1. The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century Notes

2. Restoration People from England and Europe poured into North America
England was exhausted by war and disease, but produced many brilliant works of philosophy, art, and literature.

3. This era has been labeled:
Augustan Age and Neoclassical period:
Likened to Rome when Emperor Augustus restored peace and order after Julius Caesar was assassinated.
England restored their king and experienced a period of calm and order after an era of political turmoil.

4. The Enlightenment and Age of Reason
People stopped asking “Why?” questions and started asking “How?” questions: how body works and laws of the universe.
Natural phenomena explained by scientific observations.

5. Modern English Prose:
Royal Society of London for the Promotion of Natural Knowledge
Called for exact, precise prose
Short to the point vs. their predecessors endless sentences
John Dryden: “founder and first true master” of modern English prose.

6. Religious Change
Deism: the universe is a perfect mechanism, which God had built and left to run on its own; ex: meteors aren’t a sign from God, rather God didn’t interfere in human affairs
Most people still held onto strong views of Christianity.

7. New Writing
Journalism (for the middle class) and First English Novels (something new)

8. The Age of Satire
Satire: a kind of writing that ridicules human weakness, vice, or folly in order to bring about social reform.
Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift both used satire to expose the moral corruption & crass (extreme) commercialism of 18th century England.

9. Jonathan Swift ( )
Principal prose writer of early 18th century
England’s greatest satirist
Obtained a master’s degree from Oxford
ordained a priest in the Church of Ireland

10. Jonathan Swift
He did not write for fame or money; most books & pamphlets were published anonymously.
Aim in writing: improve human conduct; make people more humane & decent

11. Swift’s Works
Tale of a Tub exposes “gross corruption in religion & learning”
Gulliver’s Travels attacks different varieties of human misbehavior.
A Modest Proposal his most famous pamphlet

12. Terms:
verbal irony is a contrast between what is said and what is actually meant
situational irony contrast between what is expected to happen and what actually does happen
dramatic irony contrast between what a character knows and what the reader or audience knows