Unit 5
The Restoration and 18th Century
Objectives
Lit. elements &
techniques
Authors we will study
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John Dryden
Jonathan Swift
Daniel Defoe
Joseph Addison
Richard Steele
Alexander Pope
Samuel Johnson
Robert Burns
William Blake
 Literary
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 Informal
Criticism
Allusion
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Satire
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Tone
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Wit
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Novel
Narrator
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Irony
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Style
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Essay
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Formal Essay
Essay
Aphorism
Mock Epic
Canto
Heroic
Couplet
Diction
Epigram
Dialect
Symbolism
Three Divisons
Restoration
 Neoclassical
 Colored by wit
 John Dryden
Age of Pope
Age ofJohnson
 Satirical
 More public
 Social and moral
 Novel
analysis
 Alexander Pope
 Johnathan Swift
 Samual Johnson
 Robert Burns
 William Blake
The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century
Choose a link on the time line to go to a milestone.
1660
The Restoration
of Charles II
1650
1688–1689
The Bloodless
Revolution
1700
1750
1800
1653–1658
Cromwell and the
1700s
1600s–1700s
Commonwealth
The Neoclassical Period The Growth of a
New Reading Public
The Age of Reason
Cromwell and the Commonwealth
1642–1649
• England is embroiled in civil war—parliamentary
party (Puritans) against the king’s party
(Royalists)
• King Charles I beheaded
1653–1658
• Oliver Cromwell rules England as lord protector
• Strict Puritan laws—eventually military rule by
Cromwell as dictator
• Theaters were closed, arts suppressed
The Restoration of Charles II
1658–1660
• Puritan dictator Oliver
Cromwell dies
• Parliament invites Charles
I’s son back from exile
• Charles II crowned;
monarchy restored
Charles II
The Restoration of Charles II
Charles II (ruled 1660–1685)
• Anglican Church (Church of
England) reestablished
• Other sects (including
Puritan sects) outlawed and
persecuted
• Theaters reopened
• Charles set the tone for
courtly life: extravagance
and refinement
The Restoration of Charles II
Society During the Restoration and the 1700s
The Haves
• greatly influenced by
the French in furniture,
dress, manners
• met in coffeehouses
and formal gardens
• liked colorful and
extravagant fashions
• enjoyed theatergoing,
dining, drinking, card
playing, gambling
The Have-Nots
• overcrowded tenements;
rats, lice, bedbugs
• no access to doctors,
police, or education
• young children forced to
work
• filthy streets
• disease prevalent
• death rate higher than
birth rate
The Enlightenment and the Age of Reason
Period between 1660 and 1800 sometimes called
Enlightenment or Age of Reason—labels that
reveal changes in people’s view of the world
Before Enlightenment,
people . . .
• thought unusual events
such as earthquakes and
comets were punishments
or warnings from God
• asked why these things
happened
During Enlightenment,
people . . .
• heard more scientific
explanations for natural
phenomena
• started asking how
questions instead of why
questions
The Enlightenment and the Age of Reason
Sir Isaac
Newton
• Scientists begin to explain
workings of human body,
universe
• Natural phenomena less mysterious and
frightening
• Rise of deism—belief that Creator set the world
in motion and then let it run by itself
The Bloodless Revolution
Beginning in 1685
• Charles II dies; his brother James II (a Roman
Catholic) takes throne
• Power is transferred to James’s daughter Mary
(wife of Dutch William of Orange, a Protestant)
1688 William attacks England;
James flees
1689 Parliament declares
William and Mary king
and queen; Protestant
rule restored
William and Mary
The Growth of a New Reading Public
Throughout the Period . . .
More people in
middle classes
able to read
Readers with
different tastes
and interests
Writers focusing
more on middleclass concerns
The Age of Satire
Alexander Pope—attacks upper classes for
immorality and bad taste
Jonathan Swift—exposes the mean and sordid in
human behavior
The Growth of a New Reading Public
Journalism: A New Profession
Eighteenth-century journalists
• published journals; described social and political
matters
• saw themselves as reformers
Daniel Defoe—stood for thrift, prudence, industry,
respectability
Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele—essayists
and journalists
The Growth of a New Reading Public
Age of Pope (Augustan) Poets
• wrote poetry of the mind, not the soul
• saw poetry as having a public function
• set out to write a particular kind of poem:
Elegy
praises a person
who has died
Satire
ridicules a
person or type
of behavior
Ode
is generally
written for
public occasions
Poems were carefully constructed and used exact
meter and rhyme.
The Growth of a New Reading Public
The First English Novels
• Corresponded to development
of the middle class
• Often broad and comical
• Adventures frequently
recounted in a series of
episodes or letters