research paper theme-understanding french literature, art and culture

French Culture: War& Literature 1

Understanding the French Revolution of 1789 using various literature works

by Non-Fictional and Fictional Thinkers.

Tristan Guesdon,

Research Scholar, Lycée félix le dantec,

[email protected]

Utsav Shah,

Research Scholar, Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce

[email protected]

Abstract:

The French Revolution has an incredible impact on the world and has played an

important role in giving birth to the other revolutions. But the major impact has been on France

as it has given the founding bases for all the modern French culture. To explain the theme and

the subject, we are starting with an introduction of the French revolution and further, have

hereby chosen to analyze the writings of various fictional and non fictional writers and have

compared their philosophies.


I. The French Revolution

The French Revolution of 1789 has always been considered as a period witnessing a

complete political and social uplift between the years 1789 and 1799, further continued by

Napoleon, to expand his empire of France. This revolution introduced a modern revolution

bearing the idea that humans can always change the world, if followed a specific plan and

therefore, the French Revolution has reportedly been the most important aspect in the study of

Social Sciences. The liberal and progressive ideology in the latter half of the 18th century had

successfully inspired the overthrow of the monarchy, thus establishing a permanent republic after

a series of periods of violent political turmoil. However, the revolution finally led to a

dictatorship rule of Napoleon who had further implied his principles in Western Europe. (Frey,

The French Revolution)

With the help of revolutionary wars, the French Revolution encouraged a lot of global

conflicts right from the Southern American region to the Middle East. It marked the start of

‘modernity’ by wiping out the old regime, which included the eradication of Monarchy and

Aristocracy, establishment of absolutist politics, an alliance of the church and the state and a

vision to have a new righteous universe. The causes behind this ‘Révolution française’ are still

debated by historians and sociologists all around the world as this revolution is considered to be

one of the most important events in the history of humanity. (Fehér). Today, the modern era has

taken place in the shadow of this revolution which has given France, its cultural symbols of

Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. In fact, the future revolutions which took place always looked

back to the French Revolution as a precursor. The French Revolution encouraged the rise of the

democrats and the republics globally and became a medium for development of modern political

and social ideologies. (Avrom)

France had suffered enormous losses post The Seven Years War (1755-1764) and

The America Revolutionary War (1775-1783) which was followed by an inefficient tax system.

The Economic conditions intensified when the crop failure in 1788 and cold weather conditions

in 1788/89 lead to revolts in the various parts of France. (Waldinger, Drought and the French

Revolution:). Louis XVI was conferred the throne in the middle of the crisis situation when the

state was just nearing bankruptcy. After the dismissal of then finance minister Turgot in 1776, a


foreigner named Jacques Necker was appointed as the Comptroller General of Finance of France.

However, he was not given the post of an official minister as he was a Protestant by religion.

Necker pointed that the excessive regressive tax system in France burdened the lower classes

who could not be taxed further. To solve the country’s fiscal shortages, there should be a

reduction in the exemptions given to the Nobles and the Clergies. However, this was not

accepted by the King’s ministers. (Hibbert)

The Estate’s General of 1789 was made of representatives from all the three estates

which had not convened since 1614. They convoked on 5th May 1789, which was then followed

by a number of events like the direct declaration of the National Assembly of the Communes,

attempts of the king to prevent the meeting of the delegates, the Tennis Court Oath and the

failure of Louis to disperse the delegates. The National Constituent Assembly was formed on the

9th of July which then began to function as a constitution drafter and work as a government body.

(Fling)

The revolutionists had always set their eyes upon the large ammunitions and weapons

hidden inside the fortress of Bastille, which were considered to be mark of royal power. After

hours and hours of combat, the prison fell by the afternoon of 11th July 1789. Although the

Prison had held not more than seven prisoners, the fortress of Bastille had always served as a

symbol of everything hated since the times of the ancient regimes. After returning to the Hôtel de

Ville, the city hall, the mob charged the mayor, Jacques de Flesselles for disloyalty and

butchered him. (Schama)

The reign of Terror between 5 September 1793 and 28 July 1794, also known as ‘The

Terror’ took place after the commence of the French Revolution, mainly because of the conflict

between the two political rivals, the Girondins and the Jacobins. The death toll went up to tens of

thousands. Many historians have discussed the reasons behind the French Revolution taking

radical turns during ‘The Terror’. The promises by the revolution about social equality and

implementation of anti poverty measures were not fulfilled which frustrated the public to no

extends. (Linton)

On 25 December 1793, Maximilien Robespierre stated: The goal of the constitutional

government is to conserve the republic; the aim of the revolutionary government is to find it. The


revolutionary government owes to the good citizen all the protection of the nation; it owes

nothing to the enemies of the people but death. These notions would be enough to explain the

origin and the nature of laws that we call revolutionary. If the revolutionary government must be

more active in its march and freer in his movements than an ordinary government, is it for that

less fair and legitimate? No, it is supported by the most holy of all laws: the salvation of the

people. (Heynen)

On 5 February 1794, Robespierre stated more succinctly that, "Terror is nothing else

than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible. (Stearns)

The government in a revolution is the despotism of liberty against tyranny. (Halsall)

The fall of Robespierre was brought by a mutual agreement of those who wished to have

more authority for the Public Safety Committee than Robespierre was willing to permit and the

moderates who were opposing the revolutionary government throughout. Therefore after

Robespierre’s execution, new members were elected, also reducing the powers one by one.

The French revolution has received huge amounts of historical recognition, both from

scholars as well as the general public. It was a fundamental transformation altogether which

started from the elimination of privileges and continued with the replacement by rights, thus

promoting the decline in social differences and encouraging the establishment of the principle of

equality throughout the Revolution. Thus socialism, which is a co-operative model of the society,

was introduced by the French revolution which further influenced revolutions in future.

II. Non-fictional writers and the Revolution

We have seen that the French Revolution was not just a single event of riot and protest in a

given moment of history but was, a set of complex events which led to political, social and

economic transformations. The continued transformations in the XIXth century encouraged many

thinkers to make historical and social inquiries in order to understand the true nature of this

Revolution. Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) and Jules Michelet (1798-1874) were two

famous examples, who had published studies about the French Revolution. Though their points


of views are different, their studies are interesting as the two men had opposite political leanings

and their historical methods were contrasting.

A) Their lives

1. Tocqueville

Alexis de Tocqueville was born in 1805 in Paris, during the First Empire, in a noble, monarchist

and pious family. Tocqueville always feared any type of Revolution and popular violence as his

parents had escaped death with the grace of the 9th-Thermidor military coup (MÉLONIO). He

was a advocate by profession and became a judge in 1826, when France had come back to a

constitutional monarchy, under the reign of Charles X. But what made him famous was a nine-

month journey in the USA in 1831, from which he published his major work De la Démocratie

en Amérique in 1835 and 1840. In this book, he analyses the American spirit and the way

American democracy guarantees both freedom and equality (Aron). This study has been having

an international influence since always, and hence, Tocqueville is considered as the father of

sociology.

Though he was always interested in American issues, France remained his main preoccupation.

He became a Member of the Parliament in 1839 and after the end of constitutional monarchy in

1848; he was named as the minister for foreign affairs of the Second Republic. According to

him, the supreme goal of political action was to protect freedom, abolish colonial serfdom and

guarantee press liberty for instance, the Larousse. But his political career was ended by the

Second Empire, in 1851. Then he went back to writing and published L'Ancien Régime et la

Révolution in 1856, a sociological and historical analysis of the Revolution's long-term

consequences. Tocqueville died in 1859 at the age of 54 but still remains a fore-seeing thinker of

modern times.

2. Michelet

Jules Michelet was born in 1798 in Paris, a few years before Napoleon seized power. Unlike

Tocqueville, his family members were commoners and poor. His father was a printer and went

bankrupt in 1808 after which, daily life became hard. But young Jules was brought up by his


father in a revolutionary and republican spirit. A brilliant schoolboy, he passed his high-school

degree in 1817 and finished his Ph.D. in 1819 (Encyclopedie). He made his career under the

monarchy, both as a teacher at the École Normale Supérieure, where he was famous for his

passionate and improvised lessons, and as a writer (Henri). He published many historical books

and novels, but his masterwork is undoubtedly his book, ‘Histoire de la Révolution Française’,

published between 1847 and 1853. As he refused to pledge allegiance to the new emperor

Napoleon IIIrd in 1851, he was kept out of the public affairs. But he still assisted the Republican

victory before his death in 1874, thus remaining as a talented writer and historian in our

memories.

B) Their political opinions

1. Tocqueville: Monarchist in his heart, republican in his mind

Raymond Aron thinks that Tocqueville's political ideal is “a compromise between a society's

democratization and a strengthening of liberal institutions in a constitutional monarchy.” (261).

This idea comes both from the Constitutive Assembly of 1789, who wished to preserve the

monarchy by giving it a democratic impetus, and also from the United States, the main example

of a liberal and democratic country in the world, according to Tocqueville. He regrets that France

could not conciliate liberty and equality. For example, the wish of having social justice led to the

Terror, a freedom-killing government, in 1793, just like Minister Guizot's liberal policy triggered

the 1848 Revolution. But liberty is not as strong as equality. Tocqueville thinks that “the gradual

and progressive development of equality is both from the past and the future of History.” This

means that democracy, which is defined as an attempt to reach equality, is an indomitable, an

irresistible force; whereas liberty, is a weaker value which is never a definitive conquest.

“I have no other purpose, no other cause than human freedom and dignity”, he writes in an 1850

letter.

Revolutions, as they are always outlawed, are considered as possible threats by Tocqueville

(Aron). Consequently, he is very cautious in his political choices and actions, for both his

monarchist values and his strong attraction liberalism, but he was never a democrat. This in fact,


explains why his work has always been unknown to the French for almost a century, which

became famous only after the Second World War.

2. Michelet: “People's theologian”, patriot and republican.

Michelet's political ideas are both stronger and less cautious than Tocqueville's ideas. In his

book, ‘Histoire de France’ which was published in 1833, he wrote about the French people's

history instead of the French history (Encyclopedie) He insisted on modest lives, for instance,

describing cathedral builders or revolted peasants. His son-in-law, Dumesnil, called him a

“people's theologian” as Michelet considered his people, his religious idols.

He was also moved by a deep national feeling. This is seen clearly when he describes the battle

of Valmy, which opposed the new Republican army to the Prussian soldiers. The French were

observed shouting “Vive la Nation!” (Long live the Nation!). Although they were negatively

geared, they won the battle with the grace of their republican ideas. (Michelet 205).

Michelet's work was widely acknowledged under the Third Republic (1870-1940) because of his

republican opinion. His vision of History inspired school teaching during this period, as it was

used to grow a patriotic feeling in children’s minds, and it also contributed to remembering the

great national heroes.

C) Their methods

Although they wrote studies about the Revolution in the same period, Tocqueville and Michelet

are totally opposite in the way they studied History.

1. Michelet

Reading ‘L'Histoire de la Révolution Française’ is a very interesting experience. Events are

chronologically classified and cut into various episodes, which were firstly published in a

newspaper, like a novel. History looks like a great and epic story: Michelet is not only describing

and listing facts, he is painting and giving life to persons and events.

He writes about General Dumouriez :


“This daring Gascon (from Gascony, a French region), who was leading the French to the battle,

had a Southerner's sparkle in his eye as well as in his speech, brightening this dark weather.

Dumouriez's look was firing their hearts. It was said that, as a hussar at twenty, he had been

hacked to pieces. Well, he was now fifty, and he was no worse for it...”

Michelet's talent appears in the above lines. A detailed, short but expressive use words.

However, (Henri) Calvet underlines that these literary qualities “lead historians to reproach

Michelet of being more of a poet than a scientist” (9). Indeed, the beauty of republican lyricism

has a cost, giving up impartiality, or to explain with scientific words; axiologic neutrality.

Though he had been the director of Paris archives, and had access to a wide range of

information, he was often blamed for not taking these sources into account and for giving way to

his fantasy. Moreover, Michelet himself acknowledges that for him “social issues, understood as

a perpetual quarrel between proprietors and non-proprietors” are secondary (11). Yet, this is

surely the sign of an obsolete historical epistemology, which has since been replaced by an

analysis of class conflicts to understand society.

2. Tocqueville

L'Ancien Régime et la Révolution is an “attempt to explain historical events sociologically”

(Aron)

Indeed, Tocqueville's purpose is contrary to Michelet’s purpose who aims to tell History and to

understand the deeper causes of it. He does not consider the Revolution as a “fortuity pure and

simple” (240) and tries to analyze the continuity between the old order and the Revolution,

instead of their disconnection (as many of his contemporaries did). According to him, the

absolute monarchy already represented a tendency to fight against the Aristocrats' feudal power

through the development of a centralized administration. Therefore, his work is that of an

investigator, who as a witness of his troubled times, refuses to take the visible events into

account and wants to dwell on long-term dynamics.

He also contrasts with Michelet on the epistemological aspect and claims, before Karl Marx:


“I am speaking of classes. They must be our only focus.” This holistic point of view enables him

to write in a sober and more rational style than Michelet's narratives which are full of passion.

Hence, his numerous scientific works have an overwhelming relevance even today.

III. Fictional writers and the Revolution

We have seen that the French Revolution had always been a popular topic for thinkers, like

the historians or the sociologists. But, it was always one of the major parts of the French

literature, especially during the XIXth century. Novelists and poets, who often worked the same,

wrote some great work on the French Revolution: Here, we shall be reading about Balzac

Châteaubriand and Hugo, three famous writers from the XIXth century.

A) Balzac et le roman historique

Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850), often called as the leader of realist novels, is one of the most

famous writers of all the French literature. While he was young, he moved to Paris to try

climbing the social ladder and, after trying to write plays in verse, he was able to buy a printing

house in 1825.

But as he could not earn from his business very well, he was forced to start writing novels. The

‘Human Comedy’, a result of a very slow evolution, was a compilation of the immense work by

Balzac between 1829 and 1850. It is a compilation of around 91 finished works, which include

stories, novels and analytical essays and 46 unfinished works (some of which exist only in titles).

This title, in fact, shows his wish to create an overall picture of the moral, philosophical,

economic and political portrait of the society of his times. He died at a very young age of 51.

His first novel, published in 1829, speaks of the revolutionary period, especially, the period of

resistance against the counter revolutionary monarchist in Brittany. The Chouans, who gave their

name to the novel, were Breton soldiers who defended the King and the Catholic Church against

the Republic after the Revolution. The action, fictitious but realistic, takes place in 1799 during

Napoleon's seizure of power. It tells the struggle between Hulot, an officer in the Republican


Army, and the Marquis de Montauran, noble leader of the Chouans. The French police, led by

Fouché, a real historical personality, sends a spy, Marie de Verneuil, to trap the Marquis, but she

falls in love with him…

To write this novel, Balzac, in the year 1827, traveled to the town of Fougeres in Brittany and

listened to many stories (The Varende 11). The events he talks about had taken place only 30

years ago and hence, the memory of the Breton was still easy to operate. Balzac, who in all his

novels wants to write realistically, gave a lot of importance to proper documentation of his work.

The characters and the Brittany’s landscapes were represented faithfully by him.

The political aspects of Balzac and the novel Chouans are interesting because they are partly

contradictory. Balzac is often known for his "monarchist and Catholic views" (Lagarde and

Michard 303). He was close to the aristocratic values perhaps by literary fantasy. It would have

been expected that the Chouans disclose those views. But according to Jean de La Varende, the

novel is "surprisingly impartial" (11), and thus, we cannot guess the political ideas of the author

just by reading the text directly. Indeed, the descriptions of the soldiers and the various

characters in the story do not take any particular person’s side and also, do not defend anybody.

The art of the author is primarily that of a painter, who wants to show a colored picture to his

readers, somewhat in Michelet’s way of conducting a political fight. All the liveliness of

Balzac’s realism is already present in his first novel.

B) Chateaubriand, A worried Romanticist

François-René de Chateaubriand (1768-1848) is nowadays perhaps less famous than Balzac. But

this writer is an aristocrat from Brittany and a very important figure of his time. In the French

literature, he is generally considered as the first French romantic author because of his style full

of personal lyricism. ‘René’, his short novel which was published in 1802, is the voice of a

generation disoriented by political changes and social upheaval of the revolution, and of

loneliness resulting from the abandonment of traditions from one generation who were unable to

live in their own way in this century.

Chateaubriand’s views about the Revolution have changed during his life. First an atheist and

then a freedom lover, he favors to start the Revolution. (Lagarde and Michard 29). However, he


is shocked by the scenes of violence, as he tells in his autobiography, ‘Mémoires d'Outre-

Tombe’. Seeing the revolutionaries carrying two heads of the ministers of the King at the end of

the spades he reacts:

« « Bandits ! » I exclaimed, full of an indignation I could not hold back, « is it your way to

express freedom ? » Had I had a gun at hand I would have fired off these scoundrels like

wolves. […] These heads and others I saw soon after made me change my political leanings ; I

loathed these cannibal feasts and the idea of leaving France for some faraway country

germinated in my mind. » (de.)

Indeed, Chateaubriand went into exile for 9 years, before returning to France in 1800. He

published ‘Génie du Christianisme’ in 1802. This book is an apologia in favor of the Catholic

religion, which the Revolution wished to remove from the mindsets; to which is attached by

Chateaubriand in his education and social standing. The publication of this work is a political

act, because the monarchy and the Catholic Church worked together. The publication had a

major impact on French culture, as explained by Lagarde and Michard.

« Génie du Christianisme made people enthusiastic because it showed to the French that they did

not have to be ashamed of their religion. » (44)

But the author himself had great political career. For instance, he opposed with violence the

tyranny of Napoleon through a pamphlet, ‘De Buonaparte et des Bourbons’ in 1814, which

according to King Louis XVIII, was more useful to the return of the monarchy than an army of

one hundred thousand men. (Lagarde and Michard 30). He then became a leader of the ultra-

royalists in the Assembly and organized, as then Minister of Foreign Affairs, a counter

revolution against Spain in 1823. His political ideas clearly became hostile to the Revolution.

However, he died in 1848, being aware that he had lived in a crucial period which could not be

avoided.

« I have lived betwixt and between two centuries, like at the confluence of two rivers ; I have

plunged into their troubled waters, moving away from the old riverbank where I was born, with

regrets but swimming towards an unknown shore with hope. » (Lagarde)


C) Hugo, a passionate republican.

"I want to be Chateaubriand or nothing" wrote Victor Hugo (1802-1885) at the age of 14. Today,

one can reasonably assume that Hugo has exceeded its model. He has himself become the

symbol of literary genius in France, and his name is attached to the victory of romanticism. His

work is colossal and varied: novels, plays, lyric poetry are all literary genres he explored

throughout his life. After spending his childhood making trips in Italy and Spain, he studied in

Paris and was acknowledged for his talent very early in his life by the prestigious French

Academy, for example, which includes the major French writers today.

In 1819, he wrote with his brothers in a Catholic and monarchist journal ‘Le Conservateur

Littéraire’ (Lagarde and Michard 153). But in reality, although he retains a respect for tradition,

Hugo is a great innovator in arts just like in politics. Thus, the first performance of his play

Hernani in 1830 triggered a riot between the classicists and the romantic spectators, because the

style of this piece was very new and mixed comedy and tragedy. Hugo talks about this event in

his preface by saying that "Romanticism is after all, nothing but liberalism in literature. "(154).

He defines his idea of the relationship between poetry and political poet in his ‘Fonction du

poète’, published in 1839:

« Malheur à qui prend ses sandales

Quand les haines et les scandales

Tourmentent le peuple agité !

Honte au penseur qui se mutile

Et s'en va, chanteur inutile,

Par la porte de la cité ! »

"Woe betide him who takes his sandals

When hatred and scandals

Torment the agitated people !

Shame upon the thinker who censors himself

And leaves, useless songster,

Through the doors of the city !"


Hugo feels indeed, very concerned for public affairs. He was elected in 1848 and is very

enthusiastic for the Republic. He fought the death penalty and campaigning for the abolition of

slavery in the French colonies. He became entirely Republican. In addition, he is famous for

having fought against the new Empire of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (1851-1870) in Les

Châtiments, a collection of satirical poems against the Emperor. He multiplies the attacks, but in

different forms. For example, he wants to show the contrast between the magnanimity of the

Revolution (= magnanimity) and the infamy of the Empire by writing a an epic poem on the

soldiers of the First Republic (Lagarde and Michard 167 ):

« La Révolution leur criait : — Volontaires,

Mourez pour délivrer tous les peuples vos

frères ! —

Contents, ils disaient oui. »

"The Revolution called on the soldiers :

Volunteers,

Let's die to free all the peoples, your brothers !

Happy, they acquiesced."

At the end of his life, after the return of the Republic in France, his popularity was immense.

Parisians had celebrated his Eightieth birthday publicly. On the occasion of his death in 1885, he

was given the honor of a state funeral at the famous Pantheon and the Arc de Triomphe. Today,

many public buildings, schools, streets, libraries, bear his name.

Conclusion

Hence, to conclude, the French revolution has always and might always play an

important role in determining the importance of the other world revolutions and it is because of

these above writers that these revolutions are still alive. We hope that the above paper explained

well the major ideas behind the French Revolution viz. the overthrowing of the tyranny and the

establishment of freedom as a political value.

Works CitedAron, Raymond. Les étapes de la pensée sociologique. . Paris: Gallimard , 1976.


Avrom, David. The First Total War: Napoleon's Europe and the birth of warfare as we know it. New York, 2007.

de., François-René. Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe. . Paris: Larousse, 1973.

Encyclopedie. n.d. 10th November 2015. <http://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/personnage/Charles_Alexis_Henri_Cl%C3%A9rel_de_Tocqueville/146951>.

Épisodes de la Révolution Française. Perf. and MICHELET, Jules Henri. 1966.

Fehér, Ferenc. The French Revolution and the Birth of Modernity. University of California Press; Reprint edition (August 4, 1990, 1990.

Fling, Fred Morrow. Source problems on the French revolution. New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1913.

Frey, Linda S. Frey and Marsha L. The French Revolution. Manhattan: Greenwood; annotated edition edition (February 28, 2004), (2004).

—. The French Revolution . Greenwood; annotated edition edition (February 28, 2004), 2004.

Halsall, Paul. Modern History SourceBook. 1997.

Heynen, Jacques. Murders Without Assassins. Lulu.com (14 September 2008), 2008.

Hibbert, Christopher. The Days of the French Revolution. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1980.

Lagarde. XIXe siècle, les grands auteurs français du programme. Bordas: 1985, Amdre and Micnar.

Linton, Dr. Marisa. "The Terror in the French Revolution." n.d. Kingston University, UK. <http://www.port.ac.uk/special/france1815to2003/chapter1/interviews/filetodownload,20545,en.pdf>.

MÉLONIO, Jean-Claude and. “Biographie”. Tocqueville. Paris: R. Laffont, 2004.

Schama, Simon. Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution. 1990.

Stearns, Raymond P. Pageant of Europe. 1947.

Waldinger, Maria. Drought and the French Revolution. n.d.

—. Drought and the French Revolution:. n.d. London School of Economics. <https://personal.lse.ac.uk/fleischh/Drought%20and%20the%20French%20Revolution.pdf>.

∑ Quotations from the French books have been translated by Anne-Marie GUESDON.

research paper theme-understanding french literature, art and culture

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