Romanticism and Rousseau



Jean- Jacques Rousseau
(28 June 1712  – 2 July 1778)



The first lecture of semester two was based around romanticism and the ideas of Jean Jacques Rousseau. Romanticism began in the 19th century around Europe and it marked a shift away from objectivity to subjectivity. It was a reaction against the Enlightenment in the 16th century as it was seen as too scientific and the answers to life can be found within nature. Rousseau was a very influential figure throughout the movement and his ideas have been written about and interpreted by writers such Mary Wollstonecraft.

Rousseau was fascinated by nature especially mountains and he strongly believed that mankind could only find truth within nature itself and that everything before nature was lies and deceit. This idea was highly contraversal and Rousseau was forced to flee his town in Vienna and find refuge on an island off the coast of Vienna. He also argued that reason got in the way of human understanding and that the purpose of life is to experience nature and feelings and that civilisation had corrupted the purity of nature by evolution and development " man is born fre, but everywhere is in chains". Children are born as a free spirits but as they advance through life they are controlled by the rules of society and corrupted.  Primitive people who developed before civilisation are the the pure humans and that mankind today should behave in a more animalistic manner, however Rousseau realised that we couldn't move backwards and live like primatives as society was too developed in the 18th century. These ideas were written in a book and were sent to Voltaire, who was a prolific writer during the 18th century.  What Rousseau didn't expect was that his ideas about how the world could be changed were to be highly influential in politics to the present day especially during the French Revolution in 1879.

In his work The Social Contract,Rousseau outlined ways in which he believed society could change in order for humans to be allowed freedom. He argued that the government should not interfere with everyday life except when a person commits a crime and that laws should be passed which everybody agrees with. This means that freedom is not lost as everyone in society follows the same set of laws. On the other hand, this could be interpreted as an early form of dictatorship as anybody who disobeys the laws will forced to be free.

The ideas published in The Social Contract were put in to practise during the French Revolution. France was on the verge of bankruptcy and the King had become powerless so a meeting was called between the aristocracy, clergy and the common man in order to pass a law to raise taxes. The three classes in society were unable to agree on the amount of taxes so the people formed an independant assembly and announced their ideas (Declaration of the Rights of Man) which were largely based on Rousseau's theories. This sparked a revolution and at last it was time for the lower classes of society to rise above the elite and attack the old regime. Following the storming of the Bastille, things began to get out of hand as there was not a ruler in the country to take charge. People began to riot and kill each other (September massacres) and the government resorted to violence in what was later known as the Reign of Terror. There was severe paranoia as France feared anti -revolutionists mixing in society and people began suspecting their own friends and family and the end result was that tens of thousands of people were killed.

Mary Wollstonecraft can be seen as a key feminist during the Romantic period. She wrote a series of books in response to the ideas of Rousseau. She argued that poor women had no place in society and that education was the key to a woman's freedom as it made men and women equal and that they should just be human beings until they fall in love and only then can they be given an identity.