Important Issues to Writers of the Restoration

The Restoration Period began when the English Monarchy was restored by Charles II returning to the throne. The official church of the state was brought back to Anglican. The people of the time changed their way of thinking from emotional to rational. Instead of being driven by imagination and emotion, they were driven by scientific thoughts and reason. Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year is a good example of how logic was used. Although Defoe wasn’t old enough to remember the plague, he uses scientific facts and is very descriptive to make his work more believable. The problems in society were brought out through writers of the time like Marry Wollstonecraft. She pushed for rights for women, animals, and children. The writers of the Restoration were most concerned women’s rights, human conditions, and poverty.
Marry Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women, supports women’s rights. During the time, women didn’t have a big role in society other than home life. Women’s potential was suppressed by society. Wollstonecraft says says, “They are treated as a kind of subordinate beings.” She also says that women of the time are taught that their looks should be their main concern in life (Wollstonecraft 710). She argues that women need to get an education. She says that women cannot just be physically attractive for men. If women aren’t educated then the men will eventually get bored because they can’t have an intellectual conversation with them. If women get an education like Wollstonecraft proposed, then they will be able to talk to men. She makes fun of how women are to teach their children even though the women themselves aren’t even educated. Writers like Rousseau say that women should get an education just so t...

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Works Cited

Wollstonecraft, Mary. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Literature: British Literature, Ed. Janet Allen et al. Evanston, IL: McDougal Little, 2008. 708-714. Print.
Defoe, Daniel. A Journal of the Plague Year. Literature: British Literature, Ed. Janet Allen et al. Evanston, IL: McDougal Little, 2008. 582-586. Print.
Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver’s Travels. Literature: British Literature, Ed. Janet Allen et al. Evanston, IL: McDougal Little, 2008. 624-641. Print.
Swift, Jonathan. A Modest Proposal. Literature: British Literature, Ed. Janet Allen et al. Evanston, IL: McDougal Little, 2008. 610-619. Print.
Adav, Alok. "Historical Outline of Restoration and 18th-Century British Literature." N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.
López, Jesús. "RESTORATION AND THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT (1660-1798)." N.p., 9 Dec. 2009. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.