Thomas Paine Common Sense Analysis

Register to read the introduction… To Paine, society is everything good that the people can accomplish by joining together. Paine makes it clear that he is not particularly fond of government, whose only purpose is "restraining our vices". One theme throughout this work is Paine’s view of government as a necessary evil. Paine says that government has its origins in the evil of man, and that its sole purpose is to protect life, liberty and property, and that a government should be judged on the extent to which it accomplishes this goal. His reasoning for this is that he feels the “natural state” of man is to live without government, so there should only be government to alleviate the problems of man. If a government fails in this task, it is blameworthy. And in this is where he finds his foundation for rebellion.

Tying in with this is another recurring theme of “natural state.” Many parts of Common Sense detail imagined “natural states” in …show more content…
Paine puts the theoretical attack in Biblical terms, arguing that the monarchy originated in sin. Paine presents his specific problems with the British monarchy with his attack on hereditary succession, and also lists his many grievances with the present king. Another common piece of Paine's argument is that America will eventually be independent. Sometimes he states this as a fact, and other times he seems to be persuading the reader, detailing the extent of the rift separating the colonies and the English king. Since many people were unsure about the idea of a revolution that would sever them from the king, establishing the principle of American independence was an integral part of Paine’s arguments. Only by convincing his readers that American would inevitably be independent one day could he make a case for a full