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The Triumph of Life
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Background
Literary Context: Dante Alighieri and Francesco Petrarch
Percy Bysshe Shelley had two important literary influences for The Triumph of Life: Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy and Francesco Petrarch’s Trionfi (Triumphs). In Dante’s Inferno (the first part of the Divine Comedy), the poet is guided through Hell by the poet Virgil. In The Triumph of Life, the poet is guided by the philosopher Rousseau in his vision of life’s chariot processional, or parade. Shelley alludes to Dante’s poem several times, writing:
Behold a wonder worthy of the rhyme
Of him who from the lowest depths of Hell
Through every Paradise and through all glory
Love led serene (Lines 471-74).
Dante’s poem explores the circles of Hell, as well as the reaches of Heaven. His beloved Beatrice guides him through Heaven, which Shelley references in his discussion of love.
Petrarch’s Trionfi is a lesser-known work, but its influence can be seen throughout The Triumph of Life. Petrarch’s poem itself was inspired by the woman he loved, Laura, and by real-world Roman processionals (parades), which were called triumphs. Wartime heroes rode on horse-drawn chariots (also called cars and carts) with captives chained to them. Large crowds would surround the chariot. In the poem, Petrarch’s chariots carry Love, Chastity, Death, Fame, Time, and Eternity. These triumphs include famous figures, which inspired Shelley’s inclusion of famous figures in The Triumph of Life. Thematically, Shelley’s poem reflects the ideas presented in Petrarch’s triumphs of Love and Death.
Philosophical Context: Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The philosopher and writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau, or at least his ghost, is an important figure in The Triumph of Life. Shelley wrote for an audience that was familiar with Rousseau’s writings. Shelley identified with Rousseau’s youthful sexual experiences—including a menage a trois that Rousseau discusses in La Nouvelle Heloise (1761)—as Shelley was also polyamorous with Mary Shelley and various other people, including Claire Clairmont and Thomas Jefferson Hogg. However, Rousseau is portrayed as distant from the lustful dancers in The Triumph of Life, and, as one scholar argues, he appears to be an “aged father figure” (Lee, Monika H. “The Presence of Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the Work of Percy Bysshe Shelley” (1992). Western Libraries. 2122). Shelley was also influenced by Rousseau’s other works. For instance, in both Shelley’s Triumph of Life and his Confessions, Rousseau describes how he slept outside. Likewise, the advice that Rousseau offers Shelley in The Triumph of Life can be compared to the advice that Rousseau offers in Emile.
Shelley also makes Rousseau “a figure for the complexities and tensions that inhabit Romanticism itself” (Lee). These “complexities” include The Power of Nature, which can be seen in how Shelley’s speaker initially, and mistakenly, believes Rousseau is a tree in The Triumph of Life. Rousseau discusses love in Shelley’s poem and his own writings. He writes about the amour de soi (self-love), which is the drive for self-preservation and the root of other passions. Also, he describes amour propre, which is a kind of desire for recognition by others. Furthermore, Rousseau is known as a creator of the modern autobiography, and for influencing the philosopher Immanuel Kant. Rousseau’s works as a botanist and as a musician are also noteworthy.
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By Percy Bysshe Shelley
