Common Sense by Thomas Paine - Analysis

Themes

·       Rebellion

“As the king of England hath undertaken in his own right, to support the parliament in what he calls theirs, and as the good people of this country are grievously oppressed by the combination, they have an undoubted privilege to inquire into the pretensions of both, and equally to reject the usurpations of either.”

·       Universality of struggle

“The cause of America is, in a great measure, the cause of all mankind.”

·       Unity in times of adversity

“Now is the seed time of continental union, faith and honor.”

·       Warning traitors

“The least fracture now will be like a name engraved with the point of a pin on the tender rind of a young oak; The wound will enlarge with the tree, and posterity read it in full grown characters”

·       Advocating reason

·       The claim to the US lies with Europe

“Europe, and not England, is the parent country of America. This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers off civil and religious liberty from every Part of Europe. Hither have they fled, not from the tender embraces of the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster; and it is so far true of England, that the same tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home pursues their descendants still.”

…

“Not one third of the inhabitants, even of this province, are of English descent. Wherefore, I reprobate the phrase of parent or mother country applied to England only, as being false, selfish, narrow and ungenerous.”

·       Refusal to join the British army in order to become an empire

“Much hath been said of the united strength of Britain and the colonies, that in conjunction they might bid defiance to the world. But this is mere presumption; the fate of war is uncertain, neither do the expressions mean anything; for this continent would never suffer itself to be drained of inhabitants to support the British arms in either Asia, Africa, or Europe.”

·       Peace through trade

“Our plan is commerce, and that, well attended to, will secure us the peace and friendship of all Europe; because it is the interest of all Europe to have America a free port. Her trade will always be a protection”

·       God intends separation

“Even the distance at which the Almighty hath placed England and America, is a strong and natural proof, that the authority of the one, over the other, was never the design of Heaven. The time likewise at which the continent was discovered, adds weight to the argument, and the manner in which it was peopled increases the force of it. The reformation was preceded by the discovery of America, as if the Almighty graciously meant to open a sanctuary to the persecuted in future years, when home should afford neither friendship nor safety.”

Devices

·       Presenting opinion as fact

·       Exaggeration

·       Sex analogy

“As well can the lover forgive the ravisher of his mistress, as the continent forgive the murders of Britain.”

Places

·       Hanover

·       Britain, Great Britain, England

Thomas Paine. Illustration source