Thursday, January 6, 2011

England 1660: Restoration

So i’m taking restoration lit. one of my new classes (and despite the negativity i’ve heard about it, i’m going to try to keep interested). so far i’ve started reading the introduction “The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century 1660-1785”

One thing i’ve noticed (and i’m only on the second page) is that all turmoil comes from the greed for power. I’m sure those of you (i should probably say ‘both’ of you) that read my blog have figured this out a long time ago. and to some degree i knew it too, but i think that it’s become more obvious for me. Everything is about power, “no political settlement could be stable until the religious issues had been resolved” (Greenblatt 2058). You can’t have a change of power until the source of power has first been discovered. Stability only comes when a set person is in power and when the majority of the citizens agree with having that person have power. i think England, or at least Charles II believed that lack of education, land and the inability to vote diminished a person’s power; to some degrees, he’d be correct, but in some like in the case of Alexander Pope who, because he was a Catholic, “[was] largely excluded from public life” it didn’t seem to make a difference (2058).

Anyway, i just thought this little epiphany should be shared. No plagiarizing! ;)

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