Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The Age of Enlightenment in English literature corresponds to the period from 1700 to 1800 during which, the belief that science and logic give people more knowledge and understanding than tradition and religion gained traction. The Age of Enlightenment is also known as the Age of Prose and Reason, the Augustan Age, and the Age of Sensibility.
Historical Background
The basis for this common belief was developed long with the works of Francis Bacon who proposed the idea of inductive reasoning. In “The Advancement of Learning” and “The New Organon” Bacon expressed the technique of induction through which we establish truth or knowledge on the ground of real observation of several experiences or occurrences. His works gave impetus to the Scientific Revolution which suffered a jolt because of the political upheaval during the Interregnum but the Restoration period brought the scientific method back on the course. The Royal Society was established in 1660 and it was influenced by the imaginative ‘House of Solomon’ in Bacon’s “New Atlantis”.
The other thinkers of influence included Rene Descartes and Baruch Spinoza. Bacon gave the idea of empiricism and Descartes proposed rationalism. Baruch Spinoza and Leibniz supported Descartes’ Rationalism while empiricists like John Locke, George Berkley, and David Hume opposed it. Nevertheless, both rationalism and empiricism advocated logic. The subtle difference was the final authority to be considered as the foundation of certainty of knowledge. Empiricists favored experience based on human senses, while rationalists supported reason. In religion, you accepted the dictates of the church; in science, you would turn to a recognized authority like Aristotle, Ptolemy, etc. The Wife of Bath trusted experience over authority, but she was wrong to do so. In the Age of Enlightenment, she would be right. Copernicus and Galileo were the Wives of Bath when they trusted their own observations of stars to support their heliocentric view of the world as opposed to the Bible and also opposed to Ptolemy, the then authority of science. Newton further used empiricism to explain gravity, and the laws of motion and developed a whole new mathematics of Calculus. Empiricism gave way to skepticism. Skepticism against dogmas empowered individualism and called for freedom from religious dogmas. The people of the Enlightenment age believed in the universal authority of reason and observation. In his famous work, “Discourse on Method”, Descartes at first doubted the deliverances of his senses, as they frequently mislead us; then he questioned the procedure of reasoning; he reckoned that our universe might be an illusion. But in suspecting everything to be misleading or fake, Descartes speculated: “I think, therefore, I am”
Political and Religious Context of the Age of Enlightenment
Enlightenment wasn’t just about science. Even John Milton met Galileo in his lifetime and admired him, yet, his major work was Paradise Lost surrounding the Biblical Genesis, Original Sin, and Satan. People of the Enlightenment Age were fed up with religious doctrines. they wanted proof; did not want to accept an idea as true just because some person of authority said it. And that gave way to the direct opposition to any idea supporting the Divine Right.
After the death of King Charles II in 1685, King James II became the monarch. But he had to face the opposition of Whigs and proponents of protestants and was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 in favor of his Protestant daughter Mary and her Husband William III. The deposition of King James II settled a century of political and civil strife in England by confirming the primacy of the English Parliament over the Crown through the Bill of Rights passed in 1689 which limited the monarch's power. It was the period when England was striving for individual freedom and rights when John Locke presented his idea of Modern Man. Man, Locke says, is not created with original sin in him and he is not inherently wicked; rather man is born as a blank sheet of paper, you can create whatever sort of man by environmental influences, education, experiences, and what this means is that education became important. So, Man became a creature of indefinite possibility for progress. This reduced the controlling power of the Church and Monarch both on the common man. John Locke presented his idea of the social contract that suggests that the government’s authority lies in the consent of the governed. The Lockean idea of natural rights that stresses that individuals have a right to "Life, Liberty, and Property" became the base of new socio-political arrangements. It turned to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” in the U.S. Declaration of Independence. It was the effect of Humanism and Individualism of the Age of Enlightenment. This new interest in Individuals reduced the importance of theology while giving impetus to humanism. Deism became a common belief.
Enlightenment brought a geographical change too as Scotland and England officially became one and the Parliament of Scotland was abolished through the Act of Union in 1707 and changed England to Great Britain. Act Of Union of 1800 again united Great Britain and Ireland and the unison became The United Kingdom of Great Britain in which, not the king but the English Parliament was the primary force of recognition.
Literary features of the Age of Enlightenment in English Literature
The changing socio-political and religious orders had an influence on the literature of the Age of Enlightenment. Robert Walpole became the first de facto prime minister of Great Britain. He continued as the prime minister for 20 years. Despite his political success, he was accused of corruption and was termed the Great Corruptor and was often compared to Jonathan Wild, the Thief Catcher. John Gay satirized both in his play The Beggar’s Opera. Walpole’s other enemies included Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, Henry Fielding, and Samuel Johnson. To avoid any such satirical criticism anymore, Robert Walpole introduced the Licensing Act of 1737 to control and censor what was being said about the British government through theatre. This crippled the English theatre but was an equally strong impetus to other means of literature in novels, pamphlets, essays, and other forms of prose.
Licensing act significantly reduced the number of dramas in the 18th century but it helped in bringing a reading revolution. People began to read "extensively", finding as many books as they could. The lack of active theatres gave way to the development of other public spheres. People gathered at coffee houses and discussed political, social, and scientific developments. That gave rise to the concept of journalism and magazines and the print industry got a new impetus as not only novels and pamphlets and other books were becoming the vogue, but newspapers and magazines were also making their space in public. The increased consumption of reading materials brought about the ‘social Enlightenment.’ Novels, books, pamphlets, newspapers, and journals became the "media of the transmission of ideas and attitudes". It also gave way to the printing and production of new dictionaries. Samuel Johnson published A Dictionary of the English Language in 1755. Bishop Robert Lowth published his dictionary titled A Short Introduction to English Grammar in 1762. The first edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica was published in 1771. Lindley Murray published English Grammar Adapted to the Different Classes of Learners in 1794. The authors of the Age of Enlightenment used satire frequently to attack human vices and follies.
We can broadly divide the English Literature of the Age of Enlightenment into three parts. It was a period of intense prose writing. The first part can be considered from 1700 to 1745 which is termed the Augustan period. English writers of this era tried to emulate the golden era of Romans under Emperor Augustus and thus, it is called the Augustan Period of Enlightenment Age. In this period, Writers like Alexander Pope emphasized Classical poetry styles. Jonathan Swift and Daniel Defoe wrote realistic novels, and Joseph Addison and Richard Steele wrote political pamphlets and essays in this period. Then came the period of Samuel Johnson. From 1745-1760, English authors like Henry Fielding, Samuel Richardson, and Tobias Smollett wrote realistic social novels. The period from 1760-1800 is known for Sentimalism during which Laurence Sterne and Charlotte Lenox wrote novels, while Oliver Goldsmith, William Blake, Thomas Chatterton, Thomas Percy, and others began the revival of poetry.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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