You can conclude that during this period, beneath the luxuries and beauties of Versailles the French were in fact savage killers. For example, Marquis Bernard De Launay was stabbed, beaten, killed and decapitated. His head was then paraded through the city. Although it is unfair to say that all French people were savages, during this period in time, actions like these clearly display the barbarous nature of the peasants of France.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
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Although i agree with what Rehan is saying here, these people had good reason to be slightly barbaric. You can't expect people to sit by as the die of starvation. If you had a family to feed would you just let them wither away or would you try to fight to keep your family alive? You also can't expect to see an inferior class in society continually let people look down on them and treat them like garbage. So these poeple had reasons to create rebellions. However, i do disagree with the whole idea of parading through town with a persons head on a stick because it was simply uncalled for.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the French were very violent. it seemed like they were always killing and didn't take death too seriously. they also extensively used the guillotine which is a pretty strange contraption, and a pretty bad solution to a problem. i think that parading around the city with a head raised on a poll celebrating victory was a bit overkill, along with other actions taken by the people, but the poor were being very poorly treated and were under oppression. they had to stick up for themselves in some way if they valued their own health and life. they were dying of hunger, and at one point bread cost a months salary which is outrageous. so even though some of their actions were barbaric, they had to take a stand and make a point.
ReplyDeleteI think both of you guys make really strong points. Although the French peasants had many reasons to revolt/riot, it was still excessively brutal to do things like rip off peoples heads and parade them around on sticks.
ReplyDeleteI would even go as far as to argue that post-revolutionary France was much more oppressive and violent than when the country was under the rule of a king.
The problem, at the time of the king, was that he neglected his people. He let them starve and suffer while he enjoyed a luxurious, excessive lifestyle.
After the revolution, the issue was that France had essentially become a police state. People were regularly, and barbarically killed. They didn't really have freedom of speech, despite the fact that their newly formed constitution was supposed to have given them this right.
Although I wouldn't expect the people to do nothing as they starved to death, I simply don't understand the reasoning that this somehow justifies their excessively cruel acts. Just because the peasants had been taken advantage of and oppressed for generations, didn't make their vengeful acts any less despicable.