The Influence of the French Revolution upon British Romanticism
Summary:
The French Revolution inspired writers of the Romantic period, who supported the revolution at first because of its potential for political and social change. Effects of the revolution in later years, however, including the impact of Napoleon, led Romantic writers to write of Napoleon's cruelty, escaping to nature to get away from the real world and its problems, victims of war, and other related topics. The work of Romantic poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge offer good examples of this development.
The French Revolution had an important influence on the writing of the Romantic period, inspiring writers to address themes of democracy and human rights and to consider the function of revolution as a form of change. In the beginning, the French Revolution was supported by writers because of the opportunities it seemed to offer for political and social change. When those expectations were frustrated in later years, Romantic poets used the spirit of revolution to help characterize their poetic philosophies. In this essay I am going to concentrate on the influence of the French revolution on two great romantic writers, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
William Wordsworth clearly depicted Napoleon on his writing where he fought against him. In the beginning of the revolution Wordsworth appears enthusiastic and writes in favor of the revolution but after Napoleon takes over we see that enthusiasm turning into hatred for France's aggressive imperialism. Wordsworth sonnets prove that Napoleon was very much in his mind in 1805, when he was working on the "Prelude", and specifically when he crosses the Alps and he refers to Mont Blanc.
"The day we first
Beheld the summit of Mont Blanc, and grieved
To have a soulless image on the eye
Which had usurped upon a living thought
That never more could be." (1805 Prelude, VI.453-457)
Wordsworth goes across the Alps and into Italy through his sonnets as a specific indication of Napoleon's military activities of the previous years. Using a very powerful way through his writing, Wordsworth accomplishes to show his anger for Napoleon's actions during his participation in the revolution and particularly here the Alpine crossing.
Furthermore Wordsworth continues his intellectual conflict with Napoleon in "The Convention of Cintra", in which the poet criticizes Napoleon's power as being imaginary. However Wordsworth and Coleridge recognize Napoleon's ingenious talent to act far beyond the imagination. They depict Napoleon to be evil and similar to Milton's Satan.
Wordsworth and Coleridge reflect Napoleon as Satan because of his pretended role as liberator of Europe from monarchy, where at the same time illustrating Napoleon in the Miltonic role gives him an ironically heroic figure while it attacks him.
In the case of the Peninsula War Wordsworth argues that Napoleon has finally revealed his true nature by attacking rather the people and not a government
Coleridge's "Fear in Solitude" is a great example of the influence of the French revolution upon the British romanticism. "Fears in Solitude" is a very significant work for the reason that it was written during the alarm of an invasion. Moreover it is extremely topographical in order to give an idea of the location in which the poet was inspired. Place and time are very important elements in Coleridge's writing and in this particular work he expresses he fears of a possible invasion. Here Coleridge portrays nature as a spiritual gateway, an escape from the real world and the anxiety created by a potential invasion. So he finds a "green and silent spot" a place in nature which takes him away from the terrible news that was expected to arrive. Furthermore we see Coleridge to admit that his own people have done some horrible deeds in the past, however he pleads to God to forgive him, and his countrymen and spare England from destruction.
"The desolation and the agony
Of our fierce doings"
Spare us yet awhile!
Father and God! Oh spare us yet awhile!
Let not English woman drag their flight..."
Additionally he prays to God to destroy their enemy.
"Render them back upon th' insulted ocean,
And let them toss as idly on its waves
As the vile seaweeds which some mountain blast
Swept from our shores!"
Coleridge also shows his great affection and appreciation that he has for England and the fruit it offered him.
"Oh native Britain! Oh my mother isle!
How shouldst thou prove aught else but dear and holy
To me, who from thy lakes and mountain hills,
Thy clouds, thy quiet dales, thy rocks and seas,
Have drunk in all my intellectual life.."
As we come to see in "Fears of Solitude" the French revolution, and more particularly the fear of an invasion, encouraged Coleridge in bonding more with nature and approaches it as a divine getaway. Also he appears to connect more with God and appreciate England more than he ever did in his life.
A child, who either dies with its parents or is left an unprotected orphan as a result of war, is yet another much used theme of the war by Wordsworth's. "The Female Vagrant" 1798, tells the story of a woman which becomes a victim of war.
"The pains and plagues that on our heads came down
Disease and famine, agony and fear,
In wood or wilderness, in camp or town
It would thy brain unsettle even to hear.
All perished; all, in one remorseless year,
Husband and children!"
The French revolution influenced tremendously the writings of the romantics during that period. Different poets depicted different issues concerning the revolution such as Napoleon's cruelty, poets escape to nature in getting away of the real world and its problems, victims of war and various other realistic situations which were effects from war. William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge are two of the major figures of the romantic period and their writings had a great impact on people and the anti-revolutionary spirit.
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