Among the Enlightenment's many contributions to modern life was a new form of political discourse: the political cartoon. We see these in newspapers and on social media every day. At their best, polit

“Farewell Bastille” (1789)

On July 14 th, 1789, while the Estates General was meeting at Versailles, a mob of Parisians attacked the

Bastille, a royal fortress and prison, in search of weapons. This cartoon reflects the aftermath of this act

of defiance of royal authority, which came to “[symbolize] the power of the people over the monarch”

(Pavlac, 252). In the cartoon , the Bastille is demolished while a French commoner (representing the

Third Estate) forces a clergyma n and an aristocrat (members of the First and Second Estates) to dance to

the tune he is playing . This image represents how the Third Estate is now in control of the events of the

French Revolution. The commoner also holds a lion on a leash, which shows how the Third Estate can

and should use violence to influence the affairs of the French state.