Liberty, Equality, Fraternity

I was really happy to actually read about a topic that has been for us, French citizens, a tremendous source of hope and talent (political talent, writing talent) even though the best writers (Philosophe du siecles des lumieres, Age of Enlightenment, such as Voltaire, Diderot, Montesquieu, or again Rousseau) of the time flourished beforehand coming up with the same ideas that have been “yelled” during the French Revolution (Liberte, Egalite Fraternite meaning liberty, equality, brotherhood). Because the French Revolution illuminates the biggest contrast our country has ever witnessed, it is a part of our history that can not be forgotten or overlooked. Philosophical evolution, or upgraded cultural living, along with social disparities or tyrannical monarchy created a strange spectacle to be a part of. However writers at that time could not have hindsight enough about the French Revolution yet, as Samuel Taylor Coleridge mentions (last line of the introductory paragraph p.36). Historians, later on, will be much more logical and dispassionate about that period. For my first entry regarding the thoughts and problems encountered during the French Revolution, I wanted to talk to you more about Helen Maria Williams as I thought she had a very interesting point of view on that period of French history. She was in the heart of what has been known as some of the most agitated and “terrifying” years of France. In her “Letters Written in France, in the Summer of 1790,” she describes how complicated it was to judge the Federation at the time. By stating, “How am I to give you an adequate idea of the behaviour of the spectators? How am I to paint the impetuous feelings of that immense, that exulting multitude?” Williams was attempting to transmit to her friend back in England a thought of how connected together by such an important cause people in the Federation were. She writes a description of the procession she witnessed in the most precise manner I have ever seen but what shocked me the most was how she depicted the scene at the Bastille Prison as it was a place you could only have nightmares of. She sees prisoners as people being kept captive, hostage of such a repressive system. You can feel a bit of regret, remorse, and compassion in her text especially when she mentions: “and to these regions of horror were human creatures dragged at the caprice of despotic power.” I find that sentence very intense, even to the point of giving me goose bumps!!
The second passage I wanted to focus on was the very thoughtful and complicated definition of liberty, that principle that is so important to human nature, given by Mary Wollstonecraft (bottom of page 57). She is aware that liberty was just a concept that has not been really understood nor fully grasped by anyone in France at the time. One of her main questions would resume to: How can leaders, heirs to a throne rather than chosen by the people, not respect who they are in charge of to the point of betraying their rights? Thirst for unconditional power might be the answer to that question…