18th century lit.

7/30/2019 18th century lit.

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English Literature


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The 18th Century

The Age of Enlightenment in

England


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Historical Background

1.The Revolution of 1688.

2.Two parties: the liberal Whigs and theconservative Tories came into being.However another party also existed, theJacobites, who aimed to bring the Stuartsback to the throne.

3. the rapid development of social life


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The public movement: the Enlightenment

The eighteenth-century England is also knownas the Age of Enlightenment or the Age ofReason. The Enlightenment Movement was aprogressive movement which flourished inFrance and swept through the whole Western

Europe at the time. The Enlightenment was an expression of

struggle of the then progressive class ofbourgeoisie against feudalism. The movementwas a furtherance of the Renaissance of the

fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Its purposewas to enlighten the whole world with the lightof modern philosophical and artistic ideas.


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The enlighteners fought against classinequality, stagnation, prejudices andother survivals of feudalism.

The enlighteners celebrated reason orrationality, equality and science. They heldthat rationality or reason should be theonly, the final cause of any humanthought and activities. They called for areference to order, reason and rules.


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They believed that when reason served as theyardstick for the measurement of all humanactivities and relations, every superstition,

injustice and oppression was to yield place to"eternal truth", eternal justice" and "naturalequality". The enlighteners advocated universaleducation. They believed that human beings

were limited, dualistic, imperfect, and yetcapable of rationality and perfection througheducation.


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the great enlighteners

Famous among the great enlighteners inEngland were those great writers are:

Alexander Pope

Joseph Addison

Sir Richard Steele

Jonathan Swift

Samuel Richardson

Daniel Defoe Henry Fielding

Samuel Johnson


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Literature

It is an age of prose rather than poetry.There are three main divisions:

1. the reign of classicism

2. the revival of romantic poetry

3. the beginnings of the modern novels


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Literal trends

The novel

neoclassicism

sentimentalism

pre-romanticism

Heroic couplet

The graveyard group

Gothic novel


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Terms

1. Neoclassicism: a revival in the seventeenth and eighteenthcenturies of classical standards of order, balance, and harmony in

literature. Alexander Pope, John Dryden and Samuel Johnson weremajor exponents of the neoclassical school.

It found its artistic models in the classical literature of the ancientGreek and Roman writers like Homer, Virgil, Horace, etc. and in thecontemporary French writers such as Voltaire and Diderot. It put thestress on the classical artistic ideal of order, logic, proportion,

restrained emotion, accuracy, good taste and decorum.

Homer: Greek epic poet. Two of the greatest works in Westernliterature, the Iliad and the Odyssey, areattributed to him.

Virgil: Roman poet. His greatest work is the epic poem Aeneid,

which tells of the wanderings of Aeneas after the sackof Troy. Horace: Roman lyric poet. His Odes and Satires have exerted a major influence on English poetry.


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Voltaire : French philosopher and writer whose works epitomize the

Age of Enlightenment, often attacking injustice and intolerance. HewroteCandide (1759) and the Philosophical Dictionary (1764).

17591764

Diderot: French philosopher and writer whose supremeaccomplishment was his work on theEncyclopdie (1751-1772),which epitomized the spirit of Enlightenment thought. He also wrotenovels, plays, critical essays, and brilliant letters to a wide circle offriends and colleagues.

(1713-1784)

1751-1772

18


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Novel

2. Novel: a book-length fictional prose narrative, havingmany characters and often a complex plot.

Character: it is an individual within a literary work.Characters may be complex and well developed (roundcharacter) or undifferentiated and one-dimensional (flatcharacter) .

Protagonist: the central character of a drama, novel,short story, or narrative poem. The protagonist is thecharacter on whom the action centers and with whomthe reader sympathizes most. Usually the protagoniststrives against an opposing force, or antagonist, to

accomplish something. Plot: the sequence of events or actions in a short story,

novel, play or narrative poem.


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The Gothic Novel

3. The Gothic novel: the novel which exploits thepossibilities of mystery and terror in gloomy landscapes,decaying mansions with dark dungeons, secret passages,instruments of torture, ghostly visitations ghostly musicbehind which lurks no one knows what as the centralstory, the persecution of a beautiful maiden by an

obsessed and haggard villain. The real originator ofEnglish Gothic novel was Horace Walpole, with hisfamous Castle of Otranto(1764) .

These novels rebel against the increasing commercialismand rationalism opened up to later fiction the dark,

irrational side of human nature.


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Epistolary Novel

4. Epistolary novel: a type of nnovel inwhich the narrative is carried on by meansof series of letters. Samuel Richardsons

Pamela(1740) and Clarissa Harlowe(1748)are among the best known epistolarynovels.

It can be classified into two kinds: themonologue epistolary novel and thedialogue epistolary novel


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Sentimentalism

5.Sentimentalism: is a literal movement in

the middle of the 18th century in England whichconcentrates on the distressed of the poorunfortunate and virtuous people anddemonstrates that effusive emotion wasevidence of kindness and goodness. It reveals

grief, pains and tears. The representatives areLaurence Sterne who wroteA SentimentalJourney through France and Italy(1768) andOliver Goldsmith who wrote The Vicar ofWakefield(1766).

It came into being as a result of a betterdiscontent on the part of certain enlighteners insocial reality.


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Pre-romanticism

6.Pre-romanticism: a literal trend inthe English literature of the latter half ofthe 18th century which composes theromance devoted to the medieval times.

William Blake and Robert Burns are tworepresentatives of pre-romanticists.


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Point of view

Defoe was a typical man of the eighteenth century

English middle class, hardworking, ingenious, liberal inmind and advanced in opinion. He valued the Puritanethic and belied in diligence and self-reliance. All his life,he was busy, speculative and active. He, like Robinson,is a man whose personal pride would never allow him to

belie his own background and class. His works arereflections of the belief, strength, weakness, interest,and morals of the bourgeois middle class to which hebelonged.

He was very sympathetic with those poor and less

fortunate and did everything he could to reach them andhelp them. He was among the first writers ever to giveconcern to the problems of the social outcast.


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Jonathan Swift


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Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), wrote satires in verse andprose. He is best-known for the extended prose workGulliver's Travels, in which a fantastic account of a seriesof travels is the vehicle for satirizing familiar Englishinstitutions, such as religion, politics and law.

Early life and early works :During the time he wrote twoworks, A Tale of a Tub and The Battle of the Books.They were published together in 1704 and made himwell-known as a satirist. A Tale of a Tub is written in theform of a parable. The phrase " a tale of a tub" was a

17th century slang for a joke, a hoax, an idle discourse. The Battle of Booksis mainly an attack on pedantry in

literary world of the time. The two works established hisname as a satirist.


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Pamphlets on Ireland

Swift's pamphlets on Ireland form a very important partof his works. They have now become part of classicEnglish literature. Swift's life in Ireland gave him an

intimate knowledge of the miserable condition of theIrish people. Two of the most famous ones are "TheDraper's Letters(1724) and "A Modest Proposal(1730).Gulliver's Travels(1726), as a whole, is one of the mosteffective and devastating criticisms and satires of all

aspects in the then English and European life - socially,politically, religiously, philosophically, scientifically, andmorally. Its social significance is great and its explorationinto human nature profound.


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Analysis

Swift is one of the greatest writers of satiric

prose. No reader of his can escape beingimpressed by the great simplicity, directness andvigor of his style.

Easy, clear, simple and concrete diction,uncomplicated syntax, economy and concisenessof language mark all his writings. Seldom isthere ornament or singularity of any kind. Hissimplicities, more often than not, as acamouflage for insidious intentions, for big

serious matters,, and an outward earnestness,simplicity, innocence and an apparently coldimpartial tone render his satire all the morepowerful and effective.


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It is a book simple enough for a child, and yetcomplex enough to carry an adult beyond hisdepth. It is a satire on the 18th century englishsociety, touching upon the political, religious,

legal, military, scientific, philosophical as well asliterary institutions, about almost every aspect ofthe society. Bitterly satirical, the book takegreat pains to bring to light the wickedness ofthe then English society, with its tyranny, its

political intrigues and corruption, its aggressivewars and colonialism, its religious disputes andpersecution, and its ruthless oppression andexploitation of the common people.


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Some narrative features

The novel is a fantasy ad a realistic work

of fiction. The language, as is typical of allSwifts works, is very simple, unadorned,straightforward and effective. It is noted

for its exceptionally tidy structuralarrangement. The four seeminglyindependent parts are linked up by the

central idea of social satire and make upan organic whole.


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Some comments

While social exposure and satire of the book isgenerally acknowledged, there have been greatcontroversies over its deeper intention,especially with Part Four, What sort of thing isman? This is certainly the central question to thebook. Some people are shocked by its openblunt negativeness towards human beings,others feel satisfied with its religious implication

that, man in his development from primitiveforms of life, has achieved only a very limitedrationality and morality.


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Samuel Richardson(1689--1761)

The accidental beginning of his literary careercame in 1739 when, at the age of 51,Richardson was asked by two bookseller friendsto compile a volume of model letters for peoplewithout much formal education to practice intheir correspondence. Richardson intended thathis manual should not only teach people how towrite letters but also be morally instructive. He

was duly rewarded for his kindness and the painhe had taken for the composition of suchmoving letters.


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His works: Pamela(1740-1741) Or (Virtue Rewarded, in a Series of Familiar

Letters from a Beautiful Young Damsel to HerParents)

Clarissa Harlowe(1747) Or: Virtue Triumphant Sir Charles Grandison(1753-1754)

He wrote only three novels, all in epistolary form.


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Henry Fielding(1707--1754)

Fielding was a man of extraordinary vitality andcapacity. He was a dramatist, an essayist and anovelist. His fame is established chiefly upon his

success as a novelist. Joseph Andrews (1742),his first novel .

The History of Jonathan Wild the Great (1743)

The History of Tome Jones, A Foundling (1749) ,his masterpiece.


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In both theory and practice, Fielding establishesonce and for all the from of the English novel.He has held a unique position in the history of

English literature by being called thefather ofthe English novel, for his contribution to the

establishment of the form of modern novel.Fielding set up the theory of realism in literary

creation. He wrote specifically "comic epic inprose", the first to give the modern novel itsstructure and style.


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Before him, the relating of a story in a novel waseither in the epistolary form (a series of letters)as in Richardson's Pamela, or the picaresqueform (adventurous wanderings ) through the

mouth of the principal character, as in Defoe'sRobinson Crusoe, but Fielding adopted "thethird-person narration". In planning his stories,he tries to retain the grand epical form of the

classical works but at the same time keepsfaithful to his realistic presentation of thecommon life as it is.


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Tome Jones

As one of the pioneers of English realisticliterature, Fielding portrays the real life of menwithout disguise. He exposes the hypocrisy anddepravity of the ruling class, and pictures the

poverty of the working masses who are drivenby want to crime. For a time, Tom became anational hero. People were fond of this youngfellow with manly virtues and yet not without

fault. The full-blooded characters are realisticallydepicted in brilliant, witty and highly artisticlanguage.


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Tom Jones is a handsome young man. He is frank and

open. His outstanding quality is "good nature" and"goodness of heart". He is never an indifferent spectatorof the misery or happiness of anyone. He would notwillingly inflict even the most trifling harm on anybody.Yet Tom is very far from being a model character. He

lives by impulse, not by reason. The most seriousmistake that Tom commits is his liaison with LadyBellaston after his arrival in London. A simple countryboy thoroughly ignorant of the ways of the depravedhigh society in London, he is completely taken by

surprise by a bad woman and becomes, for a short time ,her paid lover. But as soon as he learns the truecharacter of the woman , he immediately terminates theconnection.


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Sophia was Fielding's ideal of what anamiable English girl should be. But he didnot make her "perfectly perfect'. Though

very sweet-tempered, she can flame upinto an angry passion on occasions. Shehas also a little vanity which causes her to

toy with the idea of playing the part of atragic heroine, sacrificing herself to herfather's wishes.


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William Blake(1757--1827)

His life story (Page 283-284)

His position in English literature: therepresentative of pre-romanticist.

His main works: Songs of Innocence (1789)

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell(1790)

Songs of Experience (1794)Appreciate the poem Londonon P.287


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Robert Burns(1759--1796)

His life story (P.P 290--293)

The greatest of the 18th century Scotspoet.

His works: Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect

The Tree of Liberty

My Hearts in the Highland (Page 294)A Red, Red Rose (Page 295)

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