·
In 1660, when Charles II came to the throne,
there was complete repudiation of the puritan ideals and the way of living. In
English literature the period from 1660 to 1700 is called the period of
restoration, because monarchy was restored in England, and Charles II, the son
of Charles I who had been defeated and beheaded, came back to England from his
exile in France and became the king.
·
All restraints and discipline were thrown to the
winds, and a wave of licentiousness and frivolity swept the country. Charles II
and his followers who had enjoyed a gay life in France during their exile, did
their best to introduce that type of foppery and looseness in England also.
Instead of having Shakespeare and the Elizabethans as their models, and the
poets and dramatists of the restoration period began to imitate French writers
and especially their vices.
·
No major work was produced. But then was
introduced realism and a tendency to preciseness.
·
In the beginning realism took an ugly shape,
because the writers painted the real pictures of the corrupt society and court.
They were more concerned with the vices rather that with the virtues. The
result was a coarse and inferior type of literature. Later this tendency to
realism became more wholesome, and the writers tried to portray realistically
human life as they found it- it is good as well as bad side, it internal as
well as external shape.
·
The restoration writers, under the influence of
French writers gave emphasis to reasoning rather than romantic fancy, and
evolved and exact precise way of writing, consisting of short, clear-cut
sentences without any unnecessary word.
·
The royal society also known as Royal Society of
London for Improving Natural Knowledge. It was set up in 1660 in Britain. The group
was basically formed for scientific studies. Scholars like Einstein and Newton and
were part of this group.
·
Comedy of manners. This genre of comedy flourished
in restoration period in England. It is a play, novel, or film that gives a
satirical portrayal of behaviour in a particular social group. The writers use satiric
tone and witty dialogues, to show baselessness of a particular class or society
(generally used for upper-class).
·
In tragedy, the restoration period specialised
in heroic tragedy, which dealt with themes of epic magnitude. The heroes and
heroines possessed superhuman qualities. The purpose of this tragedy was
didactic- to inculcate virtues in the shape of bravery and conjugal love. It
was written in the ‘heroic couplet’ in accordance with the heroic convention
derived from France that ‘ heroic metre’ should be used in such plays.in it
declamation took the place of natural dialogue. Moreover, it was characterised
by bombast on the observations of life, there was no realistic
characterisation, and it inevitably ended happily and virtue was always rewarded.
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