Man’s perfectibility : an analysis of Shelley’s political philosophy refracted in his poetry

Abstract

The late-eighteenth century saw an upheaval of long-standing establishments and political movements ranging from the revolutions in America and France to the fight for Catholic emancipation in Ireland. Born in the time of these cataclysmic symbols which for many served as the seeds of hope for regeneration in England, Percy Bysshe Shelley witnessed the human suffering and social injustices around him and sought for a higher existence for mankind. The aim of this dissertation is to delineate the development of Shelley‟s revolutionary mind and the effects that the political state of Europe and America had upon his political and poetic beliefs. Hence, Chapter One shall focus on the early beginnings of the young radical Shelley and the significant influence that the philosophy of the Enlightenment had upon his political conscious. Chapter Two will then go on to discuss Shelley‟s idealism in the reformation of society as well as his belief in the poet as an „unacknowledged legislator‟, whose aim is to instruct those elite with a refined imagination. In doing so, I will discuss his poetic dramas Hellas and Prometheus Unbound with reference to The Mask of Anarchy and Ode to Naples. Finally, Chapter Three will demonstrate the sense of disillusionment found in the Triumph of Life that Shelley felt in his later years when faced with the stark reality that the world could not live up to his expectations. To conclude, I shall highlight the afterlife of Shelley‟s political thought in later political movements that utilised his principle of non-violence as a form of political activism.