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The Swing shows why the French revolted:
1. The young noble and the priest collaborating to deceive the "innocent" female aristocrat is a great metaphor for the collaboration that existed between the Church and the nobility in the French parliament prior to the Revolution of 1789(Called "Estates General"). The parliament was divided into 3 estates (1st: clergy; 2nd: nobility; and 3rd everyone else including the Bourgeois). The 1st and 2nd estate (only 3% of the French population) would systematically outvote the 3rd Estate 2 to 1, making the voting system totally unfair, and making France a country totally controlled by only a few people. Enlightenment thinkers would criticize this absence of fair representation.
2. The Swing also represents the court culture of Versailles and what was wrong with it: Marie Antoinette nicknamed "Mme Deficit" (explain why);
Marie's tarnished reputation as it took her years to conceive an heir; France becomes bankrupt: $5 billions to build Versailles (Louis 14th); billions more to entertain nobles; millions to finance war efforts during American War of Independence (Louis 16th)- Explain |
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The Death of Marat is the embodiement of the equality that the French tried to force upon the French people during the reign of Terror, as per Rousseau philosophy (the government's duty is to force equality upon people):
1. Marat was a journalist owning l'Ami du Peuple. Marat's journalism essentially focused on the call to assassinate the ennemies of the Revolution with the guillotine during teh Terror. The guillotine was seen as establishing equality by killing all institutions with privileegs (nobles, clergy)and by giving equal death: the guillotine used to be reserved to nobles prior to the French Revolution. It was said to be more humane, quick and painless. During teh Terror, anyone would be able to be executed in a proper manner, yeah!!!...
Marat would later on be murdered by Charlotte Corday, a young women from the city of Caen who thought that silencing Marat would put an end to the Terror.
2. Marat became a martyr, a saint as part of the French policy of "dechristianization". The idea again was to create equality with the elimination of the privileges of the Catholic Church (thousands of priests murdered, the land of the church is seized and sold; a new Republican Calendar starts in 1792- now Year 1 replacing the Christian calendar). At the same time, Robespierre did not believe in an atheist society. Therefore, he created the Cult of the Supreme Being, a national religion putting a new emphasis on Reason (the main deity being the Goddess of Reason) and new saints such as Marat, represented by David as the new Jesus, the martyr that saved the French people. This new religion died with the death of Robespierre a few years later. |
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The Oath of the Horatii is a metaphor for Locke's idea that a government should represent its people and when it does not, people are entitled to revolt against it:
1. This mythical oath is a metaphor for a real oath, the Tennis Court Oath that took place in 1789. Explain the circumstances of the oath, starting with the meeting at Versailles called by the King to discuss the dire financial situation of France to the deputies being locked out and gathering in a nearby tennis court, calling themselves the new "National Assembly": the true reporesentatives of the French people asking for a reform of the voting system discussed with the Swing and a new Constitution. For the first time, these deputies are saying that the government no longer represent them and call for a change of government.
2. The storming of the Bastille on July 14th 1789 was the 1st act of violence against the oppressive monarchy, and a symbol of the new found freedom of the French revolutionaries (the Bastille being a stone dungeon and a state prison for political opponents, symbol of feudalism) |
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The Coronation of Napoleon OR/AND the 3rd of May
Both paintings seem to indicate the philosophy of Hobbes with the rise of Napoleon with the need of an enlightenend despot who protects the people and forces them to embrace fraternity:
National draft created by Danton during the French Revolution to fight the external ennemies iof the French Revolution (Prussia, Austria, Spain) as monarchies felt that democracy might spread to the erst of Europe. The National draft created the sentiment of patriotism and nationalism, the idea that you fight for your country, not because a king wants you to. Napoleon later used the draft to invade all of Europe and export some of the ideals of the French Revolution to many countries.
Civil Code establishing we are all brothers and all entitled to the protection of the law. The Code turns the general principles of the Declaration of the Rights of Man into enforeceable laws. Napoleon also promoted public education, allowing people to experience diversity at school. |
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