17 th and 18 th Centuries

1. 17th and 18th Centuries The Age of Enlightenment The Age of Rationalism The Age of Reason

2. Background • Great scientific advances • Worldwide dominance of England, France, and Spain • Rational and scientific systems of thought

3. Rationalism • Basic theory: Men can arrive at truth solely through reason – by rational, logical thinking. • Rationalists believed that the universe and every aspect of man’s experience is ordered in a logical plan that can be discovered through observation and reasoning.

4. Rationalism • Voltaire (1694-1778) • French intellectual and writer • Wrote Candide • Intervened in cases of injustice and tyranny • Was against bigotry and intolerance

5. Religious Strife • The Thirty Years’ War in Germany (1618-1648) was a struggle between the Catholics and Protestants • The Spanish Inquisition was directed against Moors, Jews, and Protestants • Conflicts over religious tolerance and political liberty resulted in the American and French Revolutions.

6. Pressures for Political Change • Economic pressures: middle class wanted more power and less restriction from monarchs • Lower class was growing in number – the poor were becoming increasingly frustrated in the midst of the nobility’s prosperity and extravagance

7. Pressures for Political change • English civil wars began in 1642; Charles I was beheaded • The American Revolution (1775-1783) • The French Revolution (1789-1795)

8. Elegance as a Style of Life • Aristocrats enjoyed a life of richness, elegance, taste, and manners • Ladies and gentlemen dressed in silks, wore powdered wigs, and were carried in ornamented sedan chairs through the squalid and noisy streets • France became the center of style and fashion

9. Elegance as a Style of Life • Versailles: King Louis XIV’s palace • Ornate, formal, “overdone” by modern standards • Formal gardens

12. Elegance as a Style of Life • The palaces of kings and estates of noblemen were, of course, showpieces of refinement and luxury, but wealthy merchants also adopted the tastes of court society. • Moliere, a playwright, often ridiculed this type of “upstart” man

13. Literary Trends • Many writers found voice in satire • In satire, humankind’s vice, folly, or evil is held up to scorn by means of ridicule and irony in the hopes of bringing about a change • Favorite targets: the pretentiousness, hypocrisy, and materialism of the wealthy bourgeoisie

14. Literary Trends • Jean Baptiste Poquelin (1622-1673) • The son of a respectable Parisian bourgeois • Shocked his family by joining the theater • Moliere was his stage name

15. Literary Trends • Theater flourished • Writers imitated classical Greek dramas • Moliere’s plays have the classic simplicity and clarity that his age admired

16. Literary Trends • In The Misanthrope, plot is slight, action is limited, and there is no music or pageantry • Costumes were simply fashionable clothes of the time, and the specific location of the setting was unimportant • All the focus of Moliere’s play is on the words and dramatic structures within which the words are spoken