Enlightenment Pope

1. ENLIGHTENMENT

2.

The 17th century was one, of the most
stormy periods of English history

3.

The political situation
in the country was
complicated. The
growing contradictions
between the new
class, the bourgeoisie,
and the old forces of
feudalism brought
about the English
Bourgeois Revolution
in the 1640s

4.

As a result of the
revolution, the
king was
dethroned and
beheaded and
England was
proclaimed a
republic. Though
very soon
monarchy was
restored, the
position of the
bourgeoisie had
changed.

5.

The 18th
century saw
Great Britain
rapidly growing
into a
capitalist
country.

6.

It was an age of
intensive
industrial
development.
New machinery
was invented that
turned Britain
into the first
capitalist power
of the world.

7.

The 18th century
was also remarkable
for the
development of
science and culture.
It was in this
period that English
painting began to
develop too.

8.

• In spite of the
progress of industry
and culture in
England the majority
of :he English people
were still very
ignorant. That is
why one of the most
important problems
that faced the
country was the
problem of
education.

9.

• The 17th and 18th
centuries are known
in the history of
European culture as
the period of
Enlightenment. The
Enlightenment
defended the
interest of the
common people —
craftsmen,
tradesmen, peasants

10.

• The central
problem of the
Enlightenment
ideology was that
of man and his
nature. The
Enlighteners
believed in reason
as well as in
man's inborn
goodness.

11.

• Vice in people, they
thought, was due to
the miserable living
conditions which could
be changed by force of
reason. They considered
it their duty to
enlighten people, to
help them see the
roots of evil. The
Enlighteners also
believed in the powerful
educational value of
art.

12.

• The English
Enlighteners were
not unanimous in
their views. Daniel
Defoe , Alexander
Pope and Samuel
Richardson spoke in
defence of the
existing order,
considering that a
few reforms were
enough to improve
it.

13.

• The other group
included the writers
who openly protested
against the social
order. They defended
the interests of the
exploited masses.
They were: Jonathan
Swift, Henry Fielding,
Oliver Goldsmith,
Richard Sheridan,
Robert Burns .
Jonathan Swift

14.

Henry Fielding
Oliver Goldsmith

15.

Robert Burns
Richard Sheridan

16. Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

17.

Alexander Pope
was born in
London in
1688

18.

His father, a prosperous
linen-draper, was a
catholic, and because
of his religion Pope
was expelled from the
public schools and
universities. He picked
up most of his
knowledge from
books, and though he
read much he never
became an accurate
scholar.

19.

Pope's poetic
career began
with Four
Pastorals
published in
1709.

20.

These were short
poems on spring,
summer, autumn
and winter,
closely fashioned
on Virgil. His
Essay on Criticism
contained Pope's
aesthetic views.

21.

A mock-heroic poem
The Rape of the
Lock which
appeared in 1712
enjoyed instant
success. It was
founded on an
incident which
occurred at that
time.

22.

• A certain Lord
Petre cut a
lock of hair
from the head
of young
beauty named
Arabella Fermor
(the Belinda of
the poem).

23.

• This practical joke
led to a quarrel
between the two
families. Pope
seized on the
occasion and
wrote a long
poem in which
the society is
pictured in detail
and satirized with
great wit.

24.

Pope's next work was
the translation of
the Illiad, which
brought his fame and
established financial
positions. Pope
translated Homer in
the elegant artificial
language of his own
age and gave the
reading public what
it wanted — a
readable version of
the Greek poem in
accordance with the
taste of time.

25.

• After the Illiad
Pope translated
the Odyssey.
After the
publication of his
Homer, as the
two poems are
together
popularly called,
Pope wrote
satiric poetry.

26.

• In 1728 he
published a long
satire on the
"dunces" — the
bad poets —
called The
Dunciad. In The
Dunciad Pope
ridiculed his
literary opponents

27.

• The theme of
the poem is the
most important
theme of the
Enlightenment
— the fight of
the reason
against ignorance
and barbarity. It
is the fiercest
and the finest
of Pope's
satires.

28.

• One of the best
known and most
quoted of his
works is The
Essay on Man.
The purpose of
the essay is to
justify the
existing state of
things.

29.

• In his Moral
Essays and Essays
on Criticism Pope
expressed similar
views. Yet he
was not blind to
the vices of
bourgeois society,
which he often
criticized.

30.

• Pope expressed
his ideas in
wonderfully
quotable verse.
After Shakespeare
he is the most
quoted of English
poets.

31.

These and many other quotations from Pope
have found their way into common speech:
• "A little learning is a dangerous thing."
• "And fools rush in, where angels fear to
tread."
• "The proper study of mankind is man."
• "To err is human, to forgive divine."

32.

In his lifetime Pope was
immensely popular.
Many foreign writers as
well as the majority of
English poets, looked to
him as their model. But
later at the end of the
18th century young romantic poets, especially
Wordsworth and
Coleridge criticized
Pope's poetry for its
rationalism and lack of
imagination.