Common Sense Literary Elements

Common Sense Literary Elements

Genre

Philosophy; Politicial Philosophy

Setting and Context

There is no particular setting; however, written in 1775-6, the document as a whole addresses people in the American colonies and in England

Narrator and Point of View

Thomas Paine is the narrator, and the pamphlet is written from his own perspective.

Tone and Mood

The tone is optimistic, irate and challenging. The mood is one of positivity and a search for change.

Protagonist and Antagonist

Paine sees society as the protatonist and the monarch as the antagonist.

Major Conflict

The conflict most referenced in the pamphlet is the American rebellion against the English.

Climax

Paine believes America will be able to gain independence and that the rebellion will be successful.

Foreshadowing

Giving the monarch ultimate power foreshadows the mis-use of that power, and the inability of society to prevent this.

Understatement

Paine observes that government is a necessary evil, which is an understatement in that on many occasions the government have done more harm than those seeking to remove them.

Allusions

Paine alludes to the Magna Carta, which was essentially a peace treaty signed in the thirteenth century by King John of England.

Imagery

No specific examples.

Paradox

John Locke is opposed to monarchial rule, but believes in a constitutional monarchy, which Paine sees as a paradox because both essentially enable the monarch to govern unchallenged and unmonitored.

Parallelism

There is a parallel between the way in which a monarch is raised to see himself as greater than everyone else, and the way in which he rules without being answerable to his subjects.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

Congress is the term Paine uses to encompass the representatives of all of the colonial districts he has proposed.

Personification

No specific examples

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