Course : M.A. English (Sem-1)
Paper no : 2- The Neo-Classical Literature
Topic : Characteristics of Neo-Classical Age
(Unit-5,
The History of the Age)
Roll no. : 27
Batch Year: 2015 – 2017
Enrollment no:
PG15101027
Submitted to: Smt. S.B. Gardi Department of
English
v
Introduction
: History of the Age:
The revolution of 1688, which banished the last of
the Stuart Kings and called William of Orange to the throne marks the end of
the long struggle for political freedom in England. Therefore the Englishman
spent his tremendous energy, which his forbears had largely spent in fighting
for freedom.
In order to
bring about reforms, votes were necessary; and to get votes the, people of
England must be approached with ideas, facts, arguments, information.
So,
the newspaper was born, and literature in its widest sense, including the book,
the newspaper and the magazine became the chief instrument of a nation’s
progress. This is the history of the “Neo-Classical
Age”, now, we can see the social development of the age.
v
Social
Development of the Age:
In
the half of the 18th century is remarkable for the rapid social
development in England. Hitherto men had been more or less governed by the
narrow, isolated standards of the middle ages, and when they differed they felt
speedily to blows.
Now,
for the first time they set themselves to the task of learning the art of
living together, while still holding different opinions. In a single generation
nearly two thousands public coffeehouse, each a center of sociability, sprang
up in London alone, and the number of private clubs in quite as astonishing.
This
is new social life had a marked effect in polishing men’s words and manners.
Outwardly, men sought to refine their manners according to prevailing
standards, and to be an elegant, to have “good
form”, was a man’s first duty weather he entered society or wrote
literature.
One
can hardly read a book or poem of the age without feeling this superficial
elegance. Government still had its opposing ‘Tory’ and ‘Whig’
parties, and Anglicans and Dissenters, but the growing social life offset many
antagonisms producing at least the outward impression of peace and unity.
Nearly every writers of the age busied himself with religion as well as with
party politics, the scientist Newton as sincerely as the churchman Barrows.
In
the latter half of the century the political and social form of cabinet
government to parliament and the people had been established under premier of
the first Tory cabinet, were replaced by the more enlightenment policies of
pit.
Religiously,
all the churches of the England felt the quickening power of that tremendous
spiritual revival known as Methodism, under the preaching of Wesley and
Whitefield.
v
Characteristics
of Neo-Classical Age:
There
are many characteristics of Neo-Classical Age, which are given below:
1): An Age of Prose:
In every preceding age we have noted especially
the poetical works, which constitute.
Now for the first time we must chronicle the
triumph of English prose. A multitude of practical interests arising from the
new social and political condition demanded expression, not simply in books,
but more especially in pamphlets, magazines and newspaper.
Poetry was inadequate for such a task, and the
development of prose, of the “unfettered
word”, as Dante calls it – a development which astonish us by its rapidity
and excellence.
Poetry itself became prosaic in this respect,
that it was used not essays, for satire, for criticism and for exactly the same
practical ends as was prose.
The poetry of the first half of the century, as
typified in the work of the Pope, is polished and witty enough, but artificial;
it lacks fire, fine feeling, enthusiasm, the glow of the Elizabethan Age and
the moral earnestness of Puritanism.
In a word, it interest us as a study of life,
rather than delights or inspires us by its appeal to the imagination. “The variety and excellence of prose works,
and the development of a serviceable prose style, which had been begun by
Dryden”, until it served to express clearly every human interest and
emotion.
These are the chief literary
glories of the 18th century.
2): Satire:
In the literature of the preceding age we noted two
marked tendencies:
·
The
tendency to realism in subject-matter,
·
The
tendency to polish and refinement of expression.
Both these tendencies were
continued in the Augustan age, and are seen clearly in the poetry of Pope, who
brought the couplet to perfection and in the prose of Addison.
A third tendency is shown in the prevalence of “Satire”, resulting from the unfortunate
union of politics with literature. We have already noted the power of the press
in this age, and the perpetual strife of political parties.
Satire is a literary work which searches out the
faults of men or institution in order to hold them up to ridicule is at best a
destructive kind of criticism. A satirist is like a laborer who house before
the architect and buddies begin on a new and beautiful structure.
3): The Classic Age:
The
period we are studying is known to us by various names. The name classic age is
more often heard but in using it we should remember clearly these three
different ways in which the word,
“Classic” applied to literature.
The term “classic” refers, in general to writers of the highest rank in any
nation. As used in our literature it was first applied to the works of the
great Greek and Roman writers, like Homer and Virgil, and any English book
which followed the simple and noble method of these writers was said to have a
classic style.
The word “classic” acquired an entirely different meaning in the period we
are studying, and we shall better understand this by reference to the preceding
ages. The Elizabethan writers wrote in a natural style, without regard to rules
and though they exaggerated and used too many words, their works are delightful
because of their vigor and freshness and fine feeling.
In our study of the Elizabethan drama, we noted the
good influence of the classic movement in insisting upon that beauty of form
and definiteness of expression which characterize the dramas of Greece and
Rome. The general tendency of literature was to look at life critically, to
emphasize intellect rather than the content of a sentence. Writers strove to
express all emotion and enthusiasm, and to use only precise and elegant methods
of expression.
This is what is often meant by the “classicism” of the ages of Pope and
Johnson. In a word, the classic movement had become pseudo-classic, i.e.: a
false or shame classics; and the latter term is now often used to designate a
considerable part of 18th century literature.
Now, here we are discussed some well-known
writers or poets of this age.
v Alexander
Pope: (1688-1744)
Pope is a unique figure.
In the first place, he was for a generation “the poet” of a great nation. In the narrow field of satiric and
didactic verse Pope was the undisputed master. His influence completely
dominated the poetry of his age and many foreign writers, as well as the
majority of English poets, looked to him as their model.
It is useful to draw the
various features of the works of this important poet:
A.
Both in subject and in style his poems are limited.
They take people of his own social class and they deal with their common
experience and their common interest.
B.
Within these limits his work, is powerful and an
effective.
C.
Above all, he was a great artist. A study of his
technique shows a meticulous sense of the exact word in the exact place.
D.
Pope’s use of the heroic couplet marks a great chance
from that of Dryden.
Ø
Works of pope:
We
may Pope’s works into three groups, like to the early, middle and later period
of his life.
In the first, he wrote his ‘Pastorals’, ‘Windsor Forest’, ‘Messiah’,
‘Essay on Criticism’, and the ‘Rape of the Lock’. In the second, he
wrote his translation of Homer, in the third he wrote the ‘Epistles’.
‘The Rape of the Lock’ is a masterpiece of its kind, and comes
nearer to being a “creation” than anything else that Pope has written.
v Jonathan
Swift: (1667-1745)
Jonathan Swift is
the greatest English satirist. Swift’s method in hid works is to strike boldly
with sarcasm and irony. It is only when we remember his life of struggle and
disappointment and bitterness that we can appreciate the personal quality in his
satire.
Ø
Works of Swift:
Taken together his works are
a monstrous satire on humanity, and the spirit of that satire is shown clearly
in a little incident of his first days in London.
Swift, who hated all shames,
wrote, with a great shoe of learning his famous ‘Bickerstaff almanac’. As Swift rarely signed his name to any
literary work, letting it stand or fall on its own merits his burlesque
appeared over the pseudonym of Isaac Bickerstaff.
Ø
Character of Swift’s Satire:
This is joke that suggestive
of all Swift’s satire. Against any case of hypocrisy or injustice he sets up a
remedy of precisely the same kind.
Swift’s two greatest
satires are: “Tale of a Tub”
“Gulliver’s Travels”.
We
can see in ‘Gulliver’s Travels’, the satire grows more unbearable, This book,
upon which Swift’s literary fame generally rests was not written from any
literary motive, but rather as an outlet for the author’s own bitterness
against fate and human society, It is still read with pleasure, as Robinson Crusoe
is read, for the interesting adventures of the hero.
v Samuel
Johnson: (1709-1784)
Here is a
man who was certainly not the greatest writer of his age, perhaps not even a
great writer at all, but who was nevertheless the dictator of English letters, and
who still looms across the centuries of a magnificent literature as its most
striking and original figure.
Ø
Johnson’s Work:
“A Book”, Johnson Swift says, “should
help us either to enjoy life or to endure it”. The two things which belongs
among the things ‘worthy to remembered’ are
his dictionary and his lives of the poets though both these are valuable, not
as literature, but rather as a study of literature.
So,
at the end, we can say that the Neo-classical Age is the age of prose, satire
and classic age and there were lots of changes and development in this age.
Thank
You
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