Views of İdeal Society by Romantic Writers Against Social İnjustice: Recasting the Revolution

• Main Author: Neslihan ALBAY
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Celal Öney 2021-06-01
• Series: Journal of History and Future
• Online Access: https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/1681535

Social justice and equality are two concepts closely related to governmental systems, gender roles, and revolutionary acts realized for the sake of society. As long as these three elements serve to the needs or interests of the society, the welfare and happiness of that society can maintain. The Romantic writers such as Thomas Paine, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Helen Williams discuss radical changes and revolutions from different perspectives and generally believes in their necessity for a more democratic and liberalist society, while Edmund Burke defends kingship and monarchical systems in which traditionality, and prejudices rather than change and discoveries are dominant. Trying to announce their populist, revolutionary or democratic ideas, some writers of the Romantic period also touch on significant cornerstones that guarantee the welfare of the society, such as democracy, women’s rights, liberty, equality and justice. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to present different points of view by Thomas Paine, Edmund Burke, Mary Wollstonecraft and some other Romantic writers over an ideal model of society. This paper will also discuss and illustrate the ways in which writers of the Romantic period addressed problems of social injustice and inequality that have still prevailed in the modern world. Thus, as far as the welfare of the folk is concerned, it will also underscore that revolutions and democratic systems outweigh monarchical systems in terms of social justice and equality.