How does La Marseillaise and another song of your choice convey the image of French people?

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How does La Marseillaise and another song of your choice convey the image of French people?

During the late  eighteenth and nineteenth century,  songs were an extremely

popular and effective way of communicating in France: their memorable  and lively

tune would make it easy for all sectors of society to understand the message that was

trying to be made. Songs like La Marseillaise and La Marseillaise des cotillons 

reflect the problems and the general atmosphere of the time when they written. Hence,

they are of great use to modern historians who are interested in this era, because they

represent the mood amongst the French, allowing historians to create an image of

France’s situation.

The infamous La Marseillaise was written in 1792 during the French

Revolution by Claude-Hoseph Rouget de Lisle for the mayor of Strasbourg, to obtain

public support and troops for the war, and so it creates various images of France and

of its people. The songs calls for French people to unite and fight against ‘la tyrannie’

which they have endured due to their careless monarchs. Therefore, the writer

endeavours to rally support by appealing to the public’s sense of nationalism,

resulting in the French being portrayed as extremely patriotic and proud of the

Republic’s principles. This is highlighted in the first line of the song ‘allons enfants

de la Patrie’: the fact that it is written in the first person plural emphasises how united

the French are. Moreover, the fact that the personal pronoun ‘nous’ is used, is

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significant as it reflects the collective sentiment of a nation, embodying the republican

principle of ‘fraternité’.  The other republican principles  of ‘egalité’ and ‘liberté’ are

also denoted in the song, which emphasises how proud the French were of the values

their republic had acquired. The former is reflected in le refrain by the use of the new

word ‘citoyens’: this word is highly significant as it emphasises equality among all

sectors of french society, unlike prior to the Revolution, where everybody was

subject to the monarch. The ...

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