THE RESTORATION AGE

The Restoration Age and Restoration Comedy of Manners

The Restoration comedy is also known as Comedy of Manners. These comedies expressed a reaction against Puritanism and the sexual repression it had attempted to enforce. Fashionable intrigues, sex, marriage and adultery were treated with cynicism, with worldly wit and a sense of the comedy of life. The characters in the plays no doubt owed much to the courtiers, the wits, and the men about town as well as to ladies of fashion, citizens, wives and country 

girls. ―Restoration Comedy, according to Moody and Lovett, ―is a genuine reflection of the temper, if not of the actual life, of the upper classes of the nation, and as such it has a sociological as well as a literary interest.

Style of Romeo and Juliet By Jessica Barber and McCaul Baggett.

Writing Style of Romeo and Juliet  

Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is arguably the greatest tragedy ever written. Using tragic elements such as pride, death, pain, and loss, he creates one of the most dynamic wolds in all of literature. It is the pride of the Montague and Capulet families which leads to the deaths of their children. The inability of the families to put aside their differences, even for true love, is the primary flaw in the tragedy. Ironically, the players of this drama in and of themselves are basic comic characters. As cited in Everybody's Shakespeare by

 Maynard Mack: "The characters are individualized, it is true, well beyond the usual comic types; but they show nonetheless some recognizable blood ties with the kinds of people we expect to meet within stage and film comedy: the Beautiful Ingenue, the Convention Ridden Parents including the Irascible Father, the Parent-Approved suitor, the Dashing Romantic Suitor, the Male Confidant and Female

Plato's Objection to Poetry

Plato was the most distinguished disciple of Socrates. the 4th century BC to which he belonged was an age of inquiry and as such Plato’s chief interest was philosophical investigations which form the subject of his great works in form of dialogues. He wasn't a professed critic of literature and his critical observation isn't found in any single book. They lie scattered in seven of his dialogues, more particularly in the Jon, the symposium, the republic and the laws.

He was the first systematic critic who inquired into the nature of imagination literature and put forward theories which are both illuminating and provocative. He was himself a great poet and his dialogues are the classic works of the world literature having dramatic, lyrical and fictional elements.

 

He gives the theory of mimesis (imitation) The arts deal with illusion or they are imitation of an imitation,

The Rivals: Anti-Sentimental Comedy

Anti-Sentimental Comedy

Undoubtedly Sheridan’s purpose in writing “The Rivals” was to entertain the audience by making them laugh and not by making them shed tears. “The Rivals” was written as a comedy pure and simple. Though there are certainly a few sentimental scenes in this play yet they are regarded as a parody of sentimentality. The scenes between Falkland and Julia are satire on the sentimental comedy 

which was in fashion in those days and against which Sheridan revolted. 

The Life Of John Ruskin (1819 - 1900) by G. P. Landow

The Life Of John Ruskin

John Ruskin was born on 8 February 1819 at 54 Hunter Street, London, the only child of Margaret and John James Ruskin. His father, a prosperous, self-made man who was a founding partner of Pedro Domecq Sherries, collected art and encouraged his son's literary activities, while his mother, a devout evangelical Protestant, 

early dedicated her son to the service of God and devoutly wished him to become an Anglican bishop. Ruskin, who received his education at home until the age of twelve, rarely associated with other children and had few toys. During his sixth year he accompanied his parents on the first of many annual tours of the Continent. Encouraged by his father, he published his first poem, 'On Skiddaw and Derwent Water', at the age of eleven, and four years later his first prose work, an article on the waters of the Rhine.