Restoration Literature: Wit, Theatre, and Political Return
A guide to Restoration literature — wit, theatre, political return, Dryden, Congreve, and close reading methods.
When Charles II was restored to the English throne in 1660, the theatres reopened after eighteen years of Puritan closure. The result was an explosion of dramatic creativity — witty, bawdy, politically sharp comedies that reflected the new era’s skepticism, sophistication, and moral looseness.
Restoration literature (1660–1700) is characterized by wit, satire, and a fascination with the manners and morals of the upper classes. It is the literature of a society that has lived through civil war, regicide, and dictatorship, and that has emerged with a deep suspicion of enthusiasm, idealism, and moral certainty.
The Restoration followed the Puritan Commonwealth (1649–1660), during which the theatres were closed and many forms of literature were suppressed. The return of the monarchy brought a reaction against Puritan austerity — a celebration of pleasure, wit, and social sophistication.
1. Restoration Comedy
The period’s greatest literary achievement is Restoration comedy — witty, sexually frank plays that satirize the manners of the upper classes. Congreve’s The Way of the World and Wycherley’s The Country Wife are the masterpieces.
2. Satire
Restoration literature is characterized by sharp, often brutal satire. Dryden’s Mac Flecknoe and Absalom and Achitophel are masterpieces of political satire.
3. Wit
Wit — the ability to say clever, surprising, and often cutting things — was the period’s highest literary value. The Restoration wit is not just entertaining; it is a weapon, used to expose hypocrisy and pretension.
4. The Heroic Dryden
John Dryden was the period’s dominant literary figure — poet, playwright, critic, and the first Poet Laureate. His poetry is characterized by intellectual rigor, formal elegance, and political engagement.
Congreve’s The Way of the World (1700) is the finest Restoration comedy — a play of extraordinary verbal wit that explores the relationship between love, money, and social convention.
The play’s central couple, Mirabell and Millamant, are both too intelligent and too independent to surrender themselves to love without conditions. Their famous “proviso scene” — in which they negotiate the terms of their marriage — is a masterpiece of comic writing and a profound meditation on the difficulty of intimacy in a world governed by social calculation.
What is Restoration literature?
English literature of the period 1660–1700, characterized by wit, satire, and the reopening of the theatres.
Who are the major writers?
Dryden, Congreve, Wycherley, Aphra Behn.
Restoration literature is the literature of a society that has learned to distrust certainty and to value wit. Its comedies, satires, and poems are products of a culture that has seen too much idealism lead to violence, and that has turned to irony as a form of survival. The wit of the Restoration is not just entertainment. It is a philosophy — a way of living in a world where nothing is certain and everything is open to question.