Violent Nonviolence in "The Mask of Anarchy"

In our readings last week, one footnote that stuck out to me was on "The Cloud": "This poem is a rare representation, for Shelley, of ceaseless transformation without agony." The theme of agonizing transformation has appeared in several of Shelley's poems, which invoke death or revolt as prerequisites for change (for example, "Sonnet: England in 1819" and "Ode to the West Wind"). Shelley continues the theme of revolution in "The Mask of Anarchy", and manages to make a nonviolent revolt at least as violent as the revolutions he describes in other poems.

In “The Mask of Anarchy”, Shelley urges the English people to refrain from seeking "blood for blood" (line 196-- "Do not thus when ye are strong"), but to instead use their numbers, their words, and the laws of England as weapons against the tyrants he censures in the opening stanzas of the poem. I'd like to point out how very fitting it is for Shelley, who in this poem is using words to spark rebellion, to encourage others to start a revolution with words.

In his appeal, Shelley uses metaphor to weaponize language. We see images of artillery, bayonets, and scimitars creating "a sea of death and mourning" (lines 311, 315, 319, 322). He also makes nonviolence seem very violent. Images of gore are plentiful in this poem, to a greater extent than in other poems of his we’ve read that call for change. This is an interesting juxtaposition to the nonviolent strategy Shelley is advocating.

I’d also like to draw on Shelley’s comparison of the people to “lions after slumber” (line 151, 372) as an example of how nonviolence draws on violence.

Half of what makes the lion such a good predator is not its physical strength, but how intimidating it looks. Really, do you want to mess with this animal?

(I hope there's a picture of a lion somewhere here. I tried to post one. It should look ferocious.)

As with lions, much of the power of nonviolent protest lies in threat. Words and huge numbers of people are only powerful because of the actions that lie behind them. Animals and people everywhere know not to upset a lion because it can cause tremendous destruction, just like people can. Shelley’s inclusion of violent images such as “slash[ing] and stab[bing] and maim[ing] and hew[ing]” (line 346) reminds the public and the politicians of England that the people are capable of tearing the government to pieces, like lions, even if they choose to remain peaceful.