Question

Arthur Young states that there is a great difference between the “lower people” in England and France. Who does he blame for that difference? Why?
Compare the life of the woman Arthur Young met to the lives of Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and other members of the First and Second Estates.

Answer 1

The correct answer to this open question is the following.

Arthur Young states that there is a great difference between the “lower people” in England and France. Who does he blame for that difference?

He blamed the government of France. Why? Because it oppressed the French people and forced them to pay heavy taxation. That is why the woman had a sad wrinkled face that reflected pain and desperation.

The life of the woman Arthur Young met was of poverty, suffering, pain, and despair. She was a very poor woman like many French people from the Third State. In comparison, the lives of Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and other members of the First and Second Estates were full of unnecessary luxuries and flamboyant styles, when the people of France were starving. That is why the French Revolution started, for the many injustices and poverty, while the French crown lived a luxurious life.