Lecture 5. The Enlightenment.
The 17th – 18th century literature
1. Historical background
2. Daniel Defoe
3. Robinson Crusoe
4. Jonathan Swift
5. A Tale of a Tub
6. Gulliver's Travels
7. Robert Burns
1. Historical background
It was a sound-thinking & rational age. Common sense ruled the day. Common sense
was the proper guide to thought & conduct, in commerce & industry. Puzzled at the
contrary terms of fortune in business, people tried to find out the laws that determined
them.
This period saw a remarkable rise of literature. People wrote on many subjects & made
great contribution in the fields of philosophy, history & natural sciences.
The problem of vital importance to the writers of the 18th century was the study of man &
the origin of his good & evil qualities. According to them, human nature was virtuous but
man diverged from virtue under the influence of a vicious society. "Vice is due to
ignorance", they said. It's but natural that the writers of the 18th century started a public
movement for enlightenment of people. The writers of the age of Enlightenment insisted
upon a systematic education for all.
This period saw a transition from poetry to the prosaic age of the essayists. An essay is a
composition of moderate length on any subject usually written in prose. The writer does
not go into details, but deals in an easy manner with the chosen subject, & shows his
relation to the subject. The style of prose became clear, graceful & polished. Writers
accepted such literary forms as were intelligible to all. Satire became popular. This
period also saw the rise of the political pamphlet. Most of the authors of the time wrote
political pamphlets, but the best ones came from the pens of Defoe & Swift.
The leading form of literature became the novel. The hero of the novel was no longer a
prince but a representative of the middle class. This had never happened before: so far,
the common people had usually been represented as comical characters.
The English writers of the time formed two groups.
To one group belonged those who hoped to better the world simply by teaching:
Joseph Addison [1672 -1719]
Richard Steel [1672 - 1729]
Daniel Defoe[1661-1731]
Alexander Pope [1688 -1744]
Samuel Richardson [1689 -1761]
The other group included the writers who openly protested against the vicious social
order:
Jonathan Swift [1667 -1745]
Henry Fielding [1707 -1764]
Oliver Goldsmith [1728 -1774]
Richard Sheridan [1751 -1816]
Robert Burns [1759 - 1769]
2. Daniel Defoe (1661 -1731)
Daniel Defoe ['dӕnjəl də'fəu] was born in 1661 in London in the family of a well-to-do
butcher. Daniel's father was wealthy enough to give his son a good education. His father
wanted him to become a priest, therefore at the age of 14 he was placed in an academy to
get the training of a priest, & remained there for the full course of five years.
But Daniel Defoe didn't like his profession as, in his opinion, it was neither honorable
nor profitable. He became a merchant. Several times he went bankrupt because he was
more interested in politics than in business. Being a merchant he travelled much &
collected a lot of material, which he used later in his writings.
Several times in his life Daniel Defoe was persecuted. Thus in 1702 he wrote his
pamphlet "The Shortest Way with the Dissenters". The pamphlet looked as if it had been
written in support of the High Church. In fact Daniel Defoe described the cruel Measures
taken by the High Church. For this pamphlet Defoe was sentenced to 7 years
imprisonment. Besides he had to stand in the pillory in a public square.
In 1719 Daniel Defoe tried his hand in another kind of literature – fiction & wrote his
famous novel "Robinson Crusoe"['rɒbinsn 'kru:səu]. After the book was published, Defoe
became famous &rich.
3. Robinson Crusoe
Books about voyages & new discoveries were very popular in the 18th century. But
Daniel Defoe was more preoccupied with politics & didn't think of trying his hand at
writing adventure stories. But a story in one of the magazines attracted his attention. It
was about Alexander Selkirk, a Scotch sailor. He lived 4 years alone on a desert island.
Selkirk's story interested Daniel Defoe so much that he decided to use the story for a
book. His hero, Robinson Crusoe, however, spent 26 years on a desert island.
The charm of the novel lies in Robinson as a person. Defoe shows the development of his
personality. At the beginning of the story we see an inexperienced youth, a rather
frivolous boy, who then becomes a strong-willed man, able to withstand all the
calamities of his unusual destiny.
Defoe was a great master of realistic detail. When reading his description of Crusoe's life
& work, one feels that the person who wrote it must have lived through all those
adventures himself, because they are so well described, even though most of them are
rather impossible.
Robinson Crusoe's most characteristic trait is his optimism. His guiding principle in life
became "never say die". He had confidence in himself & in man & believed it was within
the man power to overcome all difficulties & hardships. Another of Crusoe's good
qualities, which saved him from despair, was his ability to put his whole heart into
everything he did. He was an enthusiastic worker & always hoped for the best.
Robinson Crusoe like Daniel Defoe himself is very practical. The beauty of the island
has no appeal for him. He does not care for scenery. He regards the island as his personal
property. He takes pride in being the master of the island & is pleased at the thought that
everything around him belongs to him. This is also seen in the fact that he decides to
keep the money he finds in the ship, although he knows that it will be of no use to him on
the island.
Crusoe considers his race to be superior to all other races. As soon as a man appears on
the island, Crusoe makes him his servant. "Master" is the first word he teaches Friday to
say.
Crusoe believes in God & the hand of Providence. In desperate moments he turns to God
for help.
The novel "Robinson Crusoe" is a glorification of practicalness & energy, yet when
concentrated in an individual man these qualities are exaggerated. According to Defoe,
man can live by himself comfortably & make all the things he needs with no other
humans, no other hands to assist him.
Defoe is a writer of the Enlightenment. He instructs people how to live; he tries to teach
what's good & what's bad. His novel "Robinson Crusoe" is not merely a work of fiction,
an account of adventures, a biography & an educational pamphlet; it is a study of man, a
great work showing man in relation to nature & civilization as well as in relation to
labour & property.
4. Jonathan Swift (1667 -1745)
Jonathan Swift ['dʒɒnəθən 'swift] was the greatest of the prose satirists of the age of the
Enlightenment. His works reflected contemporary life more closely than did the literature
of the previous century. He belonged to the group of writers who openly protested
against the vicious social order. He criticized all sides of life of the society.
Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin, but he came from an English family. The boy saw
little of his mother's care. He was supported by his uncle & from his very childhood he
learned how miserable it was to be dependent on the charity of relatives.
At the age of 14 he finished school & went to Trinity College. Trinity College was a
university, which trained clergymen. But Swift felt that his calling was literature &
politics & he preferred such subjects as history, literature & languages to that of
theology. For this reason examinations were far from what was called brilliant, & he got
his bachelor degree with difficulty in 1686.
5. A Tale of a Tub
A Tale of a Tub is an antireligious satire. The title of the book has a double meaning &
explains the idea of the book,
1. A 'Tale of Tub" means a nonsense story told as a joke; the word "tub" suggests the
idea expressed in the proverb: "Empty vessels make the greatest sound".
2. In the preface to the book Swift tells his readers of an old custom seaman have when at
sea: if a whale begins to follow the vessel, they throw an empty tub into the water to
divert the whale's attention from the ship. The whole is a satire upon religion in England.
The empty tub symbolizes religion as something, which diverts people from their
troubles. The ship is the emblem of the State.
In 1713 Swift left for Ireland. There he studies the conditions the people lived in.
He wrote a number of pamphlets. In them he defended the rights of the Irish. By these
pamphlets he won the hearts of the Irish. He criticized the colonial policy of England
towards Ireland. He attacked the English Parliament.
6. Gulliver's Travels
In 1726 Swift's masterpiece "Gulliver's Travels" ['gʌlivəz 'trӕvəlz] appeared. Swift
satirized the evils of the existing society in the form of fictitious travels. It tells of the
adventures of a ship's surgeon. It is divided into 4 parts or voyages.
1. The first is a trip to Lilliput ['lilipʌt];
2. The second is a voyage to Brobdingnag ['brɒbdiŋnӕg] & its giants;
3. The third voyage is to Laputa [lə'pju:tə], a flying island;
4. The fourth voyage brings Gulliver to the country of Houyhnhnms ['huihnəmz] and
Yahoos [jə'hu:z], where intellectual creatures were horses & all the human beings were
reduced to the level of brutes [ животное, скотина].
The first voyage to Lilliput.
Describing the government & the laws, Swift described England of his days in the most
ridiculous way. He gave a picture of how people were promoted in life not according to
their merits but because they were cunning, used intrigues, bribery. He ridiculed English
laws & educational system.
The second voyage to Brobdingnag - the country of giants. The king of Brobdingnag
often asked Gulliver about European affairs & his answers were biting satire on
contemporary politics. Thus he told the king about the wars waged in the interests of the
rich; these wars brought nothing but misery to people.
The third voyage to Laputa.
During the third voyage Gulliver found himself among scientists of Laputa. Swift
showed that scientists were busy with foolish problems trying to invent useless things. It
is easy enough to understand that in ridiculing the academy of Laputa, Swift ridicules the
scientists of the 18th century. They are busy inventing such projects as:
building houses beginning at the roof & working downwards to the foundation;
converting ice into gunpowder,
simplifying the language by leaving out the verbs & participles;
softening marble for pillows etc.
It was a parody on scholastics [«оторванная от жизни наука»].
The fourth voyage. The fourth voyage is to the island inhabited by horses & strange
creatures Yahoos. The horses are endowed with human intelligence & virtue. Yahoos are
ugly, foolish. Relations between Yahoos remind Gulliver of those existing in England.
The horses are clever & noble. The Yahoos are dirty, greedy. Horses live in free
community. The book presents a series of grotesque satires on the society of the period.
Swift was a pessimist. He criticized the society he lived in & didn't see the way out.
That’s why he was in constant gloom.
"Gulliver's Travels" was one of the greatest works of the period of the Enlightenment in
the world of literature. Swift's fantastic characters, however improbable they may seem
to the reader, were used by the author to disclose all the faults & failures of the society,
thus making Swift's imaginary world realistic. Swift's democratic Ideas expressed in the
book had a great influence on the English writers who came after Swift.
7. Robert Burns (1759 -1796)
Whenever we speak about Scotland the name of Scotland's Bard Robert Burns is always
there, as the ever-living never-dying symbol of that country.
All of Robert Burns’ poetry shows him to be one of the greatest masters of lyrical verse,
a warm patriot of his native country. His poetry is deeply democratic & full of criticism
directed against the landlords, the priests & the government officials. His sympathy lay
with the poor, he hoped for a better future for the people, for the equality & justice of all.
Robert Burns, Scotland's national poet, was born on January 25, 1759 in a small cottage
in a Scottish village. His father, William Burns was a hard-working small farmer with
high ideals about human worth & conduct. He knew the value of a good education & he
was determined to give his children the best schooling possible.
There were 7 children in the family & Robert was the eldest. When he was six, his father
sent him to school, but Robert's regular schooling was rather short. As a matter of fact,
the poet's father taught his children himself. Reading & writing, arithmetic, English
grammar, history, literature & a slight acquaintance of Latin & French - that was Robert
Burns’ education.
The songs & ballads of Scotland which Burns knew so well were sung to him in his
childhood by his mother who lived long & enjoyed the growing fame of her poet son.
Robert Burns became a farmer, too. At 13 he was out in the fields all day helping his
father, at 15 he did most of the work on the farm.
He studied nature closely & following the plough, he whistled & sang. In his songs he
spoke of what he saw of the woods & the fields, & the valleys, of the deer, of the hare &
the skylark, & the small field mouse, of the farmer's poor cottage home & the farmer
lad's love for his lass.
Robert Burns first began to write poetry at the age of 16. Life was hard for the family.
Robert's father died in 1784 burdened with debts. The poet needed some money to
publish some of his poems. 600 copies of "Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect" were
printed in July 1786. Their success was complete, their edition was quickly sold out &
Robert Burns became well-known & popular.
He went to Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. At first Robert Burns was warmly
welcomed but soon the society of England grew tired of him & forgot all about the poet.
The popular character of Burns’ poetry was foreign to their taste.
The story of Robert Burns' short life is full of sadness. He worked much on his farm, but
could not make it pay. In 1789 his friends got him a position as a tax collector. This work
was not an easy one, but it gave him much time to think out his poems & at this period of
his life Robert Burns wrote much. He had five children. By 1796 Robert Burns' health
had greatly deteriorated & in 1796 at the age of 37, the great poet of Scotland breathed
his last breath.
The most popular poems by Robert Burns are "John Barleycorn", "The Tree of Liberty",
"Jolly Beggars", "My heart's in the Highland" & others.
