This was an interesting read. Usually when I read about history, it is boring to me, but not this time. I was notified of certain aspects of the French revolution that I did not know about. For example, I was unaware of the drastic transformations of French life and what they entailed:
“Political idealists took fire, enchanted by the bold reformation of French life, including not only a new government but also new street names, a new calendar (Year 1 beginning 21 September 1972) with new month names, new deities(the goddesses Reason, Liberty) and new national festivals to replace the old religions holidays.” (36)
Such extreme alterations brought perspectives that start out joyous, “Bliss was in it that dawn to be alive,” (36) and ended up shockingly horrific, “The scenes that I witnessed during the earlier years of the French Revolution when I was a resident in France, come back on me with appalling violence.”(36) These measures that were taken to promote further progression resulted in a chaotic regression that produced many battles between France and Britain.
In the time of this revolution, Helen Maria Williams became a prominent literary female figure who “fixed her reputation as a poet of liberal opinions.”(36-37) Through her vivid descriptions of her perspective of this revolution, “…Williams’ devotion had produced an unparalleled eyewitness narrative of more than twenty-five turbulent years.” (37) She portrayed the elements of the revolution that were considered beautiful or amazing in her work titled, “Letters Written in France, in the Summer of 1790”. Williams referred to the federation as a place she admires. She states, “I promised to send you a description of the federation: but it is not to be described!” (37) I believe that Williams was in the retrospective view of the revolution despite the various scenes of the revolution that she encountered. In her letter, “A Visit to the Bastille Prison”, she yearned to dwell in the past edifices of Paris than the “most perfect” ones. (39)
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Bianca,
ReplyDeleteI am glad to see you posting to your blog now, and making up for lost time!
I like the way you focus on a specific group of readings here, and especially on Williams's comments on the revolution. It is a good idea to quote specific passages, as you do here. However, you also need to discuss those quotations, and to show your own observations and speculations about them. You provide a lot of quotations (although often without saying who said them, or in what context), but don't go into depth in your discussion.
I would encourage you to look at some of your classmates's posts to see how they discuss the texts. I think that will help your posts be more insightful.
Bianca,
ReplyDeleteI think you do a good job briefly touching upon some aspects of the French Revolution. I think your right, in the beginning of the Revolution many of the common people were very joyous and excited for the change from corruption. But then the revolution turned ugly-- violent and bloody. I think you picked out some good quotes towards the end of your blog, but I was disappointed that you didn’t go into depth. Hope the next blog goes into more detail… I bet you have some interesting things to say about each work!
I really enjoyed your post. I didn't really like Williams that much but I think you did. That is evident by the fact that you tossed the other two writers by the waste side. I also like how you talked about your surprise about the extremes they went to such as renaming the months.
ReplyDeleteWhile I did enjoy it, is was only ok overall though. You have plenty of quotes but don't seem to analyze the quoters though. Just fill in those gaps and it will be great.