1. The Age of Reason

2. The Age of Reason in Europe
General intellectual and literary movement: Enlightenment
Enlightenment: characterized by Rationalism
Rationalism: a philosophy the emphasized the role of reason rather than sensory experience or faith in answering basic questions of human existence
Ideals:
Intellectual Freedom
Freedom from prejudice and superstition in religion and politics
As in all Ages: Behavior often did not match ideals

3. The Age of Reason in England
English version of Rationalism: experience & reason should be given equal place when examining the human condition
This made the English less “Rational” than the French and other continental versions
Many of the most important writers of this period were opposed to the rationalist ideas of social progress and human perfectibility

4. The Age of Reason=The Neoclassical Age
Many of the authors based their prose and poetry on classical models
Classical here refers to Ancient Greece and Rome
Classical writers are people like Homer, who wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey, or Ovid wrote the Annelid.

5. An Age where people were concerned with:
Manners and morals
Understanding themselves
Understanding the immediate world
Understanding their relationship with others.
And the Age was influenced by:
John Locke’s Essay Concerning

6. And the Age was influenced by:
John Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), which argued that “our business here is not to know all things, but those which concern our conduct.”

7. The Age was also stimulated by great Scientists
Sir Isaac Newton:
Principa (1687) first set forth the laws of gravitation
It was a period that advocated the use of scientific method to test old theories and to develop new knowledge.

8. The Early Years,
The Restoration of the Monarchy with: King Charles II

9. The Restoration brought many changes to England.
The Anglican Church was once again the established church
Charles II reopened theatres, which that puritans had closed, and even sponsored a troop of actors
1662: Charles II chartered the Royal Society.
This made scientific activities and investigations official
The Society required the use of the scientific method in all of its investigations
Required that reports be written in clear, simple prose.

10. London had been receiving a shift in population from the country to town. It became a thriving city, yet it suffered two major disasters in rapid succession.
Plague
1665: sickness ran rapid through the city
70,000 of London’s inhabitants were killed
Fire
1666: June
When the plague abated, fire broke out
It took 5 days to extinguish
It left 2/3 of the population homeless

11. Coffee Houses 1652: The first Coffee House Opened in London
- Here the middle and upper-class rubbed shoulders with writers and thinkers
- It provided a place where men could meet, talk, drink coffee, and sometimes conduct business
By the end of the century several thousand coffee houses were in existence

12. Changes in Literature Old New
Satirical verses aimed at correcting people’s behavior in society
The periodical essay was intended to be short and for the middle class
Actresses played female roles
The Restoration plays were licentious and focused on multiple plots concerning infidelity and acting in ways that were unsuitable according to one’s station in life
Love Sonnets
Flowery and ornate writing styles
Boy actors portrayed female characters
Major plays were Heroic Tragedies

13. The Middle Years: 1700-1744 Queen Anne: 1702-1714
Died without an heir
George I of Hanover, Germany:
Great-Grandson of James I
Had Stuart Blood
Was acceptable to Parliament
Was Protestant
Spoke German and spent most of his time in Germany
George II:

14. Rise in the Power of the Prime Minister
Under the first two Georges, the country was in effect ruled by the ministry.

15. England’s Two Political Parties
Whigs:
Favored reforms and progress
Preferred a powerful parliament over a powerful monarchy
Tories:
Were opposed to change
Favored Royal power and the established Church of England.

16. The Whigs They wielded the most power during the middle years
They favored the new mercantile middle class living in London
They fostered trade and contributed to the growth of the cites and international commerce

17. Rise of the Middle Class
The middle class had begun to merge with landed gentry through:
Marriage
Concerns for wealth and property
Movement into a position of social dominance

18. Growth of the Working Class
Jobs opening in:
Construction
Mining
Factories
All these jobs were spurred with the invention of power-driven machinery
This would bring about the Industrial Revolution

19. Inequality in the Distribution of Wealth
In London especially, the inequality in the distribution of wealth was appalling.
In the streets the silks and brocades a powdered wigs, the gilded coaches and sedan chairs of the rich moved against a background of rags, filth, stench, and crime.
The rich went to plays and Italian operas while thousands lived in poverty

20. Split Portraits
Sir Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough tuned out elegant portraits of prosperous ladies and gentlemen

22. Split Portraits
William Hogarth savagely satirized the wealthy and protested against the lot of the poor in paintings and graphic works such as A Rake’s Progress.

24. Women’s Rights Enlightenment had little effect on women’s rights
Women were not usually educated
Daniel Defoe was ahead of his time when he suggested a method of improving the education of women

25. The Middle Class’s Influence on Literature
New wealth afforded them the luxury of reading for pleasure and they bought new books
The wanted to read about people like themselves, so realistic novels became popular
Literary Periodicals were aimed at coffee house audiences and were written to entertain and improve morals and manners

26. Moralist Reactions
In Theatre, a new type of moral comedy came to be known as Sentimental Comedy and helped to make the theatre respectable again.
Jonathan Swift: the greatest moralist of them all
Satirical writer who exposed and ridiculed individual and social evils of his day.
Gulliver’s Travels targeted governmental and personal hypocrisy and vice.