LITERATURE QUESTIONS
RESTORATION EIGHTEENTH CENTURY DRAMA
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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Because the Puritans were on the lookout for any reason to shut down the theaters again, artists looked to the past because it was “safe.”
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Plays served as a means to educate the upper classes, and so similar people from the past were used as characters.
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Dryden and Rowe used the past to veil references to contemporary politics.
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History was more entertaining than the present.
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Audiences associated the theater with old-fashioned times, and so the plots reflected this expectation.
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Detailed explanation-1: -Why did playwrights such as John Dryden and Nicholas Rowe write about subjects from the distant past? Because the Puritans were on the lookout for any reason to shut down the theaters again, artists looked to the past because it was “safe."
Detailed explanation-2: -The Restoration period refers to the time following the restoration of the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies under King Charles II in 1660. While the exact dates differ depending on context, for Restoration drama it is often seen as continuing through until 1710, during the reign of Queen Anne.
Detailed explanation-3: -One of the major themes of restoration comedy is marriage and the game of love. But if marriage is a mirror of society, the couples in the plays show something very dark and sinister about order.
Detailed explanation-4: -The playwrights who practised the comedies of manners in the Restoration age were William Congreve, George Etherege, William Wycherley, Thomas Shadwell, Sir John Vanbrugh, and Fraquhar. Studying the social pressures on love and marriage with wit and subtlety Congreve shows himself the master of restoration comedy.
Detailed explanation-5: -Restoration comedy is the name given to English comedies written and performed in the Restoration period from 1660 to 1700. After public stage performances had been banned for 18 years by the Puritan regime, the re-opening of the theatres in 1660 signaled a rebirth of English drama.