“an ass for a lion”
Pain uses this idiomatic image of a donkey being mistaken for a powerful lion as a symbol for the inherent absurdity of the hereditary right of monarchy. Inviolate succession of power carries the implicit promise that all succeeding heirs will be as capable as those that came before, but history has proven that more asses tend to succeed than lions.
Astronomical Satellites
Paine points to natural folly of expecting an entire continent to bow to rule of a small island through astronomical symbolism. He compares this unnatural state of affairs to that of satellites in orbit around a planet where the laws of nature dictate that the ruling force will always be larger.
Prostitution Motif
Perhaps the single most creative use of symbol in the entire text occurs when Paine calls for a close analysis of the constitutional failures of the British system of government. As long as the colonists remain tied to England, they will continue to manifest a prejudice toward its system over any other and only by disconnecting from that relationship can an alternative be rationally considered. Paine compares this particular situation to that of a man having relations with a prostitute which thus makes him unsuited to rationally choosing a wife.
The Continental Belt
The primary purpose of Common Sense was not so much specifically to rouse support for revolution as it was to convince colonists that the point at which reconciliation was still an alternative had passed. His argument is framed not as revolution versus reconciliation, but instead as revolution versus submission. The foundation for this argument is inextricably linked to the America and England existing not just as two separate entities, but existing on two separate continents. As long as the belt around American remained loosely buckled it would be at risk of intensified submission.
America
In the Introduction to his pamphlet, Paine shows his hand briefly, but tellingly. Paine stands quite apart from the other leading propagandist and patriots of the Revolutionary War in that his ultimate aim did not end with an independent America. In fact, there is much in Common Sense to suggest that Paine believed independence was almost inevitable and so he was really strategizing for a long game: the collapse of the entire European aristocracy and the deposition of all monarchs:
“The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind. Many circumstances hath, and will arise, which are not local, but universal, and through which the principles of all Lovers of Mankind are affected, and in the Event of which, their Affections are interested.”
As he was about so many things, of course, Paine was right.
