The French monarch’s totalitarian authority stirred the French revolution between the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. It is during this period that ideals of equality, human rights, social difference and citizenships were manifested. The French revolution inspired some architecture styles including neo-classicism (Soboul, 1974)
The Bastille was a symbol of King Louis’s absolute power and dictatorial authority. Political prisoners and anyone who dared to challenge the monarchy was locked up at the Bastille. Those imprisoned at this royal fortress were victims of the King’s direct orders. The prisoners did not undergo any trial to prove their innocence. There was a severe food shortage that sparked a resentment against King Louis. Efforts for dialogue by the clergy and other representatives of the people became futile. The people decided to revolt and fight for their rights. The fortress was taken down after the soldiers guarding it were killed. Seven prisoners at the Bastille got released by the invaders. The King and his wife Marie Antoinette were charged with treason and got executed marking the end of the dictatorial regime. The neo-classic architecture was used to demonstrate revolt against political and aristocratic social norms in the era of Enlightenment (Soboul, 1974).
The French revolution influenced poetry writing during that period. Poets in that period known as romantic poets were inspired to write about the absolute and French rule. Some of the poets included Percy Shelley, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, and William Wordsworth. Percy Shelley in her poem ‘Prometheus Unbound’ reveals life during the French revolution.
“And toil, and hecatombs of broken hearts,
With fear and self-contempt and barren hope.
Whilst me, who am thy foe, eyeless in hate,
Hast thou made reign and triumph, to thy scorn,
O'er mine own misery and thy vain revenge.
Three thousand years of sleep-unsheltered hours,
And moments aye divided by keen pangs
Till they seemed years, torture and solitude,
Scorn and despair,—these are mine empire”(`Shelley & Zillman, 1959)
This excerpt a picture of how the French suffered in the hands of King Louis. Torture, pain and despair is all they knew.
References
Bastille-day.com. (2015).Retrieved 20 May 2016, from http://bastille-day.com/media/bastille day-2.jpg
Shelley, P. & Zillman, L. (1959). Prometheus unbound. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Soboul, A. (1974). The French Revolution, 1787-1799: From the storming of the Bastille to Napoleon. London: NLB.
