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Puritan and Restoration Age: English Literature

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Presentation on The Puritan Age

   

Presentation on The Restoration Age

 

Summarizing the Literary Landscape of the Puritan and Restoration Ages

The history of English literature is a reflection of the socio-political changes that shaped England over centuries. Among the most transformative periods are the Puritan Age and the Restoration Age, each marked by distinct literary characteristics and influential writers who left an indelible mark on the literary canon. This blog delves into the defining features of these two eras, exploring the works of prominent figures like John Milton, John Bunyan, John Dryden, and William Congreve.

The Puritan Age: A Literature of Moral and Religious Reflection

The Puritan Age (1620-1660) emerged against the backdrop of the English Civil War and the rise of Puritanism, a movement that sought to purify the Church of England from within. Literature during this time was heavily influenced by the Puritans' austere moral code and religious fervor. The themes of sin, redemption, and the human struggle between good and evil were pervasive, reflecting the Puritans' focus on spiritual introspection and moral righteousness.

One of the most significant literary figures of the Puritan Age is John Milton (1608-1674). His epic poem, Paradise Lost (1667), stands as a monumental work in English literature, exploring the biblical story of the Fall of Man. Milton’s portrayal of Satan as a complex character, combined with his exploration of free will, obedience, and divine justice, reflects the Puritan concern with the nature of sin and the consequences of disobedience. Paradise Lost is not just a religious epic but also a reflection of Milton’s own political and religious beliefs, particularly his support for the Commonwealth and opposition to the monarchy.

Another prominent writer of this period is John Bunyan (1628-1688), whose allegorical work The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678) remains a classic in Christian literature. Bunyan’s narrative follows the journey of Christian, an everyman figure, from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. The work is a vivid depiction of the Puritan belief in life as a spiritual journey fraught with trials and temptations. Bunyan’s simple yet powerful prose resonates with the Puritan ethos of devotion, humility, and perseverance in the face of adversity.

The literature of the Puritan Age, with its focus on moral and spiritual themes, reflects the broader cultural shift towards introspection and personal piety. It was a period where writers, influenced by the religious and political turmoil of the time, sought to explore the deeper questions of existence and the human condition.

The Restoration Age: The Dawn of Satire and Social Commentary

The Restoration Age (1660-1700) marked a dramatic shift in English literature, coinciding with the restoration of the monarchy under King Charles II. This period saw the re-emergence of theatre, the rise of prose, and the flourishing of satire as a literary form. The Restoration brought with it a new cultural and literary sensibility, characterized by a fascination with wit, urbanity, and the complexities of human nature.

John Dryden (1631-1700), often referred to as the father of English criticism, was a central figure in Restoration literature. His work spans various genres, including poetry, drama, and literary criticism. Dryden’s satirical poem Absalom and Achitophel (1681) is a political allegory that critiques the political machinations of his time, particularly the Exclusion Crisis. Through his sharp wit and masterful use of heroic couplets, Dryden exposed the hypocrisy and ambition of political figures, making his work a quintessential example of Restoration satire.

In the realm of drama, William Congreve (1670-1729) emerged as one of the most significant playwrights of the Restoration period. His comedy of manners, The Way of the World (1700), is a brilliant satire of the social mores of the time. Congreve’s characters are embroiled in a web of deception, love, and betrayal, reflecting the Restoration preoccupation with the complexities of human relationships and the artifice of social conventions. The play’s witty dialogue and intricate plot structure exemplify the Restoration’s love for verbal dexterity and theatrical spectacle.

The Restoration Age’s literature, with its emphasis on satire, wit, and social commentary, represents a departure from the moralistic tone of the Puritan Age. The writers of this period, freed from the constraints of Puritanism, embraced a more worldly and irreverent approach to their craft, reflecting the broader cultural shift towards a more secular and hedonistic society.

Conclusion: From Piety to Wit

The transition from the Puritan Age to the Restoration Age represents a significant shift in the trajectory of English literature. While the Puritan Age was marked by a focus on moral and religious themes, the Restoration Age embraced satire and social commentary, reflecting the changing values of English society. Writers like John Milton and John Bunyan captured the Puritan spirit of introspection and devotion, while John Dryden and William Congreve epitomized the Restoration’s embrace of wit and worldly sophistication.

These two periods, though distinct in their literary output, are connected by the broader historical and cultural forces that shaped them. Together, they provide a rich tapestry of English literary history, offering insights into the evolving relationship between literature and society.

Browning: Victorian Poet

Robert Browning: Victorian Poet 

Robert Browning, (born May 7, 1812, London—died Dec. 12, 1889, Venice), major English poet of the Victorian age, noted for his mastery of dramatic monologue and psychological portraiture. His most noted work was The Ring and the Book (1868–69), the story of a Roman murder trial in 12 books.

Click here to read more about Browning's Life

Browning's Biography

Browning's Legacy

Legacy

Few poets have suffered more than Browning from hostile incomprehension or misplaced admiration, both arising very often from a failure to recognize the predominantly dramatic nature of his work. The bulk of his writing before 1846 was for the theatre; thereafter his major poems showed his increasing mastery of the dramatic monologue. This consists essentially of a narrative spoken by a single character and amplified by his comments on his story and the circumstances in which he is speaking. (Read more . . . )

About Browning's Poems

Themes in Browning's Poems

All you need to know about Robert Browning - Victorian Web

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Tennyson: Victorian Poet

Lord Alfred Tennyson - the Victorian Poet

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, in full Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson of Aldworth and Freshwater, (born August 6, 1809, Somersby, Lincolnshire, England—died October 6, 1892, Aldworth, Surrey), English poet often regarded as the chief representative of the Victorian age in poetry. He was raised to the peerage in 1884. (Source: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alfred-Lord-Tennyson)

Why is Alfred, Lord Tennyson, important?

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, was the leading Victorian poet in England. His poetry is remarkable for its metrical variety, rich imagery, and verbal melodies. It dealt often with the doubts and difficulties of an age in which traditional religious beliefs about human nature and destiny were increasingly called into question by science and modern progress.

What was the childhood of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, like?

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, was the fourth of 12 children raised in a lonely rectory in Somersby, Lincolnshire, England. Though home conditions were difficult, his father, the rector, managed to give him a wide literary education. The Lincolnshire countryside influenced his poetry, which he began composing before his teens.

Where was Alfred, Lord Tennyson, educated?

 In 1827 Alfred, Lord Tennyson, entered Trinity College, Cambridge. There he made lasting friendships and his reputation as a poet increased. In 1831 Tennyson’s father died, and his grandfather discovered his father’s debts. As a result, he left Cambridge without taking a degree.

What did Alfred, Lord Tennyson, write?

The best-known poems by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, included “The Charge of the Light Brigade” and “Crossing the Bar.” His longer works included In Memoriam, inspired by his grief over the untimely death of a friend, and Idylls of the King, based on Arthurian legend. Later in life he experimented with playwriting but was less successful.

Want to know more about the biography of Tennyson? Click here

Tennyson as poet

Tennyson - the Poet of Our Time

Tennyson's Poetry

Cambridge Author: Tennyson

Check your understanding of Victorian Poets: Tennyson and Browning: Online Test

Hard Times: Charles Dickens

 Introduction

Hard Times, novel by Charles Dickens, published in serial form (as Hard Times: For These Times) in the periodical Household Words from April to August 1854 and in book form later the same year. The novel is a bitter indictment of industrialization, with its dehumanizing effects on workers and communities in mid-19th-century England.

Louisa and Tom Gradgrind have been harshly raised by their father, an educator, to know nothing but the most factual, pragmatic information. Their lives are devoid of beauty, culture, or imagination, and the two have little or no empathy for others. Louisa marries Josiah Bounderby, a vulgar banker and mill owner. She eventually leaves her husband and returns to her father’s house. Tom, unscrupulous and vacuous, robs his brother-in-law’s bank. Only after these and other crises does their father realize that the manner in which he raised his children has ruined their lives. (Britannica) 

Check your understanding of the novel: Online Test

Additional Resources:

Musical Performance of Hard Times in Hindi:

Understanding Hard Times: An Analytic Note by F.R Leavis /The Great Tradition

Article: Why Hard Times is a bad novel? - J. B. Priestley

Video recording of Online Classes on Hard Times

Video recording of the session on the discussion on 'Research Articles on Hard Times':

Jude the Obscure

1. Watch this video for the summary of the novel Jude, the Obscure
2. Watch Jude is a 1996 British period drama film directed by Michael Winterbottom, and written by Hossein Amini, based on Thomas Hardy's 1895 novel Jude the Obscure
3. Video Recording of Online Classes
1. Structure of the Novel 'Jude the Obscure'
2. Research Article - Symbolic Indictment of Christianity - Norman Holland Jr. | Uni. of California
3. Research Article - Bildungsroman & Jude the Obscure - Frank R. Giordano Jr. | John Hopkins Uni 
4. Thematic Study of Jude the Obscure
4. Visit this site for study material on 'Jude, the Obscure'
5. Character Study - Susanna 'Sue' Bridehead
6. Check your progress: Appear in Online Test
7. Listen the audio book

Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde

 The Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde

Introduction

The Importance of Being Earnest, in full The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People, play in three acts by Oscar Wilde, performed in 1895 and published in 1899. A satire of Victorian social hypocrisy, the witty play is considered Wilde’s greatest dramatic achievement.

Jack Worthing is a fashionable young man who lives in the country with his ward, Cecily Cardew. He has invented a rakish brother named Ernest whose supposed exploits give Jack an excuse to travel to London periodically to rescue him. Jack is in love with Gwendolen Fairfax, the cousin of his friend Algernon Moncrieff. Gwendolen, who thinks Jack’s name is Ernest, returns his love, but her mother, Lady Bracknell, objects to their marriage because Jack is an orphan who was found in a handbag at Victoria Station. Jack discovers that Algernon has been impersonating Ernest in order to woo Cecily, who has always been in love with the imaginary rogue Ernest. Ultimately it is revealed that Jack is really Lady Bracknell’s nephew, that his real name is Ernest, and that Algernon is actually his brother. The play ends with both couples happily united. (Britannica)

Characters

Plot Summary

Thematic Study

Check your understanding: Online Test

Thinking Activity: Points to Ponder

Ponder upon these points and write a blog. Paste the link of your blog-post in the comment section

1. Wilde originally subtitled The Importance of Being Earnest “A Serious Comedy for Trivial People” but changed that to “A Trivial Comedy for Serious People.” What is the difference between the two subtitles?
2. Which of the female character is the most attractive to you among Lady Augusta Bracknell, Gwendolen Fairfax, Cecily Cardew and Miss Prism? Give your reasons for she being the most attractive among all.
3. The play repeatedly mocks Victorian traditions and social customs, marriage and the pursuit of love in particular. Through which situations and characters is this happening in the play.
4. Queer scholars have argued that the play's themes of duplicity and ambivalence are inextricably bound up with Wilde's homosexuality, and that the play exhibits a "flickering presence-absence of… homosexual desire" Do you agree with this observation? Give your arguments to justify your stance.
5. Below are given various movie and radio adaptations of this play. Write your critique on various adaptations of this play

Additional Resources:

Radio Play Performance of the Importance of Being Earnest

 

Movie Adaptations of Importance of Being Earnest

1986 Movie

   

2002 Movie

 

1952 Movie (with subtitles)

 

The Rover - Aphra Behn

 The Rover or The Banish'd Cavaliers: A Play by Aphra Behn

Introduction

The Rover, in full The Rover; or, The Banish’t Cavaliers, comedy by Aphra Behn, produced and published in two parts in 1677 and 1681. Set in Madrid and Naples during the exile of England’s King Charles II, the play depicts the adventures of a small group of English Cavaliers. The protagonist, the charming but irresponsible Willmore, may have been modeled on John Wilmot Rochester, a poet in the inner circle of Charles II. The hero’s real-life counterpart may also have been John Hoyle, who was a lover of the playwright. (Encyclopedia Britannica)

Aphra Behn's "The Rover" was published in 1677 and first performed in March of that year at Duke's Theatre in Dorset Garden. The play is based upon Thomas Killigrew's drama "Thomas, or, The Wanderer," which was published in 1664. Some dialogue in Behn's "The Rover" closely resembles that found in Thomaso's script; however, the majority of the text was re-written completely, or else is entirely original. As a result of such similarities between texts, Behn was accused of plagiarism on more than one occasion.

Behn's "The Rover" was very well received in the theatre, particularly by Charles II, and also by his successors. Seventy performances of the play are recorded between 1700 and 1725, and another eighty-eight over the course of the following thirty-five years. (Sally Butler)

Download Original Play - The Rover

Characters

Plot Summary

Act wise Analysis

Thematic Study

Online Test: Check your understanding

Inscription on Aphra Behn's Tombstone:

"Here lies a Proof that Wit can never be Defence enough against Mortality."

Aphra Behn's writings (poems and plays) revealed the immoral behaviour of the men of her time. The men of the day, with witty language, used to cover-up their debauched and lascivious (immoral) behaviour. To counter such culture of the civilized nobility of the time, she might have drawn equally immoral women characters. Not only the female characters, even her own life was an example, which scandalously, made a brave statement against the free space given only to the men during her time. Thus, in this context, we can read the inscription as - 'the witty men tried to defend their lascivious behaviour by their wit, however, Behn revealed their true nature and proved that immoral behaviour cannot be veiled or hidden under the garb of witty language. She, herself and her writings, ironically enough, lies to prove that wit can never be defence enough against morality. (Westminister-Abbey's Website)

Video Resources on 'The Rover'

Articles:

1. Carnival Politics, Generous Satire, and Nationalist Spectacle in Behn's The Rover. Adam R Beach. Duke University Press. 2004.
2. Aphra Behn's The Rover engages with the social, political and sexual conditions of the 17th century, as well as with theatrical traditions of carnival and misrule. Elaine Hobby introduces Behn's play and explores how it was first performed and received
3. Rape and the Female Subject in Aphra Behn's "The Rover" Published By: The Johns Hopkins University Press
4. Aphra Behn's The Rover: Evaluating Women's Social and Sexual Options

5. The Sexual Politics of Behn's "Rover": After Patriarchy - Stephen Szilagyi

6. JOURNAL ARTICLE - "Imposing Nought But Constancy in Love": Aphra Behn Snares "The Rover" - Joseph F. Musser, Jr. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43291367

Absalom and Achitophel: Worksheet

 Absalom and Achitophel: John Dryden

1. The Original Poem

2. Introduction and other information:

Absalom and Achitophel, verse satire by English poet John Dryden published in 1681. The poem, which is written in heroic couplets, is about the Exclusion crisis, a contemporary episode in which anti-Catholics, notably the earl of Shaftesbury, sought to bar James, duke of York, a Roman Catholic convert and brother to King Charles II, from the line of succession in favour of the king’s illegitimate (but Protestant) son, the duke of Monmouth. Dryden based his work on a biblical incident recorded in 2 Samuel 13–19. These chapters relate the story of King David’s favourite son Absalom and his false friend Achitophel (Ahithophel), who persuades Absalom to revolt against his father. In his poem, Dryden assigns each figure in the crisis a biblical name; e.g., Absalom is Monmouth, Achitophel is Shaftesbury, and David is Charles II. Despite the strong anti-Catholic tenor of the times, Dryden’s clear and persuasive dissection of the intriguers’ motives helped to preserve the duke of York’s position.

A second part of the poem—largely composed by Nahum Tate, playwright and poet laureate of Britain, but containing 200 lines by Dryden that were directed at his literary rivals Thomas Shadwell and Elkanah Settle—was published in 1682. (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Absalom and Achitophel is a celebrated satirical poem by John Dryden, written in heroic couplets and first published in 1681. The poem tells the Biblical tale of the rebellion of Absalom against King David; in this context it is an allegory used to represent a story contemporary to Dryden, concerning King Charles II and the Exclusion Crisis (1679–1681). The poem also references the Popish Plot (1678) and the Monmouth Rebellion (1685). Click her to learn more.

3. Analysis of the Poem: Absalom and Achitophel:

John Dryden’s publication of Absalom and Achitophel (1681) had a specific political motivation. He wrote the poem during the threat of revolution in England, connected to the so-called Popish plot and the move to exclude the reigning King Charles II’s Catholic brother, James, duke of York, from his right to follow the Protestant Charles to the throne. The protesting faction supported instead Charles’s bastard son, James, duke of Monmouth, whom Charles recognized as his son but not his heir. Born in the Netherlands to Lucy Walter, James was a product of only one of many sexual liaisons of his mother’s. While rumors existed that Charles had secretly married Lucy, granting legitimacy to James, others insisted that James could not even be proved Charles’s son. Charles never produced an heir with his wife, the Portuguese Catherine of Brangaza. Although Lucy followed Charles to England, where James was raised a pampered member of the court and eventually made a duke, she had died before Charles married Catherine. (Click here to read full analysis) 

4.Themes:

(i) Politics, Allegory, and Satire

(ii) God, Religion, and the Divine Right of Kings

(iii) Power and Ambition

5. Character Study:

Character Study: Absalom and Achitophel: John Dryden from Dilip Barad

 6. Allegorical Reference to People and Places:

Places, persons, Parties, positions and Events: Absalom and Achitophel: John Dryden from Dilip Barad

7. Video Resources on Absalom and Achitophel

(i) The Audio Book

 

(ii) Introducing John Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel by Dr. Oindrila Ghosh

 

(iii) 

 

(iv)

8. Check your understanding: Appear in Online Test

9. Video Recording of Online Classes

Click here to watch entire playlist of video recording

Thematic Study

   

Genre Study - Political Satire