The Enlightenment
An introduction to the
Restoration Period in England
Honors English IV
E. Peters
The Romantic Movement in
British Literature:
Group Discussion Lesson
• Your group will receive a question that writers of
the Romantic Movement considered as they
composed their literary works.
• Discuss the question among your group
members; you will share your responses with the
class.
• Finally, construct two additional sub-topic
questions to include in large group discussion.
GROUP #1
Can science tell us
how to live?
GROUP #2
How does war
change our
values?
GROUP #3
Is emotion stronger
than reason?
GROUP #4
What can people
learn from nature?
GROUP #5
When is the
ordinary
extraordinary?
GROUP #6
What can fix
society’s
problems?
Romantic movement poets
William Blake
William Wordsworth
Samuel Taylor coleridge
Percy bysshe shelley
Lord byron
John keats
An “enlightened” response to the
Dark Ages of the past
The Seven Deadly Sins
The Renaissance influenced the development of . . .
• God’s Creation of Man
God’s Creation of Adam: The Humanist view that the proper worship of
God involved proper worship of His creation
The Enlightenment
The Death of Socrates, David 1787
The Enlightenment
• This period became known as the
Age of Reason, because people used
reason, not faith, to make sense of the
world.
• Using reason and the laws of science, one
can better understand social, economic
and political problems.
• If you solve the problems, you improve
society for everyone.
Human REASON could be used to combat
ignorance, superstition and tyranny,
and to build a better world.
Religion/The Church
The Domination of the Aristocracy
Science in the Late Middle Ages
When beggars die, then are no comets seen:
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.
- Shakespeare
Enlightened scientists:
Sir Isaac Newton
• Set the tone for the era
with his work,
Mathematical Principles of
Natural Philosophy (1687),
in which he presented his
newly formulated laws of
gravity and motion.
• His scientific method
consists of analyzing facts,
developing a hypothesis,
and testing through
experimentation.
Key Figures in the Enlightenment
Voltaire
Montesquieu
Rousseau
Spoke against religious intolerance,
Injustice and the slave trade.
Defended the freedom of speech.
To prevent absolutism and to protect
liberties, powers of government
should be separated.
The general will of the people should
rule. The good of the community before
the individual.
Enlightened Philosophers:
John Locke
• Encouraged people to use
their intelligence to rid
themselves of unjust
authorities.
• He rejected the “divine
right” of kings.
• He asserted the right of
citizens to revolt against
unfair government, (which
provided justification for the
Glorious Revolution and
the precursor to the
American Revolution).
Man being…by nature
all free, equal and
independent, no one can
be put out of his estate,
and subjected to the
political power of
another, without his
own consent.
Adam Smith
(Enlightened Scottish Economist)
“No society can
flourish in which
the far greater
part of the
members are poor
and miserable.”
Impact of the Enlightenment on
France, England, and America
French Revolution
Violent upheaval
Egalitarian and anticlerical
American Revolution
Bill of Rights
1st Amendment: freedom of speech,
religion, press, assembly, petition
17th Century Revolution
More gradual road to democracy
Remained saturated with class privilege and
still relatively pious
Impact upon literature . . .
Writers became
social observers:
• Growing middle class
increased demand for
middlebrow literature
• Journalism became
popular
• Novels modeled on
non-fiction forms
• The essay, especially
satire, points at society’s
problems
Satire
Alexander Pope
Horatian Satire
“I am His Majesty’s dog at Kew;
And may I ask, whose dog are you?”
Jonathan Swift
Juvenalian Satire
Gulliver’s Travels provides a satirical
view of the state of European
government and petty differences
between religions
Two types of satire
1. The Horatian or Sociocentric satire: while criticizing
human behavior, this type of satire offers an ideal of
right conduct (or "satiric norm") against which to
measure its criticism. It optimistically suggests human
beings can improve their conduct and amend their
ways.
2. The Juvenalian or Egocentric satire: a harsh form of
satire that viciously attacks human degeneracy and
reflects little or no confidence that human beings can
change their evil ways. In other words, the reader has a
hard time seeing any satiric norm.
Horatian or Juvenalian?
Horatian or Juvenalian?
Gin Lane
an engraving by
satirical artist
William Hogarth
William Hogarth:
Marriage a’la Mode
Most famous for
painting “modern
moral subjects”. . .
a series of lively,
detailed scenes
showing how bad
behavior (particularly
of the aristocracy)
leads to ruin.
“Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of Mankind is Man."
Pope, Essay on Man
William Hogarth, Marriage A-la-Mode: The Inspection, 1735.
Alexander Pope and the heroic couplet
You who seek to give and merit fame,
And justly bear a critic's noble name,
Be sure your self and your own reach to know,
How far your genius, taste, and learning go;
Launch not beyond your depth, but be discreet,
And mark that point where sense and dullness meet.
Nature to all things fixed the limits fit,
And wisely curbed proud man's pretending wit. . . .
Avoid extremes; and shun the fault of such,
Who still are pleased too little or too much. . . .
Good nature and good sense must ever join;
To err is human, to forgive __________. [can you supply the
missing word?].