17th and 18th Century

Literature
The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were both
turbulent and polite.

It was an age of:

1.Virtuosos and Pretenders

2.Libertinism and Enlightenment
3.Reason and romanticism
4.It witnessed the rise of the novel.
 The 17th and 18th Century
English Literature intensified
the focus on and analysis of
the self and the personal life.
English Literature in the Seventeenth Century
General Introduction
The earlier seventeenth century, and
especially the period of the English
Revolution (164060), was a time of
intense ferment in all areas of life:
Religion
Science
Politics
Domestic Relations
Culture
 Major Events in 17 th Century England

Changes in Monarchy
The Reformation
The Civil War
Advances in Science
Major Events in 17 th Century England

Changes
in
Monarchy
Major Events in 17 th Century England

Religious
Reformation
Reformation
Torture
and
Controversy
 Major Events in 17 th Century England
Cromwell
OliverRules
Radical
Cromwell
Charles I led
was
Fought The
Hostile
English
with
Convict and
the
DICTATOR
the Parliament
condemned
Commonwealth
Scottish
Civil Rebels
War
Parliament
Beheaded the
as
and
King
Captured
tyrant in 1642
Charles I
Major Events in 17 th Century England

Advances
in
Science
 Literature of the 17 th Century
Gender, Family, Household

Religious, legal, domestic

advice texts

Tracts on transgressive subjects

Womens texts
Literature of the Revolution Period
1. Confusion in literature

2. Puritan Age: Age of Sadness

3. No Romantic Ardor

4. John Milton Age of Milton

5. Poetry: Metaphysical & Cavalier Poets

2 Camps during 17th Century

1.Metaphysical Poets

2. Cavalier Poets
 Metaphysical Poets
-- Donne, Herbert, later Herrick --
Protestant
Not happy with the King
religious & philosophical topics
challenging, demanding, symbolic
metaphysical conceits unusual
metaphors
 Metaphysical Poets
Shatter myths and replace with new philosophies, new
world and poetry with rebellious spirit.
Poetry as colloquial language, a single minded working
of one theme.
Use logical reason to explain things esp. emotions,
psychologically analyze love and religion, love the novelty
and the shocking.
Use metaphysical conceits and ignore conventional device
 Metaphysical Poets
Contained large doses of wit.
The poets ponder sense of humor.
Shock the reader and wake him with his normal existence
in order to question the unquestionable.
Mixed ordinary speech with paradoxes and puns.
Religious sentiment-carpe diem-humanity of life
Comparing unlikely things - CONCEITS
 Metaphysical Poets
CONCEITS
Extended metaphor with a complex logic that governs a
poetic passage or entire poem.
Juxtaposing, usurping, and manipulating images and ideas
in surprising ways.
Poetic idiom of mannerism.
 Metaphysical Poets
Topics from religious to consciousness
Nature of reality
No one correct answer to any of these question.
Metaphysics is about exploration and philosophy, and not
about science and math.
 Metaphysical Poets
Mysticism in content and fantasticality in form.
Does God exist?
Is there a difference between the way things appear to us
and the way they really are? Essentially, what is the
difference between reality and perception?
Is everything that happens already predetermined? If so,
then is free choice non-existent?
Is consciousness limited to the brain?
Metaphysical Poets

THOUGHT

FEELINGS
 Cavalier Poets
Most of these poets were courtier and soldiers
They sided with the King to fight against Revolution.
Ben Johnson's Sons:
Robert Herrick, Sir John Suckling, Richard Lovelace, Thomas Carew
Generally tried to compress and limit their poems, giving them a high polish
and a sense of easy domination at the expense of their intellectual content.
 Ben Johnson
Strove for the perfection and harmony he found in his beloved classical
authors, turning away from the ornate style of Elizabethan times to create
his own modern, strong voice.
He wrote poems, plays, and masques (court entertainments)
Took seriously the role of the poet
He believed, in fact, that no other profession could compare to it.
Poets, he wrote, encourage young men to all good disciplines, inflame
grown men to all great virtues and keep old men in their best and supreme
state
A person could not be a good poet without being a good man, he
asserted
 John Donne (1573-1631)
Founder of the Metaphysical School.

A trouble maker in his early life but became the dean

of St. Pauls Cathedral

1.Youthful love lyrics

2. Later Sacred Verse

 John Bunyan 1628
The son of a poor tinker
Born in the little village of Elstow 1628.
Sent to school but became helper in his fathers shop
Began day-dreaming of a more religious life
After Restoration was sent to school
prison for conducting
religious meetings
Read his Bible in prison and wrote The Pilgrims Progress.
 John Bunyan

Writer of the

Pilgrims
Progress
 The Pilgrims Progress
A religious allegory appealing to the common religious people of
every ages and condition

It tells of a religious mans search for salvation and the picture of the
English Society that time. Base on the idea of JOURNEY
The travelers name is CHRISTIAN
The figures and places Christian encounters on his journey stand for
the various experiences every Christian must go through in the quest
for salvation.
 The Pilgrims Progress
The whole book falls into two parts:

Part 1
Part 2
 The Pilgrims Progress
Part 1
Tells the religious conversion of Christian and his religious life into
the world
Mainly describes his pilgrimage through the:

Slough of Despond Vanity Fair Doubting Castle

The Valley of Humiliation The valley of Shadow of Death

 The Pilgrims Progress
Dream Christian Spiritual Anguish Evangelist

Salvation Celestial City Family Slough of Despond

Mr. Worldly Wiseman Valley of Humiliation Shadow of Death

Faithful Evangelist Town of Vanity/Vanity Fair

Hopeful Demas Doubting Castle

Wise Shepherds Error and Caution
 The Pilgrims Progress
Shortcut Ignorance Flatterer Atheist

Cross a river without a bridge Christian nearly drowns

Saved by Gods love Welcomed by the people

of the celestial city
 The Pilgrims Progress
Part 1
On the way he overcome many obstacles and encounters various
allegorical personages such as:

Mr. Worldly Wiseman Faithful Hopeful

He accomplish his journey and arrives at the Celestial City.

The pioneer pilgrims Christian and his associates belong to the PURITAN
SECT who were undergoing persecution in the reign of Charles II
 The Pilgrims Progress
Part 2
The story of the pilgrim of Christiana and his 4 sons to the celestial
city and reached it also.

There is always a second chance for everyone.

 The Pilgrims Progress

Though an ALLEGORY, its character impress the reader like real persons

Bunyans prose is noted for:

Simple and Biblical Style.
Use of idiomatic expression naturally
His biblical language enables him to narrate stories and reveal his ideas in a
direct way.
 The Pilgrims Progress

The Secret of the success of the pilgrim's progress is probably simple

Its predominant metaphor LIFE AS A JOURNEY IS SIMPLE AND FAMILIAR
Throughout the allegory, a spiritual significance is added to the commonplace
details.
One of the most remarkable passages is that in which Vanity Fair and the
persecution of Christian and his friend, Faithful are described.
Christian and his companion Faithful, are passing through a town called Vanity
during the season of the local fair.
 The Pilgrims Progress

Vanity Fair
On the Vanity Fair, honors, titles, kingdoms, lusts, pleasures, and lives can be sold
or brought and cheating, roguery, murder, and adultery are normal phenomena.

Bunyan cherished a deeply hatred of both the king and his government

This section gives the bitterest satire, which is invariably directed at the ruling class.

In the description of the Vanity Fair, Bunyan not only gives us a symbolic picture
of London at the time of the Restoration but of the whole bourgeois society.
 John Milton (1608-1674)
Born in London in 1608
Studies in foreign and local schools.

Writings about peoples liberty and right to divorce

With the restoration of Charles II, he was arrested and imprisoned

Declaration of Peoples Freedom of Press

His blindness forced him to depend on his daughters for

an assistance with his reading and writing.
 John Milton (1608-1674)

Masterpiece
Paradise Lost
Paradise Regained
Samson Agonist
 Paradise Regained

It explores the theme of temptation

And fall and shows how human kind
In the person of Christ, withstand
The temper and is established
Once more in the Divine favor
 Samson Agonists

Is a poetical drama modeled on Greek tragedy.

The story was taken from the old testament.
Samson is Milton
The whole poem strongly suggests Miltons passionate
longing that he too could bring destruction down upon the
enemy at the cost of his own life.
 Paradise Lost

Miltons Masterpiece of his Masterpiece

Consist of 12 books of blank verse

Stories taken from the Old Testament:
The Creation The rebellion in Heaven of Satan and his fellow Angels
Their defeat and expulsion from heaven
The Creation of Earth and of Adam and Eve
The departure of Adam and Eve from Eden Possible salvation
 Paradise Lost

The poem on the surface was to justify the ways of God to man.

It also emphasize the submission to Almighty.

Main idea: Heroic revolt against Gods Authority
In the poem, God is noted as selfish despot.

God surrounded with Angels = COURT OF ABSOLUTE MONARCH

Rebel Satan and his followers = REPUBLICAN PARLIAMENT
This epic expresses the reactionary force and appeal for freedom
 Paradise Lost

The theme is also about: THE FALL OF MAN

Mans dis-obedience and lost of Paradise
They embody Miltons belief in the powers of man
Their craving for knowledge denied them by God
It is longing for knowledge that opens before mankind a wide
road toward an intelligent and active life.
 Paradise Lost
What makes Paradise Lost a powerful poem?
Its the way the Biblical past is pulled into the present
in an intriguing way.
Key political questions: Freedom & Choice
From the perspective of Satan & his followers, rebellion against God
was inevitable. The revolt may have failed but it has left them their
freedom. Key political questions: Freedom & Choice
It was forward looking- an image of gain through lost
As Adam and Eve go hand in hand out of Eden, the loss of Paradise
is seen as the gain of a future for humanity on earth.
 Paradise Lost

Main Characters
Satan
Adam
Eve
God the Father
God the Son
 17 th Century
1. Absolutism vs. Parliamentary

2. Monarchy vs. Republicanism

3. Puritanism vs. Anglicanism

4. Church Ritual and ornament vs. Iconoclasm

5. Tolerance vs. Religious uniformity

 Major Events:

1. The Restoration
2. Plague of 1665

3. Fire raged for four days.

4. The Enlightenment, Agricultural Revolution,
Industrial Age
5.Glorious revolution of 1688-89 and Union of 1707
 Major Events:
RESTORATION
Death of Cromwell
1658, the Parliament gave the throne to Charles II
Monarchy again rule over England
Paris Charles II FASHION
Charles Italian painters and Dutch writers
 Major Events:
PLAGUE OF 1655 and FIRE RAGE FOR 4 DAYS

Early in Charless reign, the people were visited by two frightful

calamities that seemed to the superstitious to be the work of a
divine Providence outraged by rebellion and regicide: the plague
of 1665, carried off over seventy thousand souls in London alone,
and in September 1666, a fire that raged for four days destroyed a
large part of the City (more than thirteen thousand houses),
leaving about two-thirds of the population homeless.
 1689Union
BILL OF
of 1707
Major Events: RIGHTS
GLORIOUS REVOLUTION
Charles II James II was his Successor
James II was a devoted Catholic
Parliament meet Mary Protestant daughter of James II
wife of William Orange

Rather than fight, James escaped to France

Not a drop of Blood had been Shed.
 Major Events:
ENLIGHTENMENT
People starts to think scientifically and made a Scientific
Revolution over industries with the inventions of MACHINES

AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIAL
REVOLUTION REVOLUTION
Farm Tools Steam Engine, Factories,
Merchants, Farmers
 Also known as Classical

Classic Writers
Large Number
Production
Pseudo-Classism
Rebellion for
Reason!!!
Exact rules
 Three Discrete Literary Eras

1. Restoration (1660-1700)- dominated by Dryden

2.The Age of Satire (1700-1745)- Swift and Pope
3. The Age of Johnson (1745-1790)- Johnson
 Three Discrete Literary Eras

1. Restoration (1660-1700)- dominated by Dryden

Age of Reason or Age of Good Sense
Celebrates Human Achievement

John Locke
There is no war between faith and reason. Faith is nothing but a firm assent
of the mind; which if it will be regulated as is our duty, cannot be afforded to
anything but upon good reason, and so cannot be opposite to it.
 John Dryden Absalom and Achitopel

Achitopel- leader of antagonist to king David

Absalom- David illegitimate son

David reigning king

James David brother

Popish Plot

Pleasing rape upon the crown

 Three Discrete Literary Eras

2. Age of Satire (1700-1745)- dominated by Swift and Pope

Jonathan Swift (16671745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist,
political pamphleteer poet.

Swift is probably the foremost prose satirist in the English

language, and is less well known for his poetry. Swift originally
published all of his works under pseudonyms or anonymously.

He is also known for being a master of satire.

A Tale of a Tub Gullivers Travels

 Three Discrete Literary Eras

A Tale of a Tub

This book is written in the form of a parable, an old man died

and left a coat, i.e. the Christian doctrine, to each of his three
sons, Peter, Martin and Jack. The three sons stand for Roman
Catholics, Protestants and Puritans. They evade their fathers
will, interpret it each in his own way, and change the fashion of
their garment. This is a satire upon all religious sects. Swifts
satire becomes an attack on Christianity itself.
Gullivers Travels
The First Voyage
LILLIPUT where tallest people were 6 inches high. The two parties in this country were
distinguished by use of high and low heels, Swift satirizes the Tories and the Whigs in
England.
The Second Voyage

GIANTS. Gulliver now found himself a dwarf among men 60 feet in height. The King
regarded Europe as if it were an anthill.

The Third Voyage

GLUBDUGDRIBB. The third part is a satire on philosophers and projectors who were
given to dwelling in the air, like the inhabitants of the Flying Island.

The Fourth Voyage

In the last part, Gullivers satire is bitterest. Gulliver was now in a country where
horses/HOUYHNINS were possessed of reason, and were governing class, while the
YAHOOS, though in shape of men, were brute beasts with such vices as stealing and
lying. This work gives an satirical depiction of the vices of his age.
 Three Discrete Literary Eras

Alexander Pope : He was known for having perfected the rhymed

couplet form of his idol, John Dryden, and turned it to satiric and
philosophical purposes. His mock epic The Rape of the Lock .
 The Rape of the Lock

The poem The Rape of the Lock which is considered to be one of the
masterpieces of Pope is the blend of burlesque, witty, humorous, ironic, and
morality, which is rare in English poetry, was published in 1712.

The poem from the beginning acquaints us with the idleness, late rising, and
fondness for domestic pets of the aristocratic ladies. Belinda wakes up at noon.
The superficiality of the ladies, who loved glided chariots, and their ambition to
marry peers and dukes, or men holding other high positions, are indicated in
the opening canto. The poem brings out the varying vanities of the women.
 The Rape of the Lock

These ladies learnt early in their life, how to roll their eyes and to blush in an
intriguing manner. Their hearts were like toy shops which moved from one
gallant to another.

The poet ridicules women's excessive attention to self-decoration

The satire in The Rape of the Lock on aristocratic manners is a commentary on

polite society in general, and on fashionable women
 Three Discrete Literary Eras

3. Age of Samuel Johnson (1745-1790)

His literary fame has traditionallyand properly

rested more on his prose than on his poetry.
Dictionary of English Language

N-O-V-E-L
 Gothic Romance
Forbidden Themes: Incest, Murder, Necrophilia, Atheism and
torments of Sexual Desires.

Free play- represented feelings, morbid fears.

Growing number of women readers.

 Mary Shelleys
Frankenstein (1818)
Single most important
product of this tradition
Themes relate to science,
poetry, psychology,
alienation, politics,
education, family
relationships, etc.
Tradition: 8-foot tall
monster made of separate
body pieces
 To evoke terror versus
horror in the reader
because of situations
bordering
reality/unreality
Often used to teach a
message
May lack a Medieval
setting but will develop
an atmosphere of gloom
and terror
 Style/Genre
1. satire
2. poetry
3. essays
4. letters, diaries, biographies
5. novels
The Literature of seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries were both turbulent and polite.
Thank you!