The Fall Of Robespierre

July 14th is French National Day in remembrance of the storming of the Bastille and the French Revolution as a whole. Many chose to celebrate the beginning of the revolution as a time of renewal and regeneration of a rotten system, ignoring the later chaos that ensued from overly radical individuals. While the second half of the revolution, before the rise of Napoleon, is drastically more violent than the beginning, the platform was still the same, equality and freedom for all. This revolution developed during a time of already radical thinking known as the Romantic era. Again, while the beginning and the end of the French Revolution were drastically different, they are both inherently romantic in ideology and practice. Romantics believed people to be inherently good. The French Revolution wanted to help the oppressed to find their good nature and find equality amongst the entire nation. While there was passion from all liberals and radicals to successfully fulfill equality in the nation, the directions and popular ideas to achieve this goal were

However, not everyone believed or felt that he was as uncorrupted. Critics and poets alike found ways to voice their concerns, especially around the time of his death. Samuel Coleridge, famous poet, contributed to the work of “The Fall of Robespierre” that was published just after his death. During the first act, characters, Couthon and St. Just, speak of the fear they possess in regard to Robespierre. St. Just states fearfully, “I cannot fear him — yet we must not scorn him” to describe the contempt that even those close to Robespierre felt for his actions. Coleridge is best known for his contributions in the first act of the play, which portrays Robespierre as a tyrant towards the people of France. In the play, Robespierre expresses anger towards anyone who feels sympathy toward traitors is “himself a traitor, were he not a