the salient features of the Restoration

 

Write briefly on the salient features of the Restoration  (b) What is comedy of manners? Discuss its characteristics.

Ans. (a) The Period from 1660 to 1700 is known as the Age of Restoration. The year 1660 was a landmark in the political history of England, because in this year King Charles II was restored to the throne of England after a long period of ten years of the Common Wealth regime, headed by Oliver Cromwell.

There are three historical events which deeply influenced the thought of the age. They are: (i) the Restoration of Charles II to the throne in 1660; (ii) the religious and political controversies and the Popish plot, and (iii) the Golden Revolution of the year 1688..

 

The Restoration brought about a revolution in the social life of England. There was a violent reaction against the Puritan restraints. Now released from restraints, society abandoned the decencies of life and the reverence for law itself, and plunged in excesses more un natural than had been the restraints of Puritanism. The king was a thorough  rake, had a number of mistresses and numerous illegitimate children. Unspeakably vile in his private life, the king had no redeeming patriotism, no sense of responsibility of his country for even his public acts. There was also the bitterness of political and religious passion. There was the rise of two political parties. The Whigs sought to limit the royal power to the interest of the people and the parliament. The Tories, on the other hand, supported the divine right theory of the king and strove to check the growing power of the people in the interests of their hereditary rulers. There were constant quarrels between the Protestants and the Catholics.

 

(b) "The comedy of manners' is a phrase often applied to the Restoration dramatists in England, especially to William Congreve and Wycherley. It makes fun not so much of individual human beings and their humours as of social groups and their fashionable manners. It is generally more or less satirical, though in a good natural way, and it deals not so much with natural follies as with affectations of a fashionable society. The main themes of the Restoration comedy of manners are love, marriage, adulterous relationships, amours and legacy conflicts among persons of high society. The characters generally includes fops, fanatics, fools, imitators of French customs, conceited wits and flirts.

Romantic comedy has for its central theme a story of love and courtship, ending in wedding. On the other hand, comedy of manners is primarily a social criticism. It aims at raising laughter, ridicule or scorn against those who are exceptional either in their character or in their action. Its immediate theme is the behaviour of a particular social group in a particular setting. It is therefore, essentially realistic. The characters of this comedy are taken from the contemporary life and belong to a familiar world. They speak the language of familiar conversation

 

Shakespeare's Love's Labour Last and Much Ado About Nothing are the earliest comedies of manner. Later on this genre was perfected in the Restoration period. Congreve's Way of the World is an example of Restoration comedy of manners. Oscar Wilde's Importance of Being earnest is a modern comedy of manners.