The Age of Reason
1660-1780
The Age of Reason in Europe

General intellectual and literary movement:
Enlightenment
–
Enlightenment: characterized by Rationalism
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Ideals:
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Rationalism: a philosophy the emphasized the role of reason
rather than sensory experience or faith in answering basic
questions of human existence
Intellectual Freedom
Freedom from prejudice and superstition in religion and
politics
As in all Ages: Behavior often did not match ideals
The Age of Reason in England

English version of Rationalism: experience &
reason should be given equal place when
examining the human condition
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–
This made the English less “Rational” than the
French and other continental versions
Many of the most important writers of this period
were opposed to the rationalist ideas of social
progress and human perfectibility
The Age of Reason=The Neoclassical
Age
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Many of the authors based their prose and
poetry on classical models
Classical here refers to Ancient Greece and
Rome
Classical writers are people like Homer, who
wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey, or Ovid
wrote the Annelid.
An Age where people were concerned
with:

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Manners and morals
Understanding
themselves
Understanding the
immediate world
Understanding their
relationship with others.

And the Age was
influenced by:
–
John Locke’s Essay
Concerning
And the Age was influenced by:

John Locke’s Essay
Concerning Human
Understanding (1690),
which argued that “our
business here is not to
know all things, but
those which concern
our conduct.”
The Age was also stimulated by great
Scientists

Sir Isaac Newton:
–

Principa (1687) first set
forth the laws of
gravitation
It was a period that
advocated the use of
scientific method to test
old theories and to
develop new
knowledge.
The Early Years, 1660-1700

The
Restoration of
the Monarchy
with: King
Charles II
The Restoration brought many
changes to England.

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The Anglican Church was
once again the
established church
Charles II reopened
theatres, which that
puritans had closed, and
even sponsored a troop
of actors

1662: Charles II chartered
the Royal Society.
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–
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This made scientific
activities and
investigations official
The Society required the
use of the scientific
method in all of its
investigations
Required that reports be
written in clear, simple
prose.
London had been receiving a shift in population
from the country to town. It became a thriving city,
yet it suffered two major disasters in rapid
succession.

Plague
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1665: sickness ran rapid
through the city
70,000 of London’s
inhabitants were killed

Fire
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1666: June
When the plague abated,
fire broke out
It took 5 days to
extinguish
It left 2/3 of the
population homeless
Coffee Houses
1652: The first Coffee House
Opened in London
- Here the middle and upper-class rubbed
shoulders with writers and thinkers
- It provided a place where men could meet,
talk, drink coffee, and sometimes conduct
business
By the end of the century several thousand
coffee houses were in existence

Changes in Literature
Old
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Love Sonnets
Flowery and ornate writing
styles
Boy actors portrayed female
characters
Major plays were Heroic
Tragedies
New
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Satirical verses aimed at
correcting people’s behavior
in society
The periodical essay was
intended to be short and for
the middle class
Actresses played female
roles
The Restoration plays were
licentious and focused on
multiple plots concerning
infidelity and acting in ways
that were unsuitable
according to one’s station in
life
The Middle Years: 1700-1744

Queen Anne: 1702-1714
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George I of Hanover, Germany: 1714-1727
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Died without an heir
Great-Grandson of James I
Had Stuart Blood
Was acceptable to Parliament
Was Protestant
Spoke German and spent most of his time in Germany
George II: 1727-1760
Rise in the Power of the Prime Minister

Under the first two Georges, the country was
in effect ruled by the ministry.
England’s Two Political Parties

Whigs:
–
–
Favored reforms
and progress
Preferred a
powerful
parliament over a
powerful
monarchy

Tories:
–
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Were opposed to
change
Favored Royal
power and the
established
Church of
England.
The Whigs
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They wielded the most power during the
middle years
They favored the new mercantile middle
class living in London
They fostered trade and contributed to the
growth of the cites and international
commerce
Rise of the Middle Class

The middle class had begun to merge with
landed gentry through:
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Marriage
Concerns for wealth and property
Movement into a position of social dominance
Growth of the Working Class
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Jobs opening in:
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Construction
Mining
Factories
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All these jobs were
spurred with the
invention of powerdriven machinery
This would bring about
the Industrial
Revolution
Inequality in the Distribution of Wealth

In London especially, the inequality in the
distribution of wealth was appalling.
–
–
In the streets the silks and brocades a powdered
wigs, the gilded coaches and sedan chairs of the
rich moved against a background of rags, filth,
stench, and crime.
The rich went to plays and Italian operas while
thousands lived in poverty
Split Portraits

Sir Joshua Reynolds
and Thomas
Gainsborough tuned
out elegant portraits of
prosperous ladies and
gentlemen
Split Portraits

William Hogarth
savagely
satirized the
wealthy and
protested
against the lot of
the poor in
paintings and
graphic works
such as A
Rake’s
Progress.
Women’s Rights

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Enlightenment had little effect on women’s
rights
Women were not usually educated
Daniel Defoe was ahead of his time when he
suggested a method of improving the
education of women
The Middle Class’s Influence on
Literature
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New wealth afforded them the luxury of
reading for pleasure and they bought new
books
The wanted to read about people like
themselves, so realistic novels became
popular
Literary Periodicals were aimed at coffee
house audiences and were written to
entertain and improve morals and manners
Moralist Reactions
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In Theatre, a new type of moral comedy
came to be known as Sentimental Comedy
and helped to make the theatre respectable
again.
Jonathan Swift: the greatest moralist of them
all
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Satirical writer who exposed and ridiculed
individual and social evils of his day.
Gulliver’s Travels targeted governmental and
personal hypocrisy and vice.