Schopenhauer Summary and Analysis

In the first half of the nineteenth century, Schopenhauer is the philosopher included in a group of pessimists, poets and composers considered the voices of the age. The Holy Alliance, Waterloo and Revolution of the Great Age are all over. The Bourbons are restored and Napoleon is exiled on St. Helena. Life starts over at the bottom again on the Continent. The European economy recovers slowly and painfully from the losses of war. Schopenhauer travels through France and Austria where he is affected by the chaos, poverty, unrest and misery of the towns he visits. The Revolution is dead and the life of hope and Utopias is gone out of the soul of Europe. The poor still have the consolation of religious hope but the upper classes lose it as well as their riches. Conditions in 1818 make it hard to believe...