Introduction
It is accepted to name the 18th century, a century of enlightenment, although actually its ideals formed the culture and the art only from the second half of the century. The special role of England in the history of the European enlightenment consisted first of all, in the fact that it was its native land and in many respects the trailblazer.
In England in the 17th-18th centuries, after revolution and civil wars the sharp contradictions in the society have smoothed out.
Parliamentary development has led to the consolidation of legal forms of political strike. The English church did not oppose itself to enlightenment, and in some measure even matched its ideal of toleration.
This promoted the cultural development of the country, as it allowed keeping the balance between the traditional values, the keeper of which was the church, and the innovative values which were born by the aforementioned enlightenment.
This served England by making it some kind of a sample of public and social progress.
It is no coincidence that in the 18th century all main currents of English public thoughts found their continuation and development in other European countries.
The union of the bourgeoisie with nobility could not pass without reflection in English culture and the aesthetic tastes, the characteristics of which bear lines of moderate democratization. Starting from the 17th century, England fairly is considered the first country in the field of literature, dramatic art, and theatre thanks to Shakespeare and a pleiad of dramatists before and after him.
The details of the state of culture of England in the 18th century have reached modern days through various literary works that could be considered exemplary of that epoch.
This paper explores the popular English culture the way it was viewed by upper-class society, based on the analysis of two plays and their authors which are related to that period, “The Conscious Lovers” (1722) by Richard Steele, and “She Stoops To Conquer; Or, The Mistakes Of A Night” (1773) by Oliver Goldsmith.
Plays and Authors Overview
Although both of the authors, Goldsmith and Steel were active during different halves of the 18th century, their plays and their backgrounds are representative of the 18th century as a whole and thus require mentioning.
Richard Steele, (1672–1729), an English essayist, a playwright, and a politician was born in March 1672 in Dublin in an impoverished noble family.
Literary popularity has reached him with comedies “The Funeral, or Grief A-la-mode” (1701) where the new funeral ritual was derided; “The Lying Lover, or Ladies’ Friendship” (1703) based on Corneille, Le Menteur; and “The Tender Husband, or The Accomplished Fools” (1703) based on Moliere’s “Le Sicilien ou l’Amour peintre”. In these plays, also in journal sketches and his last comedy “The Conscious Lovers” (1722), which was written based on motives from Terence’s “The Girl from Andros“, Steel carefully avoided the immorality and roughness, peculiar to dramatic art in the 17th century.
In 1709 Steel has started the composition of a series of sketches that brought him lasting glory. They were printed in magazines “The Tattler” (1709–1710), most of the materials which were written by him, although other literary personalities participated, such as Addison; “The Spectator” (1711–1712), which Steel published together with Addison who has written most of the sketches; “The Guardian” (1713) were among others co-operated A. Pop and J. Berkeley; and “The Englishman” (1st release 1713–1714, 2nd – 1714) which has been devoted to questions of throne succession. In “The Englishman”, and also in many lampoons from which a specific mention deserve “The Crisis” (1714) and written by Steel apologia of himself and his compositions “Mr. Steel’s Apology for Himself and His Writings”, 1714), Steel defended the principles of Whigs.
He was a member of the parliament at Anna’s queen, but in March 1714 has been excluded for ardent compositions in the protection of the Whigs. However, some months later when George I ascended on the throne, the Whigs had returned to power, and Steel was selected in the parliament again.
Besides, he became the director of the theatre “D Drury Lane “, and in 1715 he was knighted.
Oliver Goldsmith, (1730 or 1728–1774) – an English-Irish writer, was born on November 10th in 1730 in Ireland, one of seven children of the priest of Anglican Church.
Goldsmith earned his living teaching and practicing medicine, when his literary destiny was shaped, when he began to review books for Ralph Griffiths in “Monthly Review”, and then for Tobias Smollett in “Critical Review”.
His first book” An Enquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning”, was published in April 1759 and has received benevolent responses. On the wave of his success, Goldsmith was invited to work in the magazine “The Bee” which was canceled after eight issues.
At the end of the same year, on December 19th, there was “The Traveler”, a philosophical poem in which the author for the first time has appeared as a talented poet, reflecting on national distinctions and the general denominator of human nature.
In 1765 Goldsmith published his compositions in an essay collection, and in March 1766, came out his unique novel “The Vicar of Wakefield”, which Newbery bought under Dr. Samuel Johnson’s insistence in 1762, having relieved Goldsmith of debt prison.
Versatile endowments of Goldsmith were expressed also in the genre of drama, where on March, 15th 1773, the play “She Stoops to Conquer, or The Mistakes of a Night” was shown to a huge public success.
The actions of the play were constructed that a country-house was mistakenly taken as an Inn, and the owner’s family as servants, improbable, however, the events developed keenly and amusingly, as the situations, dialogues,was and behavior of the characters were irresistibly ridiculous.
Analysis of the Plays
Many aspects of popular English culture can be extracted from the plays of Steel and Goldsmith in a way that it can reflect some of the historical realities of England in the 18th century.
One of the aspects that can represent the culture in England is the social class relation. The division of social classes was still existent in England at that time however, it can be seen that it was not that radical, and both classes could get along together.
In “She Stoops to Conquer”; Goldsmith parodied the social class division, in a sense that the main theme of the play could be considered the ideology of not judging the book by its cover.
Marlow in the play responded to the people based only on the social status, while at the same time he was easygoing around women of lower social class.
Such a representation can imply that Goldsmith critiqued the social division showing its absurdness.
This could be explained by the fact that the middle class was gradually filling theatres, thus the aristocracy at that time had to be parodied.
Starting from the end of the 18th century in connection with social shifts and the rise of the democratic movement, the theatrical audience began to vary. Again, as it was at the end of the 16th century, masses of the urban population have rushed into the theatres. The number of theatres grew, but the right to put classical or modern plays has been given in London only to two –Drury Lane and Covent-Garden.
At other theatres in London and province, only entertaining performance farces, pantomimes, musical comedies were put. All the 18th century has been noted by the activity of outstanding actors.
This also can be viewed in the images of the characters of Goldsmith’s play, where some of them could be considered as the most colorful in their representation.
The satire witnessed in the character of Tony – rude, ignoramus, and idler fellow a representation of the upper class who will get 1500 pounds when he comes of age to spend his life doing nothing.
Similarly, the character of Mrs. Hardcastle – a mother who blindly loves her children and spend the time reminding them what she had done for them while hiding the fact from her son that he already became of age “Is this, ungrateful boy, all that I’m to get for the pains I have taken in your education? I that have rocked you in your cradle, and fed that pretty mouth with a spoon! Did not I work that waistcoat to make you genteel? Did not I prescribe for you every day, and weep while the receipt was operating?” (Goldsmith).
From the way Goldsmith ridicules the love without boundaries approach in the play, it could be assumed that this social custom in real life was unordinary, if not to say absent.
Surplus of vital forces and “the nobility” of the new aristocracy (the majority of lords was those in the second-third generation, this was all the oligarchy which has come to power after the English revolution), – which in short can be explained as high culture and the high London circle did not indulge their visitors.
Certainly, throughout the 18th century, the manners of the English elite were polished, and these manners can be viewed as a reflection of the play, although in a comical way in which the author attempted to state the change in the society and the change in the opinions.
Similarly, in “The Conscious Lovers”, Steel showed this shift in the values of the society through the moral dilemmas of Bevil Junior.
Obeying his father, even though marrying the woman Bevil does not love, can also be seen as the clash of the established manners and the new reality. This new reality could represent the change in public opinion toward such relations as father-son, “Did I ever disobey any command of yours, sir”.
The theme of love and arranged marriages was also discussed in the play, although, contrary to Goldsmith’s work it was approached differently, wherein “She Stoops to Conquer” it was not an issue for the protagonists, whereas as in “The Conscious Lovers” it could be seen that love and arranged marriages was taking more attention despite the comical tone of the play.
The theme of the duel along with Bevil’s refusal to the challenge as morally wrong action can be considered as Steel’s expression of opposition to immorality, where in addition to amusing the audience he also instructs and educates them.
The approaches made by Steel and Goldsmith represented a neutral point between the culture of the upper class and the new social aspects in England. However, the process of moderate democratization of social concepts and aesthetic tastes of the higher classes was far from settling either all the difficulties and the epoch acute contradictions or all its achievements.
Courageous impulses of creative thought in England of that time are objectively connected with national expectations, with attempts of the best minds to understand concrete historical results of the revolution of the 17th century for national destinies, to understand what the industrial revolution bears with itself to the masses.
Such events required outlining moral boundaries which in the case of English literature in the 18th century, moralizing and sentimental tendencies were showed mostly in comedies, although they also could be seen in dramas, such as “The London Merchant”.
It could be seen the development of English culture, and the social conditions in England had seen the usage of comedy as the more appropriate to represent the moral education of the population.
In the days of the last blossoming, the drama was one-sidedly focused on the anti-puritan and antibourgeois ideology of the top social classes.
The relative stability of public relations in England did not favor the birth of originally tragical products in the 18th century.
On the other hand, though there was a fertile field for the occurrence of politically sharp, accusatory dramatic art, prevailing scenic genres in England of that time were the moralizing comedies as more answering to tastes of the new spectator. Already at an early stage of enlightenment talented and vigorous representatives of that era such as Steel, aspired to place theatre in the service to educational problems, and Goldsmith used the style of parodying the sentimental phraseology and hackneyed platitudes of a petty-bourgeois drama.
Works Cited
- Brown, Laura. Fables of Modernity: Literature and Culture in the English Eighteenth Century. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001.
- Dennis, John. “Remarks.” Our Civilization. 2008.
- Goldsmith, Oliver, and Katharine Balderston. She Stoops to Conquer, Or, the Mistakes of a Night (Crofts Classics). Harlan Davidson, 1988.
- Jeffares, A. Norman. Oliver Goldsmith. London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1959.
- “Richard Steele.” PGIL-EIRData. 2008.
- The British Theatre: Or, A Collection of Plays, which are Acted at the Theatres Royal, Drury Lane, C. 1824. Google Books. 2008. Web.