A study of the dominant topics in some typical works of augustan period (1700 1745) = nghiên cứu về những chủ đề nổi bật trong một số tác phẩm điển hình thời kì augustan (1700 1745)

An overview of the main topics in Augustan prose Chapter II: The progressive topics expressed in some typical literary works of Augustan period I.. Heightening the importance of educatio

This thesis could not be finished without the assistance of my teachers

in foreign language department, my family and friends

Firstly, I would like to express my deep thanks to my supervisor - M.ATrÇn Ngäc Tëng, whose lectures of English literature attracted me so much,led me to the decision of choosing English literature for my thesis, and made

so many valuable comments on each single unit of this thesis

Secondly, I would like to express my truthful thank to all the teachers ofEnglish at the Foreign Language Departure and the directorial board forgiving the opportunity to do this thesis

And finally, I want to thank to my beloved family and my friends whohelp and encourage me so much during the process of studying this thesis

table of content

Acknowledgement

Part I: introduction

I The rationale of choosing the thesis

II The aims of the thesis

III The objectives of the thesis

IV The scope of the thesis

V The methods of studying

Part II: content

Chapter I: Background of Augustan period

I The division of English literature periods

II Some important events in the Augustan period

1 New scientific and philosophical discoveries

2 Industrial and Agricultural Revolution

3 The growth of British Empire

4 Conflicts in society

4.1 Political conflict

4.2 Religious conflict

4.3 Social class division

III The Enlightenment movement

IV An overview of the main topics in Augustan prose

Chapter II: The progressive topics expressed in some typical literary works of Augustan period

I Praising human being

II Appreciating women

III Heightening the importance of education and learning

Chapter III: The negative topics expressed in some typical literary works of Augustan period

I Discrimination of man by man

II Colonialism and Materialism

1 Colonialism

2 Materialism

III Political and religious conflict

1 Political conflict

.2 Religious conflict

Part III: conclusion

References

Part I: introduction

I The rationale of choosing the thesis

Literature, as well as music, is a vital part of our daily life It makes thelife more beautiful, guides human being to Genuineness, Honesty andAestheticism Literature enriches people's mind and soul That is the reasonwhy I love to enjoy reading literary works when I am sad, tired and hopeless

When being a secondary school girl, I had chance to get in touch withforeign literature and found it really interesting Now, I am a student offoreign language department and have opportunity to study more aboutWestern, especially English literature I find there the sound of life of atraditional and cultural nation It burns my desire and leads me to the decision

of choosing English literature to study in this thesis

Besides, literature is the truthful mirror of social life Each period inhistory of English literature is a vivid picture of people and society The firsthalf of the eighteenth century with the growing of British Empire, theIndustrial Revolution and the Enlightenment movement is the fertile groundfor the development of literature I have ever read some of the most interestingliterary works in this phase and realized that most of them, more or less, areinfluenced by the Enlightenment's ideas That is so interesting to me and I'dlove to study about it

All of above things are the reasons why I choose "A study of the

important topics in some typical works of Augustan period (1700-1745)" for

my graduation thesis

II The aims of the thesis

-To understand more about England in the first half of the eighteenthcentury, Enlightenment movement and how they influenced on contemporaryliterature

-To study about some important topics expressed in some typical works

of Augustan period and find out the difference between the progressive theory

of Enlightenment and the real life

III the objectives of the thesis

- Background of Augustan period

- The progressive topics expressed in some typical literary works ofAugustan period

- The negative topics expressed in some typical literary works ofAugustan period.

IV the scope of the thesis

In the frame of this thesis, it is beyond our ability to cover all genresand all works of Augustan period Thus, we concentrate on some typicalnovels and essays: "Robinson Crusoe", "Gulliver's Travels ", "Pamela",

"Clarissa", "The shortest way with the Dissenters" and " Education ofWomen"

V the method of studying

-Collective method

-Analysis, contrastive and synthetic methods

Part ii : content

Chapter I: background of Augustan period

There is a close relationship between real life and literature .Thehistory of literature development is parallel to the development of humansociety Literature appears even earlier than letters or any type of writing andbecomes a vital part of our daily life

Literature belongs to spiritual aspect but it reflects the society as awhole and people, from soul to physical life On the other hand, life suppliesthe endless sources for writers Genuine literary works must root from andabout the real life, aim to make life better and conducts people toGenuineness, Honesty and Aestheticism That is why any literary work must

be analyzed in its circumstance of writing

In this paper, we will study the Augustan period of English literature, so

in the first chapter we will have a glance on the division of English literatureperiods, some important background events, the Enlightenment movement and

an overview of the main literary topics in the period of Augustan

I Division of English literature periods

As we already know, the long history of English literature is anuninterrupted process, which is greatly influenced by social history There aresome ways that have their own rationale to divide English literature intoperiods In our thesis, we approve the following division, which is accepted byalmost scholars, writers and readers and consider it the basic rationale for ourthesis:

14.Post-modern literature

From Wikipedia Website

In fact, the division is not completely exact but only relative No onecan give the concrete years of beginning and ending of a literature period As

an illustration, the Augustan was from the end of 17th to the middle of 18thcentury which correlative with the first phase of Enlightenment movement inliterature Thus, in our thesis, the term "Augustan" or the "blooming phase ofEnlightenment " both refer to the period 1700-1750, which in some otherdocuments count from 1690 to 1745

II Some important events in the Augustan period

1 New scientific and philosophical discoveries

Philosophy and science are usually the aspects whose new theories anddiscoveries lead to the change of society and open a new era in history ofmankind

The revolution of science is thought to begin when Copernicus gave theidea that the earth rotated on its axis beneath the unmoving sun In theeighteenth century, new discoveries of scientists among whom, the mostdominant one was Isaac Newton, proved that nature had its own law's whichwas different from what religion church had taught before Newton's

"Principia" (1687) and "Optic's" (1704) suggested that:" There were indeedintelligible laws in nature which could be demonstrated by physics andmathematics, and, moreover, that the universe exhibited a magnificentsymmetry and a mechanical certainty."(1) This provided a framework of asystem that seemed capable of explaining everything in the universe and itwas also the basic principle of Enlighteners

In the field of philosophy, thinkers, especially Rousseau and Voltaire inFrance, praised the equality, democracy and ability of man In England, JohnLock, Francis, Bacon, Anthony Ashley Cooper gave the birth for Empiricism.They explained the way the mind acquired "all materials of Reason andKnowledge is from Experience " They also provided an intellectual basis foreasily digested theories of politics, religion and aesthetic and for preceptspertaining to social happiness

In short, the philosophers and scientists used nature and universe lawand human being center to observe and explain everything They celebratedReason, ability of man to use his scientific knowledge to discover naturalphenomenon which had been associated to supernatural power before,

simultaneously opposed to intolerance, restrain, spiritual authority anddisoriented religious belief.

These ideas were gradually acquired and changed the way of thinking

of people They believed that their ability, not supernatural authority or theGod, could drive their fate The main character Robinson Crusoe in the name-coincided novel by Daniel Defoe is a typical image of a hero who fightsbravely to overcome harsh destiny They believed in education and learningwhich could help them to understand and control nature, believe in human'sability to drive their fate and improve society And it was not only necessary

to man but also woman We can find in "Robinson Crusoe", "Gulliver'sTravels", "Pamela" and especially, in the essay "The Education of Women" byDaniel Defoe the spirit of praising learning and education which were thoughtcould improve society and bring to people a brighter future

2 Industrial and Agricultural Revolution

Britain is the first place on the world where the Industrial Revolutiontook place This was an important event that made a great influence onchanging the whole country's face Power was seen as the first field touched

by the Revolution with James Watt's invention of steam engine Since then,the application of new inventions and discoveries into many aspects created amajor change in producing method Machines released people from hardworks in factories and also made a huge jump in industrial development,especially in coalmine, textile or transportation industries Theindustrialization with its enormous strength made Britain become theworkshop of the world

Under the effect of the industrial revolution, Britain gained position intop of the richest countries At the same time, it was the foremost condition tocarry out an Agricultural revolution Throughout the country, the "open field"system was re-divided Labouredly productivity was raised and more food wasproduced

It was said that Britain had a new face under the two revolutions'influence Until the middle of eighteen century, Britain was still anagricultural country with most of population lived in villages or small townsand earned their living working on land Nearly seventy percents of population

inhabited in big towns and cities in the end of the century A large number offactories were built, a lot of towns and large cities developed rapidly, such asBirmingham, London, and Leeds, so on.

However, this means that the land for farming was restricted .Thefarmers lost their land, became unemployed Some of them went to cities toget a job as workers with low salary; some were sold to America or India towork as slavers Most of them had a poor life This situation led to anotherimportant issue of society which was class division and the growing ofworking and bourgeois The poor farmers and workers were liable to a distress.It was one of the root of social evils

In addition, pragmatics and capitalism's idea of praising moneydevalued human beings' mortality and virtue Marriage even became aneconomic exchange

The picture of the complicated society in this time was reflectedtruthfully in the literature works "The New Atalantis" by Mary de la Manleyand "The Moll Flanders" by Daniel Defoe described a society with politicalcrisis, homosexuality, rape, social evils, etc Some other works, such as

"Gulliver Travel" and "A modest proposal" by Jonathan Swift showeddevaluation of human being in front of the attraction of money and otherauthorities Even in "Robinson Crusoe" which many positive ideas ofEnlightenment were expressed materialism and capitalism ideas could befound

3 The growth of British Empire

The colonial expansion was thought to begin in the second half of thefifteenth century when Christopher Columbus found out the America Englandstarted its progress to find colonies one century later than Spain, Portugal andFrance, but its achievement was enormous Then, the new epoch in which theman's ambition of discovering and invasion of new land, in order to serve theaim of ruling people and exploit treasure there, really started Simultaneously,

it was the turning point of a miserable epoch: the age of colonialism'sexpansion

Britain, like other powerful countries in Europe in the eighteenthcentury, under the effect of Industrial revolution, manufactured a huge amount

of production and goods, which needed a large market to consume Moreover,there was a demand for raw material for factories in metropolis This led tothe growing of British Empire The occupation of land was the first step that

prepared for the invasion of market and economic interference later In fact,profit from colonies was so fat that many countries threw themselves into thewar for land and market

The spread of colonialism was the cause of colonies' misery Theexploitation and oppression of colonialists was a contradiction to the ideas ofEnlightenment movement, which said the relationship between person andperson were brotherhood, everyone was equal regardless of their color,nationality, and social classes This meant that all of unfairness such asoppression in which the slavery was the highest regime should be denied

Consequently, many literary works in this period paid attention on thethemes of equality, brotherhood among human beings, projection ofcolonialism and slavery, unfairness and discrimination Alpha Ben in her

"Oroonoco" raised the voice against trade of slavers and power of colonialism.And in "Robinson Crusoe ", although it was not so clear as others, the authorshow his attitude cleverly to the problem of capitalism and colonialism whichwill be considered in more detail in the later part

4 Conflicts in society

After the monarchy Restoration in the seventeenth century, British wereafraid of any violent event like that to make their life chaotic However, thiswas the time of some deeply contradictions and unsettling in society

4.1 Political conflict

In 1660, when the son of Charles I was restored the throne to be theKing Charles II, England became a Monarchy Constituent nation QueenAnne, King George I and George II sat the crown in sequence in eighteenthcentury The monarch ruled the country, but in fact most of real power held byparliament Conflict happened between the monarch and parliament for somereasons In reality, the King's power was lessened and he was forced not todecide important national problems without parliament permission Anotherreason that partly caused the political conflict was religion, which would bestated clearer in the next part

Political conflict also happened between parliament's parties: the Whigand the Tory There was a little difference between them in this period Toriesmostly included great landowners whose privilege was gradually declinedwith the growing of bourgeois and capitalism while those whose property wasmercantile and financial were likely to form the Whigs

The problem of politic drew considerable attention of writers In

"Gulliver Travel", Jonathan Swift indirectly claimed the heads of the country,the unsuitable policies, the court and the parties' quarrel Other works inwhich political issue was touched were "The New Atalantic" by Mary de laManley, in works of Edmund Burke like:" Speech on America Taxation ",

"Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol", etc

4.2 Religious conflict

This direct conflict caused social division even more serious than thepolitical one The opposition was between the Church of England, which waspreceded by the monarch and both Protestants, and Roman Catholics TheProtestants and who did not belong to the Church of England or did not acceptthe Monarch as the head of the Church were called Dissenters orNonconformists There were resent laws such as Corporation Act and the TestAct which banned them and Roman Catholics from becoming MPs or having

a government job In royal family, nobody that did not belong to the Church

of England could get the thrown

Religion had such an important effect on society that many authorsconsidered it as a plentiful ground for their writing John Banyan wrote "Thepilgrim's progress"; Jonathan Swift: "A tale of Tub"; Daniel Defoe: "Theshortest way with dissenters ", so on They exploited the theme of belief, faith

in religion but also criticized the forces that took its advantage for bad aims

4.3 The social class division

Like all others countries, wealth divided people into different classes.Specially, the Industrial revolution's influence made Britain class divisionmore deeply .It took place among people who had a lot of interests thanothers, who had a little and who had nothing But in this time, the criteria ofthe division were not only the wealth but also the working and livingconditions There was the growing of working class because more and morepeople moved to work in factories, which included a considerable number offarmers who lost their land because of industrialization progress Theperception of class division was going to intense There were seven groups insociety:

-The great who live excessively hereditary nobility

-The rich who lived very plentifully, great and owners dominating thecountry life

-The middle sort who lived well: professions, church bishops, lawyers,doctors, and teachers.

- The working traders who worked hard but felled no want, no need ordemand

-The country people, farmers, etc who fared indifferently

-The poor that fared hard

-The miserable that really pinched and suffered

The social class conflict led to the Glorious Revolution, which tookplace between the old aristocracy and the new bourgeoisie

All of these were reflected in literature as a negative side, one of thediscrimination and injustice in society Enlighteners raised their voice to rejectthem and thought that their duty was to omit them to create a fair society andbrought a happy life to everyone These dimensions were expressed in

"Pamela", "Robinson Crusoe" and "Gulliver Travel"

III The Enlightenment movement

The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement, which began in thelate of seventeenth century in England and then spread to the continent Themovement lasted until the birth of Romanticism in the end of the eighteenthcentury England was considered the cradle of Enlightenment but the mostexcellent representatives were from France, such as Rousseau and Voltaire

Although they were only in theory but the Enlightenment's ideas wereappreciated and marked an important advance in human civilization

The Enlightenment's thoughts reflected the expectation, want and hope

of the people about a peace and civilized society in which they had a happyand convenient life

The most important point in Enlighteners' ideas was that: Reason wasthe principle tool for human to think and to act correctly Furthermore, it wasthe most effective and firmest rationale for mankind to discover the world,universe and to assert human's ability The scientific discoveries of Newtonand scientists before him and the great application of them into practice werethe most persuasive evident for that idea Moreover, they gave the prominence

to education and learning which were thought the best way to civilize humansociety

The Enlighteners praised human being and their ability that expressedmost clearly their humanism In the Dark Age, human's ability was negated bythe Church's preaching and the authority's imposing that their fate was already

planned by God and that they could do nothing to change it In contrary,Enlighteners believed in man's ability and good nature that could be broughtperfection through education According to them, social evils rooted fromhuman's ignorance but not belonged to his or her nature.

The elevated humanism of Enlightenment also affirmed the equalitybetween man and woman, the friendship and brotherhood among peopleregardless of their race, religion and nationality Simultaneously, they rejectedthe forces that duped and trampled on human such as supernatural andmiraculous elements, harsh feudal ideas, discrimination and colonialism'soppression

Enlightenment experienced a long period which was not always plainand flat but up and down in different phases from its date of birth to the end.Some persons divided the movement into three phases, but others observed it

in two main phases We here approve the second idea

The first phase was counted from the movement's beginning in the late17th to the middle of 18th century This was the blooming Shase whenEnlightenment developed to it highest point in its duration England in thefirst half of 18th century had just overcome a number of chaos including CivilWar, Restoration and rebels, which made a horrible memory in people's mind

At that time, Enlightenment occurred with a lot of progressive ideasimmediately met the hope and long of almost people Thus, the ideas receivedthe great approval and marked its blooming development

The leading principles of Enlightenment centered round the followingideas:

1 Reason is a principle tool for all humans to think and to act correctly

1 Man is good by nature And man's good nature can be brought toperfection through education

3 All men and women are born equal in respect of their rationality andshould thus be given the right to equality before law

4 Belief, religions customs are to be questioned and accepted on thebasic of reason only, not on the basic of authority, sacred texts or tradition

5 Supernatural and miraculous elements are discarded as the wholeuniverse in conceived as a rational system accessible to human reason

6 Man to man is brother to brother, regardless of nationality or country

of residence

However, the distance from the theory to the real life was very far andnot always the theory could come true At that time when the historicalcondition had a lot of advantages for old feudalism and growing capitalism,the Enlighteners' duty was hardly practiced People steadily expressed theirdisappointment when their long and hope collapsed In the second half of18th, the movement started to go down and the birth of Romanticism markedits ending.

Enlightenment, any way, had a great influence on the Augustanliterature Its ideas became the main topics and the spirit of this period literaryworks which we will study some typical ones in later parts Because of this,the Augustan is also called the Enlightenment period in English literaturehistory

IV An overview of the main topics in Augustan prose

Being the direct product of life, literature performs its function ofrecreating, reflecting and improving social life All of the topics of Augustanliterature period contributed a colorful picture of England in the first half of18th century

In this period, traveling and discovering new land and isolate areabecame the common trend of mankind A large number of journeys, voyages

of European's ships to other continents were carried out and the result of themwas the growing of colloquialism in practice as well as in literature What ismore, the appearing of a great deal of books of travel and traveling was one ofthe favorite topics of readers

The political and religious conflicts that actually happened and madechaos in people's life were also a rich ground for writers, especially the sharpsatirical pen of Johnathan Swift or essayist like Defoe

Under the progressive effect of Enlightenment, human in commonmeaning and women's value were heightened This was a new advance, whichwas not paid attention in the previous literature phases Along withappreciating man's ability, education and learning was extremely highlighted

in this period

Beside that, the bad and evil still existed in social life Human's miserydid not end Social evils, materialism, sexual issue, oppressing between manand man, discrimination of sexes, races, religions and social classes were thesatirized objects and the important topics of Augustan literature

Totally, these topics drew the immensity and variety of life In the smallframe of this thesis, it is overhead for us to cover all of these themes Theseveral ones studied here, in our paper, were the important topics, which aredivided into two areas, and attracted us a lot.

In our real life, there are always two sides, which are opposite to eachother and co-existed: the good and the bad, the negative and the positive, theprogressive and the backward Consequently, these contrastive factors arereflected in literature To make them more clearly, we will divide these topicsinto two areas: the progressive topics including appreciating women, praisinghuman and heightening education and learning and the negative topicsincluding race discrimination, political and religious conflicts and colonialismand materialism

Separating the Augustan literature themes into two opposite areas, weaims to make clear the difference between the beautiful ideas ofEnlightenment and the real social statement which were so much influenced

by other background events such as Industrial revolution, the growing ofBritish Empire co-existing with the colonialism, so on Then, we want to have

a total view of the contemporary society, which was truthfully recreated inliterature and the close relationship between life and literature

Chapter II: The progressive topics in some typical

literary works of Augustan period

Enlightenment was a progressive intellectual movement whoseprinciples were for humane development These thoughts were crystallized inthe contemporary literature through which writers' humanism and advancewere profoundly expressed In this chapter, we will focus on the progressiveideas expressed through some typical works, which were satire or realism,reflected the most clearly the Enlightenment‘s principle and theories, andmore important, the real life of society in which mankind was always good asnature They were the positive ideas of human being; in other words, they paidattention on good side of people and society which included: Praising humanbeing expressed in "Robinson Crusoe" and "Gulliver's Travels", Appreciatingwomen expressed in "Pamela" and "Clarissa", and Heightening education andlearning expressed in "Robinson Crusoe", "The Education of Women".

Human being and their ability was a prominent theme in this period.Some outstanding points of view of Enlighteners about human were conveyed

in “Robinson Crusoe” and “Gulliver’s Travels” Those were praising humanbeing, enthusiasms for work, skill and spirit, good nature, goodwill, friendshipand peace love

1 Praising human being

Human being is not a new concept but it does not stay the same throughdifferent periods Since the ancient time, man was considered to be theproduct of a super-powerful creator who decided each person’s fate Thisdisoriented idea was even more approved in the middle age through theChurch’s preaching It made people believed that their happiness or sufferingwas already planned by God and they could do nothing to change it Their life

on the earth was provisional and the life after death was permanent and solely

by believing in God could bring them a happy life on the heaven People wasimposed by such ideas explained why they were under the ruling andoppressing of the feudal government for so long time Moving to Renaissance time, the idea of humanists about human’sright, ability and their consciousness of their suffering was started to be grow

to a deeper level They began to talk about human’s fate and how they could

do to change it, but firstly, about whether they could have enough ability tochange or not They saw that their agony was not by any supernatural handbut it rooted from the earthly life Shakespeare was seen to be one of thegreatest humanists of this phase By constructing the characters such as

Hamlet, King Lear, Romeo or Juliet who were condemned the author’s deephumanism They were different in social position, age, sex but they are similar

to each other at the point that all of them had to burden the suffering caused

by feudal antiquated idea

Shakespeare, through which expressed his objective idea to feudalpower that trampled on and ground down human being However, it was notstrong enough to create a movement such as Enlightenment

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Enlightenment, an intellectualmovement, seemed to be an enormous wave sweeping throughout thecontinent, brought a new point of view which completely opposite to whatbelonged to the Dark Age They worshipped science and education, whichhelped them to explain everything in nature and life That is why this is calledthe Age of Reason And human being, the creature owning the mostintelligent mind on the earth must be the master and the center of life

Human beings became the central image in literary works They werethe representatives of brave men who were fond of traveling and adventures,the symbol of will, skill and spirit, of fighting spirit to overcome difficultiesand to control their fate Human image were fully described Dominant inworks were typical characters that gave readers a total view of thecontemporary society

Robinson Crusoe was one of the most typical images of human being

of Augustan literature He represented for the will, optimistic, enthusiasms forwork and intelligence of human being in this period These were the extolledgood points of Robinson

It was said that in the first phase of the rise of novel, “RobinsonCrusoe” (1719), was the most attractive one, which had a strong influence onlater writers including the big figure Balzac Daniel Defoe was seen the father

of a new type: legend and fantastic theory, which attracted a lot of imitators.After “Robinson Crusoe”, a large number of stories about adventure wereborn It was more or less related to the trend of traveling and discovering newland in society However, the foremost reason was not laid in its narrativeform but its content and the main character

He was born in a good family in which his father always wanted him tohave a happy and peaceful life But this was not similar to his thought Hispassion was to cruise and he, finally, found the way to make his dream come

true This was also the trend or demand of people to discover the universe, theworld and the isolated areas that man had not arrived Man always wanted toconquer the nature to prove that he was the strongest and the most intelligentcreature Unfortunately, his ship had an accident during his voyage and hewas drifted into an isolated island while his companions were all died Sincethen, he started his adventurous life that lasted twenty-eight years, two monthsand nineteen days there.

The first quality needed mentioning of Robinson was his intelligenceexpressed in the cooperation between his creation and experience He waswell educated in an upper class family And all of that valuable knowledgewas actually helpful to keep him alive on such a violent circumstance In thefirst period of time living on the island, without any companion of mankind,with such a condition of living like what in the ancient time when humanbeing could earn living by picking and hunting The sole thing, which madeCrusoe different from his ancestors, was that he had lived in a contemporarycivilized society in which man owned an intelligent mind, which was full ofexperience An evident of his intellective mind was the criteria of the place hechose to build house Since the thirteenth day of standing on the island Crusoehad thought of making a “house” He chose types of house which was a in adeep cave or a hut which should meet the demands of good conditions suchas: being near fresh water source, avoiding blazing sun on this land, defendinghimself from enemies and seeing the ships sailing so that he could havechance to escape from this place Finally, he decided to have both Thanks tohis cleverness, he could be alive and return to England after more than twenty-eight years

Another of his quality that helped him to keep alive was his enthusiasmfor work He knew that to be existed on this desolate island he should havesomething to eat, clothes to dress and a “house” to stay instead of a temporaryliving in caves and sleeping on tree He himself managed to earn living, food,tools, hard liquor, gunpowder, wooden barrel and a lot of other useful thingsthat needed for his life Beside the food he got from the broken ship, he alsohunted wild goals with the guns, which had belonged to the late captain andpicked fruits in forests, dried up to store Later, when the existed food wasnearly to become exhausted, he thought of raising goal and growing oats tohave a long-term source of food We could find that Robinson was a person ofprecaution and assiduity He labored with tirelessness

Robinson's an extraordinary skill and spirit and creative exposed inovercoming troubles and difficulties He had sharp eyes of observation Wildgoals were very fast and keen so it was very hard to shoot But later he foundthat their eyes were always kept toward and down, so the only ways to avoidtheir attention was standing in high place There was no candle on the island;

he used killed goals’ fat to light Their skin hide was sewn up to make clothesand hats Afraid of forgetting to count time, he put a square pillar and carved

on it to remember the time he lived on this island This method helped usknow exactly total time was twenty-eight years, two months and nineteendays But, his clever expressed most clearly in building his house and proofingagainst enemies Those things cost him nearly almost the time living on theisland

Everything he done had already calculated carefully to get the bestresult His “bastion” was a long-term project of only him To finish it, he hadconsumed a huge amount of his strength and time because of lackingtools He had to use wooden hoe and shovel to dig into the ground to enlargehis “house” Only finishing the fence took him nearly one year Each woodenpillar cost him two days to cut in forest, transport and put it up But it seemedthat nature did not usually support him and sometimes gave him trials.Earthquake, landslide, storm made troubles to him, not only once However,they could not defeat Robinson but gave him more experience and will tofight against fate and get acquainted with harsh life there Later, his enemieswere not only nature but also others including human beings who were moreclever and dangerous Many times facing with aborigines, bright mind, agilityand courage helped him to escape from death, such as when he rescued Friday

or when Robinson disguised to be Island Landlord to cheat pirates to get theopportunity to leave the island

Extraordinary will and optimistic could be considered the mostremarkable virtue of Robinson A lot of person gave the question that whetherRobinson could overcome such difficulties or not if he had not enough willand optimistic to fight against the harsh circumstance Robinson drew up hisevil and good that he experienced like this: “I am cast upon a horrible desolateisland, void of all hope of recovery But I am alive, and not drowned as all myships company were I am singled out and separated, as it were, from theentire, to be miserable But I am singled out, to, from all the ship’s crew, to bespared from death; and he that miraculously saved me from death, can deliver

me from this condition I am divided from mankind, a solitary; one banishedfrom human society But I am not starved, and perishing on a barren place,affording no sustenance I have no clothes to cover me But I am in hotclimate where if I had clothes, I could hardly wear them I am without anydefense, or means to resist any violence of man or beast But I am cast on anisland where I can see no wild beasts to hurt me, as I saw on the coast ofAfrica; and what if I had been shipwrecked there? I have no soul to speak to,

or relieve me But God wonderfully sent the ship in near enough to the shore,that I have gotten out so many necessary things as will either supply mywants, or enable me to supply myself, even as long as I live"(4) That was theclearest evident of Robinson And this was the base for him to keep himalive

The novel “Serious reflections during the life and surprising adventures

of Robinson Crusoe” was translated into many languages and its maincharacter, Robinson Crusoe was admired by hundreds thousand readers Hewas an actual hero who could win fate and proved that human kind with hewill and mind was ability to do anything The image of Robinson standingvaliantly on the island was a beautiful image that asserted that human beingwas the strongest It also affirmed people’s ability and aroused their passion toconquer nature and defeated the idea of fate

Johnathan Swift's “Gulliver travels” was another successful book oftravel after "Robinson Crusoe" Though, it was a work of satire, manycontemporary sensitive problems such as politic, religion, war, so on, weretouched and criticized, we still found in his works a deep humane value Tohim, human being was still worthy to be praised

Gulliver was a lovely character, a clever, brave, patriotic young manwho enjoyed traveling and had a goodwill and great peace love

The world in ‘Gulliver Travels” was not the real world in which theauthor lived But, his characters, either human being or the product ofimagination, had such very humane ideas and thought The main character,Gulliver, started his journey which then became an unusual adventure when

he was seventeen He was drifted into a very strange world, saw many unusualand interesting things as well as fell into a lot of dangers that sometimesthreatened his life Thanks to his bravery and clever, he was able to overcomethose troubles and returned to his actual world

Gulliver was seen to be a strange creature in the world where he came.

In Lilliput, the world of tiny person, he was an actual giant The people there

at first considered him as a dangerous enemy They tied him on the groundand were ready to kill him if he had any expression of objection But later,thanks to his clever and goodwill he gained the king’s belief He was toldabout their conflict with Blefusco, a neighbor country And with the strength

of a giant (in that world), he agreed to help them to dissolve the problem Hewas really an extraordinary hero to them Similar to Robinson Crusoe,Gulliver’s love to travel was stronger than any other things That why he stillcontinued to go out after what he had just experienced in the world of tinypersons

After that, the author described his adventure to Brobdingnag andHouyhnhms, which seemed to be more dangerous In Brobdingnag, land ofhuge persons; Gulliver was seen to be a thing of entertainment He was shown

at the market for money Furthermore he was taken to many places foreveryone to watch such as a strange creature until the farmer thought he wasvery weak and could die any time He was sent to the palace to meet the Kingand the queen and became a kind of doll for the queen Some said thatGulliver was able to overcomes those difficult situation was because he waslucky But if he did not had goodwill, always found the way to reject them or

to fight against, what would he be? Not trembling in front of those giant orstrange and odd animals in Houyhnhnms was a really considerable courage ofhim

The patriotic spirit of Gulliver was a praised quality Everywhere hecame, he told them about his country with a proud sound He could not hidehis patriotic attitude when the king of Brogdingnag, laughed at what he saidabout England: "of course I was angry He was talking about England-England the home of the Great, the Winner of Wars, the Jewel of Europe,Leader of the World in Goodness and Truth… But I couldn’t do anything But I couldn’t do anything.And I began to ask myself whether I was right to be angry” (Johnathan Swift,

“Gulliver’s Travels") He always tried to protect the beautiful image of hiscountry although the listeners did not completely think that

Gulliver's goodwill and peace love were worthy to be extolled.Everywhere he came, he had no intention of make war In contrary, he alwayswanted to get long well with others In Lilliput, he diverse the King and hecourt because he longed for a peaceful solution More clearly, he refused to

obey the King's request to help him to conquer Blesfuso and rule the world:"But I endeavored to divert him from this design, by many arguments, drawnfrom the topics of policy, as well as justice And I plainly protested that Iwould never be an instrument of bringing a free and brave people into slavery.And when the matter was debated in council, the wisest part of the ministrywas of my opinion".

Johnathan Swift set up character Gulliver, a peace lover, began with thepassion of traveling, with goodwill, bravery and clever was like anambassador of peace from his world to the others

Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver were only two in many literaturecharacters in this period but they were the typical ones who convergedEnlightenment’s ideas about mankind They were the masters of the worldand of their life This was also the highest point of humanism in the period

Besides praising human beings, theme of women was attracted manywriters in this period The role of women was gradually acknowledged infamily and society They had a great effort to assert themselves by their virtueand ability And they were appreciated by all society

2 Appreciating woman

Until present time, society and men had a rather equal view to womenand their role in family as well as in society However, to gain this result,women have to make a great effort to prove themselves This is not an easyprogress but a long term and difficult one Till the Age of Enlightenment, theopinion about women was evaluated to mark an obvious advance in comparewith the previous periods Enlighteners said that: women and men were equal

by their nature and law To have a correct recognization of theEnlightenment's progressive ideas about women, we will study some typicalliterary works on this theme, such as: “Pamela” and “Clarissa” by SamuelRichardson, “Women Education” by Daniel Defoe, but firstly the women'simage in the periods before Enlightenment

2.1 Women image in the English literature periods before

man was worthy to mention in people’s mind Women appeared with verylittle role beside men, even when they played an important role in society.

“Beowulf” was the most famous work in this period It was the story about thehero Beowulf with his extolled deeds to defeat a fire breathing dragon,monster Grendel and his mother The three women in this epic were Grendel’smother, and two Queens, but their part was only to brighten Beowulf’s action

We hardly saw woman with their normal life in literature if she did not hold aspecial position such as Queen, or Princess, or a member of royal family

In medieval time or the Dark Age, under the draconian feudalinstitution, women had no voice in society In family, they totally depended

on their husbands They did not get any opportunities to have jobs becausethey thought social works were not for women Their works were to take care

of children, sew, embroider or cook In this period, drama started to grow andattracted audience, but there were no actress on the theatre All characterswere played by actors The noblewomen in the Romance trend of literatureremained in the readers’ mind was the image of a beautiful girl or ladystanding and waving after the shadow of her knight in the end of a path Onthe other hand, women’s life through George Chaucer’s famous work:

“Canterbury Tale” was not peaceful They had their own circumstances, whichthey had used to associate to fate, but in fact caused by the feudal institution

In short, despite of social class they belonged to, the suffering and gloomycovering the women’s life was the common situation of feudalism, from TheEast to The West

The prejudice to women and belittlement of their ability was stilldominated during the Dark Age and remained for very long time Afterward,with the development of society, these disoriented thoughts were graduallyimproved In the Renaissance, one of the brilliant periods in English literaturehistory which usually mentioned with the reputation of William Shakespeare,women’s value was more considerably acknowledged than in the previousperiods in literature Women dared to fight for their love, for equality, evenfor power Shakespeare's great humanism did not allow him to ignore womenwho were the subject to be protected

The period following the Renaissance was the Restoration, which wasnamed after the historical event when son of Charles I restored his reign andbecame Charles II in the seventeenth century As we know, the return ofCharles II and his court from France had an important significant to the