Rights of Man Literary Elements

Rights of Man Literary Elements

Genre

Political Non-fiction, Philosophy

Setting and Context

18 Century

Narrator and Point of View

Thomas Paine is the first-person narrator.

Tone and Mood

Drastic, activist, stimulating, and provocative

Protagonist and Antagonist

'Man' is the protagonist. Mr. Burke, who is the addressee, is the antagonist due to his lack of support for the French Revolution.

Major Conflict

Divergent outlooks relating to human rights and the French Revolution.

Climax

Revolutions (such as the French Revolution) are climaxes in the struggle for human rights.

Foreshadowing

Paine foreshadows that, “There never did, there never will, and there never can exist a parliament, or any description of men, or any generation of men, in any country, possessed of the right or the power of binding and controlling posterity to the “end of time.” Pain’s prediction surmises that no human leader or government can lead or oppress others for eternity.

Understatement

Mr. Burke is criticized for understating the worth of human rights for “the people of England.”

Allusions

Paine appeals to historical allusions (The French Revolution) and legal allusions.

Imagery

Despotic governments and tyrannical monarchies oppress people to the degree that the oppressed resort to revolutions.
Laws are integral in apposite government and conservancy of human rights.

Paradox

N/A

Parallelism

N/A

Metonymy and Synecdoche

“Sans ceremonie” implies devoid of a ceremony. ‘Garde du Corps' means bodyguard. Crown denotes hereditary, monarchical power.

Personification

France is personified by being referred to ‘her.’

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