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Restoration Age

The document summarizes key aspects of literature and theatre during the English Restoration period from 1660-1688. Charles II reopened theatres after they had been closed for 18 years by Puritans. Comedy plays satirized society and featured situational humor. Playwrights like William Congreve flourished during this time with support from Charles II. Poetry also thrived during this period, with John Dryden emerging as the most prominent writer who helped establish the classical school of poetry in England.

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Bilal Bilal
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321 views12 pages

Restoration Age

The document summarizes key aspects of literature and theatre during the English Restoration period from 1660-1688. Charles II reopened theatres after they had been closed for 18 years by Puritans. Comedy plays satirized society and featured situational humor. Playwrights like William Congreve flourished during this time with support from Charles II. Poetry also thrived during this period, with John Dryden emerging as the most prominent writer who helped establish the classical school of poetry in England.

Uploaded by

Bilal Bilal
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Restoration age

1660-1688
Charles II Restoration (Return to a former position)
• The crowning of Charles II
• Restoring of the traditional English monarchical form of government.
• Charles I believed that kings are proposed by God to rule.
Philosophical Context
• Restoration period roughly coincides with the beginning of
the Enlightenment, which lasted until the end of the 18th
century.
The Theatre
• As a result of the influence of religious and political leaders who
believed it to be sinful, theatres had been closed for 18 years by
Puritans
• Charles II reopened theatres.
• Playwrights appreciated this act of Charles
• Revival in English theatre.
• Charles II, was a big admirer of drama he encouraged the theatre's
presence.
Poetry
• Poetry flourished.
• John Dryden. The most important writer of the
age
• Spiritual literature. John Milton Paradise Lost
was published during this age.
Drama
• Comedies of Manners, satirized the behaviours of society
before and during the restoration period.
• Comedic plays relied on situational humour:
• disguises,
• mistaken identity, and misunderstandings which stems from
nonsense and leads to confusion.
• Situational, dramatic, and verbal irony.
• prose instead of the traditional heroic couplets.
Drama
• Comedies became social commentaries.
• Not a mirror of society, but rather exaggerations of society
• Upper class audience.
• Another interesting theme that is a sign of the times is the
reversal of Class
• Wealth
• Property
• Gender roles
Drama
• The most gifted among all the Restoration
dramatist was William Congreve (1670-1720)
who wrote all his best plays when he was thirty
years of age. His well-known comedies are Love
for Love (1695) and The Way of the
World (1700).
Success
• Support of The King
• Sanctioned loans to establish theatres
• loaned productions.
• Funded extravagant.
• Restoration audiences enjoyed
• New technologies changed how the plays were put on
and how the audience watched them.
Writers and poets of the age
• Age of Dryden (most prominent figure of the age)
• There was a reaction against everything that the
puritans held sacred.
• The King rejected old ideals and demanded that English
poetry and drama should follow the style to which they
had become accustomed in France.
• Poets and writers imitated French writers especially
their vices.
Writers and poets of the age
• For quite sometime, there was no significant work  in
poetry, drama and prose produced which could compare
satisfactorily with the great achievements of the
Elizabethans, of Milton, and even of minor writers of
the Puritan age. 
• Realism and Preciseness.
• More emphasis on vices than virtues in the beginning.
• Ultimately, preciseness became the chief characteristic.
Restoration Poetry
• Satirical
• Realistic
• Written in heroic couplet
• Dryden wrote in a clear and forceful style
• Laid the foundation of the classical school of
poetry.

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