Views of Burke, Wollstonecraft, & Paine
France in the 18th century dealt with the social imbalance. The lower class was in the social standing that the elite people thought they should be. The lower class consisted of peasants, serfs, and industrial workers. The lower class was taxed more and earned the lesser income. In the 18th century, who was the society lead by? The elite kings and queens and the throne was known to be passed down through generations. In stating this, it brings me to viewing the different views brought about from Edmond Burke, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Thomas Paine.
Each of the above individuals had different but similar points of view. First I will start off with Edmond Burke. Burke to me was a confusing writer because he was wealthy and he believed that the government needed changing but not necessarily the power taken from the elite.In the text when Burke is writing on the state on page 49, he makes a strong point about “happy effect of following nature”. Well I agree that you can not improve a society or a country without some type of improvement in the government. In our society today, things are forever changing and just think if we kept doing things in the norm. The same applies for the 18th century, how things can improve if you keep passing the power down from generation to generation in the elite society, speaking on the kings and queens as well as Burke’s family line. Are all men created equal? Well according to Burke, men were created equal in some areas but not in partnerships. I believe that if the men could share the power and authority of managing the government then why wasn’t the same weight carried over for the partnerships. I believe in being fair and all men should have been treated equal. Burke was very descriptive in describing the king and queen’s deaths. I couldn’t quite figure out if he was being comical or serious on this matter. I agree with Burke on yes society is a contract, because in the 18th century it was clear that if you were in an elite family then you were in the right contract.
Mary Wollstonecraft and Thomas Paine did not agree with Edmond Burke. Both believed in the fact that the lower class individuals needed to be treated with better respect. Wollstonecraft thought that it was unfair to keep the power in the hands of the elite ones. On page 62, Wollstonecraft states, “…if the poor are in distress…they will confer obligations, but not do justice.” The poor deserves to enjoy a pleasant life just as the rich. Thomas Paine makes a point that each generation should rule for itself. At every age and every season things change. Why not have new generations to think higher and better than the previous generations?
I will close this writing by stating that I truly side with Wollstonecraft and Paine because things should be done in a fair manner no matter the class standing!
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1 comment:
Mignon,
Good first effort for your blog. You make some good observations about these three writers, and your comments are especially effective when you provide textual support by quoting from Burke or Wollstonecraft. Too often, however, you seem to be generalizing about the texts and culture as a whole rather than focusing on specifics and analyzing them. In subsequent postings try to say more about less--don't feel that you need to cover everything, but dig deeper into a small part. You might just focus on one author or text, for example, rather than trying to talk about all of them. Also, you might try quoting a longer passage, discussing its context, and then analyzing what it means.
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