A Literary Analysis of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. (American Literature I).

Joseph Melanson

Professor McAllister

American Literature I

16 October 2011

A Literary Analysis of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense.

            Thomas Paine was one of our country’s greatest freedom fighters, using his command of the English language in his pamphlet Common Sense as a literary weapon in the goal of defeating Great Britain, and overthrowing her as America’s overseer. His aim was the use of language to pursue a country already embroiled in war, to come together in the cause to fight oppression. “Common Sense” played an important part in the American Revolution, in its use of rhetoric, to demonize Great Britain, and paint her as a brute, a monster, and a parasite among other things. Thomas Paine used this ability for rhetoric and language to create one of the one of the world’s most powerful and effective pieces of propaganda through the use of various themes.

           The use of the title “Common Sense” infers that his ideas are the result of logic and reason, coming from basic and universally known facts, known to the majority of sane, educated people. Paine introduces his argument by notifying the reader of his “simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense” (335). He appeals to the reader to put aside “prejudice and prepossession, and suffer his reason and his feelings to determine for themselves”, giving the reader the choice to listen to his argument at a time when the king of England only offered subjugation (Paine 335). It is by appealing to the intellect and reason of the common man that Paine asserts separation from Great Britain is common sense.

            Paine hopes to inform the reader of the current political state of affairs and the hopelessness with which politics would bring England and America to a peaceful resolution. Paine states that much has been written concerning “the struggle between England and America” and many people from all kinds of backgrounds have weighed in with their opinions. Resulting in no clear outcome, according to Paine the “period of debate is closed” (336). Paine goes on to state “by referring the matter from argument to arms, a new era for politics is struck – a new method of thinking has arisen” (336). England has made the choice to pursue bloodshed, he reminds the reader, by referring to the nineteenth of April (1775) the date that England troops tried to commandeer American ammunition stores. With this act England has decided loyalty will be determined by force, that friendship is only a thing for a king to accept or deny. This summation of the political state of affairs hopes to inform the reader the people of the day must decide for themselves whether to fight for freedom or let others decide their fates for them.

            Paine hopes to appeal the common man and decide what actions they should take for the sake of their progeny. “The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth”, says Paine (336). This same sun will shine on future generations and this generation will have to decide whether their children live in freedom or under the tyranny of England. “‘Tis not the concern of a day, a year, or an age; posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and will be more or less affected even to the end of time by the proceedings now” (Paine 336). He goes on to state that our heirs will benefit or suffer for our action or inaction, that posterity will read our about indecisions “in full grown characters” (Paine 336). Paine argues that the present state of the government is not reliable enough to “which we may bequeath to posterity” (339). The theme of posterity is used throughout Common Sense to make the reader aware of one’s heirs.

            Paine hopes to appeal to men’s sense of masculinity by persuading them that anything less than freedom from America results in their own emasculation. Responding to Prime Minister Henry Pelham words “they will last my time” in regards to measures he wanted to make concerning America, Paine remarks that such a short-sighted and selfish attitude that disregards its effects on future generations was “fatal and unmanly” (336). “The true character of a man”, Paine states, is found in those who can look beyond themselves to “generously enlarge his views beyond the present day” (335). “Men of passive tempers”, Paine says, are those that overlook the “offenses of Great Britain” and hold out hope for reconciliation (339). Paine hopes to persuade the reader that a man is one who makes decisions not only for himself, but for future generations, by choosing to fight for freedom from England. 

            Paine demonizes the king of England as a distant ruler selfishly unconcerned with the rights and property of Americans. He refers to the “many material injuries which these colonies sustain, and will always sustain” by being connected with Great Britain (336). Paine states that Britain only sees America as a “secondary object”, only considering how America can serve England’s “purposes” (342).  By Great Britain’s attacks upon the American colony, Paine argues that the king of England can never compensate them for “the expense of blood and treasure we have been already put to” (341). By using the terms “material”, “secondary objects”, and “treasure”, Paine hopes to give the reader the inclination to see the king of England as more concerned for property and resources that can be gained from America, rather than what the colonists could produce willingly for their shared and mutual exchange.

            Paine uses his rhetoric to portray the king of England as more of an animal than a man, a scavenger who exists only to prey on her colonies. “Even brutes do not devour their young, nor savages make war upon their families” as England had chosen to do in America (Paine 336). The king, Paine states, makes company with “parasites” who try to gain “an unfair bias on the credulous weakness of our minds” (337). America had first been settled by those who hope to escape from civil and religious persecution, England being one of those cruel “monsters” that had caused oppressed people to flee. Paine states that no one rules the colonies other than God, and not the “Royal Brute of Great Britain” (344). Thomas Paine, in Common Sense, reduces England to beast, something less than what a man should willing follow (337).

           Thomas Paine, in his pamphlet Common Sense, uses his great literary capacity to bring the American people against a common enemy, the tyranny of England, but most importantly against the tyranny of the royal kingdoms of Europe.  The use of various themes in Common Sense illustrates the dichotomy of the freedom and ideals of the New World, versus the oppression and tyranny of the Old World through the uses of literary technique. Thomas Paine, in Common Sense, made plain the reasons between the divide of the colonies and the mother country in associating England with the behavior of brutes, giving her the label of a monster, and objectifying the king of England as a parasite only concerned with feeding upon the resources that the colonies would bring him. Thomas Paine, in Common Sense, used this ability for rhetoric and language to create one of the one of the world’s most powerful and effective pieces of propaganda through the use of various literary themes.

Works Cited:

Paine, Thomas. “Common Sense”. The American Tradition in Literature. 12^th ed. Ed. George Perkins and Barbara Perkins. New York: McGraw Hill, 2009. 335-44. Print.