The Rights of Man

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1791

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Pages 7-28

Part 1, Pages 28-50

Part 1, Pages 50-64

Part 1, Miscellaneous Chapter

Part 1, Conclusion

Part 2, Introduction

Part 2, Chapter 1

Part 2, Chapter 2

Part 2, Chapter 3

Part 2, Chapter 4

Part 2, Chapter 5

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Part 1, Pages 50-64Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Pages 50-64 Summary

Paine describes the history of the French Revolution as it unfolded up to early 1791. He briefly traces France’s political history from the reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XV, highlighting influential writers such as Montesquieu and Voltaire. Paine suggests, in short, that the French Revolution was not a sudden outburst, but rather the product of a gradual awakening.

French support for the American Revolution accelerated the pace of events. Benjamin Franklin, the Marquis de Lafayette, and the French soldiers returning home from America intensified French interest in the cause of liberty. Meanwhile, French finances faltered, and the new finance minister decided to call for a meeting of the ancient Assembly of the Notables—which had not met since 1617—to drum up support for new taxes. Paine calls this “the first practical step toward the Revolution” (54). The Assembly of the Notables debated new taxes, but, with the Marquis de Lafayette taking the lead, concluded that it could merely recommend taxes and that only an elected assembly could decide such a question. Local parlements (Paine calls them “parliaments,” but they resembled judicial courts rather than legislatures) refused to act on the recommendation of new taxes.

After failing to control the Paris parlement, the bankrupt French government had little choice but to call the Estates-General, the closest thing to an elected legislature in French history. The Estates-General had not met since 1614. The First Estate (the clergy) and the Second Estate (the aristocracy) claimed special privileges and attempted both to deliberate and vote as separate orders, but the Third Estate, representing the common people, “began to consider aristocracy as a kind of fungus growing out of the corruption of society” (60) and declared themselves the National Assembly. Some clergymen and a few aristocrats voluntarily joined the National Assembly, and King Louis XVI—whom Paine generally admires as a decent man—endorsed the single legislature devoid of artificial orders.

Meanwhile, some clergymen and the majority of aristocrats resisted the new democratizing principles and conspired to destroy the National Assembly. This conspiracy included a new anti-Revolution ministry and the appearance in Paris of tens of thousands of foreign troops. Paine writes that it was these anti-revolutionary measures that triggered the events leading to the fall of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. a

Part 1, Pages 50-64 Analysis

After examining natural rights, constitutions, and related subjects on Pages 28-50, Paine returns to his narrative approach from earlier in Part 1. Once again, Paine’s structural choices reflect his priorities. In Rights of Man’s opening pages, Paine’s most urgent objective was to answer Burke by defending the behavior of the French revolutionaries who stormed the Bastille and later marched on Versailles, events that occurred in July and October 1789, respectively. Then, Paine challenged Burke on the principles of Britain’s constitution, which Paine regarded as nonexistent. Having accomplished his immediate ends, Paine now embarks on a more deliberate and comprehensive review of circumstances that produced the French Revolution, with a special focus on the events of 1787-1789.

The key question underlying Paine’s narrative is the same one that motivated him to respond to Burke in the first place: What is the nature of the French Revolution? It is significant that Paine regards the French Revolution not as a spontaneous outburst but as “the consequence of a mental revolution priorly existing in France” (50, emphasis added). Paine believes that the French people began to see the iniquities in their own society long before the Revolution itself took place; it was this “mental revolution” that gradually led to the challenging of old assumptions about social hierarchies and the monarchy, which in turn made Revolutionary action possible.

Paine also places special emphasis on the behavior of the French parlements. Under a system of absolute monarchy, the French people theoretically had no direct voice in the taxation question. They did have the power to resist, however, and this is what the parlements did by refusing to register new taxes. The Assembly of the Notables then insisted upon an elected legislature, which led to the calling of the Estates-General and the birth of the National Assembly. Paine implies that, if the French Revolution followed from a change in the way the French people thought about their own government, then the same thing could occur in Britain. Likewise, if the French could demonstrate practical resistance to the imposition of oppressive taxes, then the British could do the same. This second point—the hidden significance in Paine’s narrative of the parlements—becomes clear later in the book, where Paine analyzes British taxation and applies actual numbers to quantify the oppression faced by the common British subject.