Asher.Period 1.Team 8.Enlightenment Synthesis!

During the Enlightenment, or the Restoration Era, many infamous scholars dominated the cultural aspects which made this particular time period filled with social tension. Among these well-known persons were John Dryden and Jonathan Swift. John Dryden, a poet, literary critic, translator and playwright, was known to have gathered constant attention for his work, that this period was also regarded as the Age of Dryden. Dryden, who wrote the notable poems, Absalom and Achitophel, and Mac Flecknoe, did so with forceful lines of argument which other satirists later adopted. In Absalom and Achitophel, Dryden vehemently creates a satirical attack as well as an allegorical story on three major events. Dryden satirizes the Popish Plot, an alleged plot thought and derived by the Catholics to kill the king and eventually return England to Catholicism, the Exclusion Crisis, a plan concocted to prevent King Charles’ II brother from taking control of the throne, and the Monmouth Rebellion, which was an attempt to allow James, Duke of Monmouth – the illegitimate son of King Charles II, on the throne. With these three events juxtaposed together, Dryden wrote about the biblical story of King David and his argumentative son Absalom. In this poem it became evident that Dryden supported King Charles II, however he did so in a contemptuous and somewhat critical fashion. Mac Flecknoe, centers on a critical attack on Thomas Shadwell, who was a prominent poet Dryden. In his poem, Dryden publically displays the disagreements between Shadwell and himself concerning the true purpose of comedy and plagiarism. This poem alludes to Shadwell’s outright dullness, catalyzing mock-heroic poetry with the addition of strong, heightened sensory language. Jonathan Swift another well-known satirist of the Restoration time period, wrote the A Modest Proposal. In this essay, Swift vehemently preaches the idea that the Irish have the potential to ease their economic troubles simply by selling their children as food for the rich gentlemen and ladies. This mocks the poor and the Irish, causing great havoc. Swift preaches a line of argument, detailing the financial benefits of his suggestion, as well as its practicality. Overall, it is because of writers such as Dryden and Swift that the Enlightenment Era was as pertinent as it was, and has allowed progress in all aspects of our society.

TEAM 8: Jessie Yen, Ruhi Sharma, Sidney Gerst, Rachel Clauss