Literature - a Mirror of Society

The literature of a country

is affected and influenced by how the people of that

country live. This paper will prove that The French

Revolution greatly influenced 19th Century French

Romanticism. First, the cultural values of the revolution will

be identified. Then, the different aspects of Romanticism

will be presented. The cultural values of The French

Revolution and Romanticism will then be linked. Finally,

literary examples will be shown to support this connection

between the two movements. Before the Revolution, the

citizens of France lived in a strict, confined society with no

freedom to express their feelings. Government had imposed

strong, unfair laws on the common people (Compton's

Interactive Encyclopedia "French Revolution"). They

wanted a voice in a stable government with a strong

economy (Johnson 105) and a strong sense of individuality

and independence within the people. (Moss and Wilson

180) Eighteenth- century literature was much like the

society in which it was produced, restrained. Society was

divided into privileged and unprivileged classes, (Leinward

452) with Eighteenth- century writers focusing on the lives

of the upper class. (Thompson 857) These writers followed

"formal rules"(Thorlby 282), and based their works on

scientific observations and logic (Thompson 895). The

Revolution gave the common people and writers more

freedom to express feelings and stimulated them to use

reason. According to Thompson, The Revolution "had a

major impact on Nineteenth- Century European Life."

(895) It sent a strong wave of emotion and revival

throughout France (Peyre 59). This lead to new laws and

standards for the citizens, including newer, less imposing

literary standards. Romanticism marked a profound change

in both literature and thought. Romanticism, according to

Webster's Dictionary, is defined as "a literary movement

(as in early 19th century Europe) marked especially by an

emphasis on the imagination and emotions and