Game of love in Restoration comedy Vinh university Foreign language department STUDENT: Trần Thị Đào Game of love in Restoration comedy (Trò đùa tình ái trong hài kịch phục hng) GRADUATION THESIS SUBJECT: CULTURE Vinh - 2007 Student: Trần Thị Đào Class: 44B2 - English FLD Game of love in Restoration comedy Vinh university Foreign language department Game of love in Restoration comedy (trò đùa tình ái trong hài kịch phục hng) GRADUATION THESIS SUBJECT: CULTURE STUDENT : Trần Thị Đào Class : 44B2 - English SUPERVISOR: Trần Ngọc Tởng, M.A Vinh 2007 Student: Trần Thị Đào Class: 44B2 - English FLD “Game of love” in Restoration comedy Acknowledgements For the completion of this study, I have been fortunate to receive invaluable contributions from many people. First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, M.A Tran Ngoc Tuong for his absolutely indispensable assistance, excellent suggestions, advice and detailed critical comments, without which the study would not have been completed. I would also like to offer my indebtness to all my lecturers at the Department of Foregn Languages-Vinh university for their endless enthusiasm and undeniable useful lectures. In addition, this study also owes its accomplishment to my friends my classmates. My warmest thanks are due to my family, my relatives for all things they have done for me. Finally, I am all to aware that despite all the advice and assistance, i feel that the project is far from perfect; it is, my sole responsibility for any inadequacies and shortcomings and the thesis may be considered to have. Vinh, May, 2007 Tran Thi Dao Student: TrÇn ThÞ §µo Class: 44B2 - English FLD “Game of love” in Restoration comedy Abstract English Restoration is a glorious period in the English history. In this period, the world had chance to enjoy its flourishing literature by English writers, The worldly life of the king Charles II, his sexual appetite caused the development of literature, especially comedy. Literature is the reflection of reality, so the main themes in Restoration comedy are love and marriage. People consider love an interesting game and they play with it. By analyzing three typical comedies of the time including “The Country Wife” of William Wycherley; “The Rover” of Aphra Behn; “The Way of the World” of William Congreve, the author wants to create the interest in readers in Restoration comedy so that they are eager to study literature. Background knowledge about Charles II, English literature under his reign, conceptions of love are mentioned in the study. The author also mentions the change in theme in comedy this period. Three plot summaries of three comedies studied in this thesis will help readers understand more about what have been said. Student: TrÇn ThÞ §µo Class: 44B2 - English FLD “Game of love” in Restoration comedy Table of contents Acknowledgements Abstract Table of contents Part A: Introduction 1 1. Rationales for choosing topic 1 2. Aims of the study 2 3. Methods of the study 3 4. Scope of the study .3 5. Design of the study .3 Part B: Development .5 Chapter 1: Theoretical background 5 1.1. Restoration period .5 1.1.1. Society .5 1.1.2. King Charles II 7 1.2. Literature development in Restoration time 9 1.2.1. Poetry and prose 9 1.2.1.1. Poetry 9 1.2.1.2. Prose .10 1.2.2. Drama .11 1.2.3. Comedy .12 1.3. Summary 14 Chapter 2: Love and transition in the themes in Restoration comedy .15 2.1. Concepts of love .15 Student: TrÇn ThÞ §µo Class: 44B2 - English FLD “Game of love” in Restoration comedy 2.1.1. Concept of love in the Renaissance time 15 2.1.2. Concept of love in the Restoration time .16 2.1.2.1. Love as a new fashion 16 2.1.2.2 Love as a game 17 2.2. Change in theme .19 2.3. Representation of marriage .20 2.4. Summary 22 Chapter 3: The Theme “Game of love“ in Restoration comedy .23 3.1. “Game of love“ in “The Country Wife“ by William Wycherley 23 3.2. “Game of love“ in “The Rover“ by Aphra Behn 28 3.3. “Game of love“ in “The Way of the World“ .32 3.4. Summary .39 Part C: Conclusion 41 1. Recapitulation .41 2. Suggestions for further study 42 References Student: TrÇn ThÞ §µo Class: 44B2 - English FLD “Game of love” in Restoration comedy PART A. INTRODUCTION 1. Rationales of the study Within four thousand years, humankind has been proud of miraculous achievements on both material and spiritual life which leads to the formation of modern civilization. The past prepares for the future. People reserve and feel moved with their ancestors’ spiritual life presented in literature of each nation. Mankind struggles to control nature, control society. There still remains differences among people thought of universal and human life because it is the nature if man and it helps them exist and develop. Each has his own way. However, people all over the world share their profound identity and progressive ideology on gladness, sadness, hope. They themselves are aware of their duty for a brighter future. People have found those basic values through literary works of each nation. No matter how small a nation is, it has its own literature value either in phonclo or in literary form. Each country also has its own traditional features among the common literary properties of human beings. Literary is the reflection of reality. People learn about history and social features even they learn about each other through literary works. Sometimes, writers use the real symbol with their real story in the real life to form their works. But some other times, their characters, and their plot story may be fictional. Whatever ways their works are formed by, these literary works all reflect reality of each stage in human beings’ history. We read Kieu story to learn that at Nguyen Du’s time, women were despised while money had all powerful value. We read “Mrs. Dau” to learn that socialist feudalism of Vietnam at that time became depraved, and that how miserable Vietnamese farmers were. We read “Tam Quoc Dien Nghia” to know the China’s history at that time. Literature is a formality of cultural life- an important part in spiritual life of society. Literary life is attached to other lives, especially political life. Changes in social life often affect profoundly writers and readers followed by changes in mind of writers and readers. This leads to the fact that each historical move of society usually creates changes in literature development. For example, the appearance of romanticism in French literature in 19 th century with famous writers such as F.Satobrian , A.Lamactin, V.Huygo was the Student: TrÇn ThÞ §µo Class: 44B2 - English FLD “Game of love” in Restoration comedy result of 1789 revolution, Also Russian October Revolution created critical realism in literature. English literature is not an exception. Restoration time is considered the greatest time during British history. Literature of England at that time developed remarkably, especially comedy of manner which shows main characters’ manner. It reflected the fact that people did not live reliably. Like their King Charles II, English people in common regarded love as a game that they could play. Therefore, the main theme of literature, in common of comedy of manner in specific is “Game of love”. As a student of Foreign Language Department, the author has chances to study English literature including restoration comedy. She finds that Restoration comedy or comedy of manner has interesting theme –“game of love”. In order to understand more about this theme, about the love of English people and their point of view about life in restoration time, the author has chosen the topic “game of love” in restoration comedy to study. She also wants to give clearer look to everyone so that literature, in common and English literature, in specificity, can be an interesting source of humankind that everyone wants to exploit. Another reason for the author to choose this topic is that when people love literature , people can easily live together because at least they have a combination line that is literature. “Literature is the window of the soul” So far, there has not got any study about this topic while it is very interesting topic in the teaching and learning English. The author thus, wants to exploit and point out the interest of the theme for those who have chance to study English literature. All of them are combined together and encourage the author to choose the topic “Game of love in restoration comedy” to study. There are many other reasons but those above are the main ones. The most important is, perhaps, that the author loves literature very much. She wants to exploit its spiritual and material values to prove the tightness of the sentence “literature is anthropology”. 2. Aims of the study For the reasons mentioned above, the study has been done in order to - present some understandings about the theme "game of love" in Restoration comedy. - answer for the question “what is the theme game of love?” Student: TrÇn ThÞ §µo Class: 44B2 - English FLD “Game of love” in Restoration comedy - Analyze how the theme is expressed in Restoration comedy - See how King Charles II has influence on theme in literature at that time - Help people understand more about British history as well as British literature - Make clear the change in theme in Restoration comedy through the representation of marriage 3. Method of the study The strategic methods of the study are: - Using analysis method - Loading documents from internet to study - analyzing and describing plays in Restoration period - studying documents dealing with the theme - Consulting from my teachers and making use of my teacher’s and my friends’ ideas. 4. The scope of the study This thesis is about the theme "game of love" in Restoration comedy. The author chose only some works in which the theme is clearly presented. They are: - “The Country wife” by William Wycherley - “The Rover” by Aphra Behn - “The Ways of the World” by William Congreve 5. Design of the study The thesis consists of three main parts: Part A is the introduction that provides the basic information such as background to the study, the scope, the aims, methods and the design of the thesis Part B is the Development consisting of three main chapters. Chapter 1 provides the background knowledge about Restoration time, events that affect literature development. Some information about the King Charles II would be helpful for the study. Literature development is also presented in this chapter. Then all kinds of literature at that time are mentioned, especially Comedy Student: TrÇn ThÞ §µo Class: 44B2 - English FLD “Game of love” in Restoration comedy Chapter 2 presents the author's analysis about concepts of love in the Renaissance time and in Restoration time. This helps to see the difference between the concepts of love in two periods. Then, the author presents the change in theme from love as game to love leading to marriage through the representation of marriage. Chapter 3 shows the analysis the theme “game of love” in three Restoration comedies. Part C is the Conclusion. The whole thesis is concluded Part B: DEVELOPMENT Student: TrÇn ThÞ §µo Class: 44B2 - English FLD