Renaissance literature: Comparison between the Elizabethan age and other ages

☆ Comparison between the Elizabethan age and the Puritan age:-

   ● The Elizabethan age began during the year 1558 to 1603, the reign  of queen Elizabeth I. 

  ● This age is also known as the age of the Renaissance. 

  ● This age is the Golden age in English history. 

   Queen Elizabeth  I     

                      

      ● The Puritan age began during the year 1625 to 1660. 

After the death of James I in 1625 the new monarch Charles I took religious persecution to a new level.

   ● This age is known as the age of Milton.

                                                                                                                        James I →

☆ Characteristics of the Elizabethan age and the Puritan age:-

The Elizabethan age                 The Puritan age

¤ Religious tolerance                   ¤ Religious movement

¤ Social content                               toward cleansing the 

¤ unbounded enthusiasm               church of its catholic 

¤ National spirit and                   style that had profound

   Patriotism                                   effect on writing of the 

¤ Exploration of the new              time.

   World.                                         ¤ Simple language and 

                                                            Sentences.

☆ The writing style of the Elizabethan age and the Puritan age:-

     

●  In contrast with the hopefulness and vigor of the Elizabethan writing, while much of the literature of the Puritan age is somber in character. It saddens rather than inspire us.

● Elizabethan literature is intensely romantic; the romance spring from the heart of youth and believes all things, even the impossible.  The Puritan period one looks in vain for romantic ardor. Even Lyrics love poems critical, intellectual spirit takes its place.

● In Puritan age we find out two major religions: 1. Catholicism and 2. Protestantism. Lower classes were uneducated men. King were the enemies of the people while queen Elizabeth was very loyal to the people and society. 

● Puritan struggled for righteousness and liberty because the age is one of moral and political revolution. On the other side in the Elizabethan age queen Elizabeth gave full freedom to the people and society of England.

● Puritan literature has no unity spirit as in the day of Elizabeth, resulting from the patriotic enthusiasm of all classes.

● The Puritan age lost the romantic impulse of the youth and become critical and intellectual, it make us think rather than feel deeply. Elizabethan literature is generally inspiring; it throbs with youth and hope and vitality.

● In Puritan age the writer avoid the use of Greek mythology and form of classical literature. Because the writer of the Puritan age believed that literature should not be used for entertainment but it must be used in the service of religious discourage. 

☆ Major writer of the Elizabethan age and the Puritan age:-

The Elizabethan age               The Puritan age 

■ William Shakespeare          ■ John Milton 

■ Edmund Spenser                   ■ John Bunyan

■ Christopher Marlowe          ■ Robert Burton 

■ Frances Bacon                        ■ Sir Thomas Browne

☆ Comparison between the Elizabethan age and the Restoration age:-

● The Elizabethan age began during the year 1558 to 1603 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth the I.

● The Elizabethan age is also known as the age of Renaissance and the age of Shakespearian.

Elizabeth I

● The Restoration age began during the year 1660 to 1700. The beginning of the age was return of the Charles II.

● The Restoration age is also known as the age of French influence.

→ Charles II

☆ Characteristic of the Elizabethan age and the Restoration age:-

The Elizabethan age                The Restoration age 

♧ Religious tolerance              ♧ French influence 

♧ Intellectual progress            ♧ New tendencies 

♧ unbounded enthusiasm       ♧ Realism

♧ National Spirit and              ♧ Formalism

     Patriotism 

☆ The writing style and literature of the Elizabethan age and the Restoration age:-

● The Elizabethan age was the golden age of the English history while the Restoration age was the great crisis in English history.

● The chief lesson of the Restoration was that it showed by awful contrast the necessity of truth and honesty.

● In both the Elizabethan and the Puritan ages the generall tendencies of writers was towards extravagance of thought and language. Sentences were often involved and loaded with Latin quotation and classical allusion. The Restoration writers opposed this vigorously. The Restoration writers emphasize close reasoning rather than romantic fancy and to use short, clean sentences without an unnecessary word. We see French influence in Royal society. 

● The Elizabethan writers use less metaphors in their writing while Restoration literature is the adoption of the heroic couplet; that is two iambic pentameter lines which rhyme together.

● The early Restoration writers sought to paint a realistic picture of court and society and they emphasised vices rather than virtue and gave us coarse.

● In Restoration period writers turned from the romance to realism, to follow the head rather than heart and to write in clear, concise, formal style according to set rules. Poets turned from the noble blank verse of Shakespeare and Milton. The literature of the Restoration age based on political satire.

☆  writers of the Restoration age 

1. John Dryden 

2. Samuel Butler

3. Hobbes and Lock

4. Evelyn and Pepsy

☆ Comparison between the Elizabethan age and the Romantic age :-

               The Elizabethan age and the Romantic period is some similar and some different. Now let us see the characteristic of the Elizabethan age and the Romantic age. 

The Elizabethan age          

♤ Religious tolerance 

♤ Social content

♤ Intellectual progress 

♤ unbounded enthusiasm 

The Characteristic of the Romantic age 

♤ Celebration of nature

♤ A focused on the inner self

♤ The expression of inner self

♤ An emphasis on individuality and personal freedom 

♤ A celebration of the goodness of the humanity

♤ Gothic and bizarre 

♤ Interest in the supernatural 

  The Romantic era began during the year 1800 to 1850. This is called the age of enlightenment. 

● Romantic writers were much more interested in nature. They respect nature. We found recurrent themes in the evocation or criticism of the past cult of sensibility with its emphasis on women and children, the isolation of the artist or narrator. 

● It was partly a reaction to the Industrial revolution of nature and scientific rationalization. The highly development of the education, the social sciences and natural sciences.

● Romanticism was characterized by its emphasis on emotion and individualism as well as glorification of all the past and nature. Preferring the medivial rather than classical.

☆ Writer of the Romantic age 

◇ William Wordsworth 

◇ Coleridge 

◇ John Keats

◇ Lord Byron

◇ P.B Shelley

◇ William Blake

☆ Comparison between the Elizabethan age and the Victorian age:-

● The Elizabethan age began during the year 1558 to 1603.

● This is a golden era of the English history. 

● This is also called the age of Shakespearian and the age of the Renaissance. 

● The Victorian era began during the year 1837 to 1901 to the reign of queen Victoria.

●  This age is also known as the age of Prose and novel.

☆ Comparison between the Elizabethan age and the Victorian age:-

    

The Elizabethan age           The Victorian age

° Religious tolerance             ° Intellectual development 

° unbounded enthusiasm      ° Industrial revolution 

° National spirit and              ° Morality

  Patriotism                             ° The new education 

° exploration of the              ° The Revolt

  New world

● The Victorian age turned feeling of a return from solitude to society from nature to industry, from concept to issue, from spirituality to pragmatism, from optimism to agnosticism, from lyricism to criticism and from organism to compromise.

● The Victorian compromise was a combination of the positive and negative aspects of the Victorian age. 

● It is an age of Poverty, injustice, Starvation, slum for working class people. 

☆  writers of the Victorian age 

 1. Robert Browning

2.Alfred Tennyson 

3. Thomas Hardy

4. Samuel Butler 

5. William Butler Yeats etc.

☆ A brief introduction and literary career about E.A Poe

                              E.A Poe

● Born : 19th January 1809                           

● Death : 7 October 1849                               

● Birth Place : Boston, Massachussets, U.S

● Died place : Church home & hospital, U.S

■ Life and education of E.A Poe :-                                 

                   Edgar Allan Poe was a great American writer. He was a short story writer, Poet , editor and also literary critic. He was best known for his tales of mystery and Supernatural things. 'The Black Cat' is one of the most famous short story about the      terrible incident of E.A Poe's life and his wife. His short story also known as detective literature.                        

                          He was born in Boston , the second child of David and Elizabeth. But his father abandoned the family and suddenly his mother died in the following  year. Then as a orphaned child he was taken by family John and Francis Allan. They never adopted him formally but Poe grew with them well in his young adulthood. E.A Poe received education at University of Verginia but he left after one year because of the lack of money. Later on E.A Poe joined Army in 1827. And he started his literary career.  First he published his work anonymous. His first collection is 'Tamerlane and other poem' (1827) was anonymous.                    

 ■ Writing style of Poe :- 

                                                      

Poe is best known for his fiction work for its style or genre is Gothic. His most recurring theme deal with question of death and physical sign, Concern of Premature burial, the reanimation of dead and mourning. Most of his works are considered as dark romantic literature. Beyond the mystery and horror tale he wrote Satire, humour tales and hoaxes. Poe used the theme aimed specially at mass market tastes. 

                      During his life time Poe was mostly recognized as a literary critic. A favourite target of Poe's criticism was Boston's acclaimed poet Henry Wordsworth Longfellow  who was often defended by his literary friends in what was later called 'The Longfellow war' .

●The work of E.A Poe :-        

                                              

♤ The Black Cat                  

♤ The Gold Bug                      

♤ Hop frog                                 

     ♤ Ligeia                                            

       ♤ Morella                                            

          ♤ The Murders in the Rue Morgue 

♤ Loss of Breath                        

♤ The Tell -Tale Heart               

♤ The Pit and the Pendulum    

♤ The Oval Portrait                   

♤ The Imp of the Perverse          

● Poems of the E.A Poe :-     

                                                 

           ◇ The Bells                                     

◇ The City in the sea           

◇ A dream within a dream

◇ To Helen                                  

◇ Lenor                                         

◇ The Raven                                  

◇ Tamerlane