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Post by ameliachen80385 on Aug 19, 2014 7:41:16 GMT
The background of this book is during French Revolution."for two hundred years now the people had sweater,and toiled,and starved,to keep a lustful court in lavish extravagance;now the descendants of those who had helped to make those courts brilliant had to hide for their lives-to fly"What did guys think of this sentence? In my thoughts,I think this is the most important reason why the crowd wanted to overthrow the government which the aristocrat ruled.
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Post by lins on Aug 20, 2014 12:58:59 GMT
I learned in World History that many people suffered before French Revolution. There were 3 classes, and of course the lowest class suffered the most. Those people were mostly peasants and they had to pay taxes while the other classes didn't need to. Basically, the poorest people had to pay taxes while rich people didn't. Not only paying taxes but also limitation of right was another conflict. Even though peasants paid taxes, they didn't have their say in the government. By the way, the three classes are called estates; peasants were in third estate while nobles where in second and first estate. Because of high taxes, and no voices in the government decisions, people got mad. Thus, people decided to rebel against the government, in order to find equality.
During the revolution, people called out the motto equality, fraternity and liberty out loud. This was mentioned in the novel as well. Soon, people could construct the republic, and form the Committee of Public Safety. During this time, countless nobles and kings died including King Luis and Marie Antoinette. Nevertheless, poor people died as well. As time goes on, the radicals started to appear and lead the group of rebellions. These people were radicals who sought for unrealistic dreams.
As a result, at the end, Napoleon took over France and lead France, till he loses the war with Russia. Napoleon soon fails his campaign, and France went back to its original state where people suffer from hunger and poverty.
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Post by hansoo on Aug 20, 2014 13:07:58 GMT
Thank you for pointing the book's background, the French Revolution. I do believe that the historical occasion of the French Revolution will play a significant role throughout this book. As the book is written from the perspective of the nobilities, it will be interesting to contrast viewpoints of them and the poor. Also, we can be comparing the heroic traits of The Scarlet Pimpernel and other heroes such as Beowulf. What aspects will make The Scarlet Pimpernel a HERO?
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Post by James on Aug 21, 2014 1:16:06 GMT
Well, since I actually included that sentence in my double entry journal, I'll give it a shot. I thought that the citizens are outraged by the fact that the country is running on the hands of the aristocrats. They seems to desire an equal and fair right to that of the nobilities' . Based on my knowledge from world history class, I've learned that civilization comes and falls. It is a natural process for every civilization. I think the same logic applies here. The power and authority has been passed down generation to generation. The nobles had their prime and powerful era, and so it is their time to be fallen apart by the citizens and share equal rights.
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Post by brandonina on Aug 23, 2014 2:44:36 GMT
I agree with you. I think the quote describes a certain point in the past in which people suffered from poverty under the rulers/aristos that lived extravagantly and were corrupted. Now, those peasants had the control over those people that they suffered from. And the author adds some kind of a humor that the aristos were now hiding for their lives. This is kind of related to the theme, past vs peasant. And the intention of the author is to highlight the shift in the position of two different over the course of time and foreshadows a major upcoming conflict
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Post by danielkim on Aug 23, 2014 10:41:47 GMT
I learned in World History that many people suffered before French Revolution. There were 3 classes, and of course the lowest class suffered the most. Those people were mostly peasants and they had to pay taxes while the other classes didn't need to. Basically, the poorest people had to pay taxes while rich people didn't. Not only paying taxes but also limitation of right was another conflict. Even though peasants paid taxes, they didn't have their say in the government. By the way, the three classes are called estates; peasants were in third estate while nobles where in second and first estate. Because of high taxes, and no voices in the government decisions, people got mad. Thus, people decided to rebel against the government, in order to find equality. During the revolution, people called out the motto equality, fraternity and liberty out loud. This was mentioned in the novel as well. Soon, people could construct the republic, and form the Committee of Public Safety. During this time, countless nobles and kings died including King Luis and Marie Antoinette. Nevertheless, poor people died as well. As time goes on, the radicals started to appear and lead the group of rebellions. These people were radicals who sought for unrealistic dreams. As a result, at the end, Napoleon took over France and lead France, till he loses the war with Russia. Napoleon soon fails his campaign, and France went back to its original state where people suffer from hunger and poverty. Additionally, Louis XVI levied unfair taxes because he wasted French treasury through royal extravagance and 7 Years War (which funded American Revolution). Peasants were influenced by the results of the American Revolution and decided to lead an equal version of that in France. The quote clearly shows that rulers were unable to confront to the anger of citizens and could not stop the revolution. The quote also shows the peasants’ desire to overthrow the government and the anger toward the corrupted aristocrats.
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Post by dannyoh on Aug 23, 2014 13:07:47 GMT
I agree with you on how that might be the reason why the crowd is so angry. It seems like the crowd wants revenge on the aristocrats.
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Post by crystalcao on Aug 23, 2014 16:49:17 GMT
i got the reason of scarlet pimpernel's motive, in this special background.
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bachle
Junior Member
Posts: 83
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Post by bachle on Aug 24, 2014 14:32:56 GMT
I'm not sure about the French culture but i can connect this quote to an old Asian culture. If someone betray the king, his family including nines generations will be beheaded in order to avoid lately consequences. In the same case here, the peasants have been dominated for a long time, and now they are furious and fierce that they will put all the blames on the King's descendants and even kill them in order to avoid consequences and revenges.
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Post by sergeyfen on Aug 31, 2014 12:53:17 GMT
I agree with you, reason for the French revolution to begin is the unequal and unfair distribution between low and high classes. Every nations starts from nothing but builds up to the expectations as times go on, common people are nations' reason to be what it is at any period of time, whether its now or couple centuries ago. It's very legit reasons for common people to rebel, maybe they took their rebellion too far, but the frustration is totally understandable. Aristocrats' behaviour caused the riots and its not immoral to have such distribution gap, its just immoral. Common people should not execute every aristocrat though, there are good aristocrats as there are also bad commoners.
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Post by elisalee on Aug 31, 2014 13:19:45 GMT
During the French Revolution, the lower class people were going for rebellion because they wanted the equal rights as the upper class people. In the story, I can understand how much the lower class people wanted revenge because they start killing all the loyal family or "guilty" people. It is somewhat understandable because they have gone through a lot of hardships. But as all the civilizations do, the rebellion goes away and it all settles.
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bilal
New Member
Posts: 45
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Post by bilal on Aug 31, 2014 14:47:21 GMT
i kinda agree on that statement, i think thats why the people hate the aristocrats but executing them wouldn't make any difference.
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