French Revolution

The French Revolution was one of the major events and a turning point in history. The reasons behind the revolution was that there was international affairs meaning that the "empire outstrips the fiscal resources of the state". Another one is political conflict which is the people's disagreement and the taxes that they laid on them. The Enlightenment was another big part of this. It introduces a "good government" which is talked about in Rousseau's Social Contract. Then there was King Louis XVI who was unreasonable to his people. People started to revolt against the government and King which soon led the king being executed by his own people.  It may be called the French Revolution, but it still affected other countries like England. Thomas Paine, an England writer, wrote a book around the time of the revolution called The Rights of Man. The book talks about how a revolution is a right thing when the government can't protect their people. Paine's book was also arguing with Edmund Burke at the time because Edmund believed that revolutions were wrong. Back on the topic though, Paine believes in this thing called "Natural Rights". This is a quote from Thomas Paine about Natural Rights:

"Natural Rights are those which always appertain to man in right of his existence. Of this kind are all the intellectual rights, or rights of the mind, and also all those rights of acting as an individual for his own comfort and happiness, which are not injurious to the rights of others."

Paine is saying that man should have control of their own body. That they shouldn't need someone to tell them on how they should live their life, or what ruler that they should be worshipping. Every human being works in different ways . This is what Thomas Paine was trying to get at, and this is why he supported the French Revolution. He liked how he saw the citizens over in French stand up for their rights. This all ties into romanticism because this focuses on human nature. Some people like how the country is being ran, but there are other people that want change. I get that a lot of people can't agree all on one thing, but people will soon start sensing when things are getting bad when they know they are getting treated unfairly.

Memoirs of the Author of a Vindication

On January 1798, publication of William Godwin’s Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. The publication of this first biography of Wollstonecraft causes a scandal and Godwin publishes a second “corrected” edition of the Memoirs in the summer of the same year.

Articles

Ghislaine McDayter, "On the Publication of William Godwin’s Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, 1798"

Related Articles

Anne K. Mellor, "On the Publication of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman"

Byronic Hero

Lord Byron

     A byronic hero is a term commonly used in literature to describe a character similar to Will Ladislaw in Middlemarch, or a variation of a romantic hero. Characters who are associated with the term byronic hero usually have internal conflicts with romance, go against the grain, may be damaged in some way from the past or exemplify traits of arrogance, intelligence and mysteriousness. The term was initially used by an English romantic poet by the name of Lord Byron in his poem “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” which was published between 1812-1818. Interestingly enough he drew lots of inspiration from himself when creating characters for his poems as they oftentimes matched his persona according to Wikipedia. It’s incredible that authors decades later are still using this term to create intriguing characters.

     After reading how a byronic hero is portrayed, a couple characters may come to mind from our reading of Middlemarch. Initially I had thought of Dorothea because she had a damaged past being an orphan and she had faced internal conflicts with romance between Casabuan and Will Ladislaw. However, this was a pretty common plot back in the day and looking further into the traits of a byronic hero it became obvious that Ladislaw exemplified them all.

     My reasoning behind choosing Will Ladislaw is because of the traits mentioned above, he has always gone against the grain. An example of this is him moving to Italy in order to pursue his studies, he also moved back to Middlemarch in pursuit of love, and ends up working at “The Pioneer” which gives him zero social rank (social rank was everything at this time). He obviously has internal conflicts with love when it comes to Casaubon and Dorothea and is arrogant and disrespectful in a sense when it comes to Edward Casabaun and keeping his distance; not interfering. Will is also a really bright kid, intelligent and mysterious as well which are all traits portrayed in a byronic hero.

     Wikipedia contributors. (2020, August 18). Byronic hero. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14:44, October 7, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Byronic_hero&oldid=973723367

Byron, "Darkness"

In July 1816, Lord Byron writes his poem, “Darkness,” a vision of chaotic disorder and universal extinction consequent upon the disappearance of the sun. Image: Thomas Philipps, Portrait of Lord Byron (1824). This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Martin Meisel, "On the Age of the Universe"

Gillen D'Arcy Wood, "1816, The Year without a Summer"

Byron's funeral rites

From 1–16 July 1824, public funeral rites for Byron in England. Following Byron’s death at Missolonghi, Greece, his body was returned to England for burial at Hucknall Torkard Church in Nottinghamshire. Image: Thomas Philipps, Portrait of Lord Byron (1824). This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Related Articles

Angela Esterhammer, “1824: Improvisation, Speculation, and Identity-Construction”