Edmund Burke Sublime

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Summary

Edmund Burkes work entitled, A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origins of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1770) is an examination of human passions and sensations, specifically what they are and how they are represented with a focus on the sublime. Burke describes the sublime as a quality that evokes feelings of pain, danger and terror, a product of the strongest of emotions including awe, dread and fear which can be experienced by individuals (Burke, 1770). Burke suggests they are the ‘strongest emotions’ as they emphasis and illustrate how the idea of pain is much more fierce and extreme than the human sensation of pleasure (I, vii). Burke introduces pain and pleasure as basic states of being, two separate concepts which do not over cross, yet are both positive qualities. However pain is strong
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An instance of this notion of terror can be seen in The Monk, “Agitated by remorse and fear He prepared for flight: Yet his terrors did not so completely master his recollection…” (Lewis, 235). Ambrosio is so disturbed by the fear, pain and sorrow that it has rendered him completely incapable of taking flight, his passions have not just clouded his reasoning and grained his strength which have greatly affected his mind and body. According to Burke the pain and torments we are made to suffer has a greater affect on the mind and body than pleasure does, as this is the controls centre of all human emotion, sensation, passions and fears. In The Monk by Matthew Lewis terror, danger and pain are all themes which are demonstrated and delved into throughout the course of the novel. Burkes notion of terror as a device which clouds judgment and reasoning at moments applies in The Monk, ‘“ I sank upon my knees; I clasped my hands, and lifted them up to her for mercy, but had no power to articulate a syllable” (Lewis, 312). In this exert Agnes fears for her life, the life of her unborn child and spending the rest

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