‘pumpkin’ presented an image of the persona’s youth and innocence. She refers to â€Å"fine pumpkins grown on a trellis† at her friend’s house as a â€Å"parable of myself† as she ages, rising â€Å"in airy defiance of nature† towards the sun before returning to earth. The metaphor of the pumpkins striving to reach â€Å"the light† comments on both the physical and metaphysical aspirations of humans, and the confrontation and acceptance of death. It shows that she too has grown above her ‘humble station’ – not necessarily external success but bridging the gap between the conscious and unconscious. However, this metaphor alone is insufficient to make sense of her existence, and it is this gap between reality and the naming of it which is a key element of psychoanalytical theory. The need and desire of human beings to locate a sense of unity of self is also integral to the psychoanalytic theory, and Harwood achieves this through the circular structure of the poem. Emotive words such as ‘peace’, ‘shine’ and ‘forever’ create a serene image of death, while the symbolic ‘light’ and ‘water’ interlink with the first stanza. The use of water as a motif throughout the poem connects the important people and moments in her life such as in her childhood with her father ‘water soaked’ and with her friend in the Brisbane Gardens ‘pitcher of water’ and finally she uses the line ‘waters that bear me away for ever’ to show her acceptance of death. By drawing threads of the poem together, just as the persona draws together her dreams, thoughts and memories are used to establish her sense of unity and wholeness. Harwood creates a serene image of death, allowing the persona to reach a conclusion about its inevitability and the relevance of her experiences and dreams to it. Harwood’s poem ‘Father and Child’ is a parallel to ‘At Mornington’ as it investigates the advancement of human psyche, from the innocence of childhood to the frailty of old age. The poem also observes the human psyche’s attempt to rationalise and resist the inescapable nature of time. Harwood explores the change in human psyche in this poem and suggests that experiences undergone in childhood shape lives and morality in the future. The juxtaposition of settings and syntax is used to convey the evolution of the human psyche and morality. â€Å"Father and Child† is separated into two sections, â€Å"Part I Barn Owl†, which takes place in the persona’s childhood, and â€Å"Part II Nightfall† which is set when the persona has presumably reached middle age, as the father is now 80, blind and dying. The adversity of advancing through various stages of human psychological development is prevalent in ‘Barn Owl’. Harwood has used vivid descriptions to portray the callousness and cruelty of the situation where a little girl attempts to shoot a barn owl but fails and harms it dreadfully, causing the owl having had ‘dribbled through loose straw tangling in bowels’. For the responders this is strong imagery and portrays the unusual situation. The young girl is empowered because the owl is blinded by the light but later there is a role reversal as her father enters and becomes ‘owl-blind in early sun’, like the owl was initially. The killing of the owl demonstrates aspects of a post-modern interpretation where the girl revolts against authority by defying her father, the authoritative figure, and sneaks out with his gun – a representation of the father’s power and authority. The owl is a representation of wisdom or authority, thus, the child is destroying, in her mind, authority. The metaphoric imagery surrounding the death of the owl supports the psychoanalytical view that, dramatic moments such as these impact upon the psyche and have an everlasting effect on the individual. The girl comes to a realization of â€Å"those eyes that†¦ mirror my cruelty† and is now aware of the consequences of her actions, yet it is too late to change the result. The transition has been made and forever she will remain in the world of pain while ironically the bird has escaped it. The role of light is important in this poem as it differentiates between the ideas of life and death. In Part II, Harwood has challenged the responders by portraying light as a metaphor for life by making it set in the latter part of the day, at dusk, when the sun is setting. This shows the transition from life to death. Neither has the power to control the inevitability of death as the ‘sunset exalts its known symbols of transience’, personifying sunset – as the day becomes night the sun has the power because it brings about the process of change and deterioration. By doing this Harwood is exploring the concept of death being associated with darkness. In stanza 6, the atmosphere is saddened as direct speech is used and the poem nears the end. ‘Your night and day are one’ describes how death is a blur of both light and dark because it is a transition between the two. ‘Father and Child’ can also be read from a postmodernist perspective where it draws attention to the number of intertextual connections that are made between the poem and other texts, which focuses on both the extent of life/death and memories. The most apparent allusions are concerned with Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’ and the line in Nightfall â€Å"Be your tears wet† creating a link between the child persona and the character of Lear’s daughter Cordelia, which examines the fact that she is confronting the death of her father. It’s as if a string of tenderness was touched by him inside of her which led to the tears. She had learnt a lot of concepts in regards to life from her father and is thanking him for teaching her. However, tears cannot mend the facts of life and death, since everybody has to come to the end of a journey at some stage. She relies on her father’s ‘white stick’ to take her back to her memories of her father and the lessons learnt – showing how memories can overcome tears at this last sorrow. The allusion of her father as ‘King’ is a reference to King Lear, showing her admiration and love for her father and how she still sees him as someone that she can rely on. The use of contrasting tones of the two parts reinforces the ideas of memory and life/death, that after many life experiences, her perspective of her father changes from â€Å"an old No Sayer† when the girl is young, to a â€Å"stick thin comforter†. By valuing texts in different perspectives, responders are able to react to a text on a variety of ways, making them relevant to differing contexts with differing values. â€Å"At Mornington† and â€Å"Father and Child† are texts which transcend the barriers of time and examine universal issues that are applicable to all.

Comparative Essay the Crucible and the Kite Runner

The Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini, and The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, share many similar themes, characters, and ideas. One particular theme that is present throughout both of these written pieces is love. Defined by the Oxford Dictionary, love is a strong positive emotion of regard and affection. It can be found in moments of one’s life, through relationships, and through people. In The Kite Runner and The Crucible, one can see the similarities of love through friendship, paternal, and marital love. Friendship, a type of love, plays a key role in both The Kite Runner and The Crucible. In The Kite Runner, Hassan and Amir share a special relationship when they were children. Together, they played by their pomegranate†¦show more content†¦Baba also gave Amir a car that night to show Amir that he was proud of his success; Baba wanted to reward him for what he had accomplished. On Amir’s wedding day, although Baba was deathly ill, Baba exclaimed, â€Å"It’s the happiest day of my life, Amir,† (Khaled Hosseini, p.175). Baba made a speech at Amir and Soraya’s wedding. He openly shared that Amir fulfilled his expectations by saying that above all else, â€Å"Amir jan is my only son...my only child, and he has been a good son to me,† (Khaled Hosseini, p.177). Although it didn’t seem obvious at first, Baba truly loved Amir. The Kite Runner and The Crucible both have two fathers with strong paternal loves for their sons. A final type of love found in both The Crucible and The Kite Runner is marital love. Amir and Soraya’s relationship that was built on friendship grew as their marriage progressed. Their marriage consisted of many important characteristics including loyalty, support, and honesty. Before their marriage, Soraya told Amir her secret that she had been with another man when she was eighteen. Amir was accepting of her ill judgment, yet wished that he could openly share his secret with her how he’d â€Å"betrayed Hassan, lied, driven him out, and destroyed a forty-year relationship between Baba and Ali,† (Khaled Hosseini, p.174). However, he did not tell Soraya, he kept that secret locked away. Though honesty wasn’t present at the beginning of their marriage, it was gained by telling the truth. This made their bond,

Funny Quotes About Work Meetings, Mistakes, and More

Life at the workplace can be dreary without humor, which can serve to relieve tension and create camaraderie among team members. Teamwork improves productivity and work performance, and when people are enthusiastic, the workplace ambiance becomes fun. You look forward to working with people you enjoy and have a rapport with. This all is part of a vibrant workplace atmosphere. In this collection of funny work quotes, glimpse the lighter side of work life. Share these with your colleagues to create an upbeat environment in your workplace. Scott Adams, The Dilbert Principle Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. William Castle An expert is a man who tells you a simple thing in a confused way in such a fashion as to make you think the confusion is your own fault. Phyllis Diller What I don’t like about office Christmas parties is looking for a job the next day. Carl Zwanzig Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together. Scott Adams Give a man a fish, and youll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and hell buy a funny hat. Talk to a hungry man about fish, and youre a consultant. Tori Filler Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want. Phil Pastoret Hear no evil, see no evil, and speak no evil—and you’ll never get a job working for a tabloid. Dennis Miller The easiest job in the world has to be coroner. Surgery on dead people. What’s the worst thing that could happen? If everything went wrong, maybe you’d get a pulse. Niels Bohr An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field. Leo Durocher I believe in rules. Sure I do. If there weren’t any rules, how could you break them? Jerome K. Jerome I like work; it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours. Woody Allen Im short enough and ugly enough to succeed on my own. If a man smiles all the time, he’s probably selling something that doesn’t work. Dave Barry If you had to identify in one word the reason why the human race has not achieved and never will achieve its full potential, that word would be meetings. Proverbs 10:26 Like vinegar to the teeth, and smoke to the eyes, so are the lazy to their employers. Sam Ewing Nothing is so embarrassing as watching someone do something that you said couldn’t be done. Lily Tomlin â€Å"I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific.† Oscar Wilde The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one. Betty Reese If you think you are too small to be  effective, you have never been in the dark with a mosquito.† Ted Turner My son is now an entrepreneur. Thats what youre called when you dont have a job. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow â€Å"It takes less  time to do things right  than to explain why you did it wrong.† Henry Kissinger A diamond is merely a lump of coal that  did well under pressure.