RESTORATION

There were a few changes made in literature during the 18th century. In
fact, drama took a new lease of life; prose fiction modulated into the
novel; poets started to write about heroic plays and works and turned to
effects of clarity, balance and pointed wit (Grundy 200). Furthermore,
this period was (and is) known as the Age of Reason because reason, as
a human feature, was beginning to get praised and valued, although it
was mostly because poets feared unreason (Grundy 200).
Drama was not the main genre in this period so there is not so much to
say in this matter. Tragedy, on the other hand, was more about passions
which took a lifetime to fulfil, Love, Duty, leering gesture... (Grundy
206). These themes help to understand the reason why heroes’ stories
became part of tragedy in this period.
But most importantly, we need to talk about comedy, for it was the
genre that predominated the most: Comedy, despite of the fact that it
was struggling with morality because of writers like John Gray and his
friends, it was sentimentally improving. Poets usually represented
heroes and heroines; heroes constantly sought sex and money while
heroines tried to find the opportunity to decide who their marriage
partner was going to become. (Grundy 208). Past social rules (such as
men being pimps) were repelled by these young generation and,
although their abilities were questioned, their wit and self-knowledge
was valued. Moreover, sometimes plays were influenced by Thomas
Hobbes ideas (psychology based on competitive pursuit of power in the
Restoration) as well as John Locke's ones (importance of reason in the
eighteenth century).
ROMANTICISM
Despite the measures taken, society began rioting and asking for
reforms. People were influenced by different philosophers, such as
Immanuel Kant, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. For instance,
Kant was sort of a transcendentalist: he thought that something must
exist beyond the material world. However, he pointed out the innate
human capacity of moral reasoning, of making choices because they are
the right ones to make, or because they are dutiful (Ruston 23).
Enlightenment philosophy did not outshine however, although John
Locke insisted on the importance of 'empiricism' and on the idea that
people were not born with innate ideas. We can appreciate this idea in
Frankestein (1818), by Mary Shelley (1797-1851) (Ruston 24). Lastly,
Rosseau believed in the idea of raising children allowing them to take
their own path, for he thought children were born good, and adults were
the ones who corrupted them. This encouraged Wollstonecraft to create
her own ideas of rights of women, emphasising the idea of society
corrupting female identities (Ruston 24).
VICTORIAN AGE
The most influential and important form of literary from this period was
the novel fiction. Its most typical mode was realism, a kind of clear path
to society in rapid transition (Moran 80). In other words, reality is not
statistic, so it is in constant change, what gives it a hybrid nature (Moran
81): there is a surface 'reality' and there's also an 'elemental' truth of
intense passion, being this second nature what featured characters. From
the mid-century, writers constructed 'reality' with a panoramic view
through complex plots, multiple viewpoints, etc. However, from the
1860's it was seen as a subjective construction (Moran 81).
Regarding Victorian characters, they were everyday life ones, they had
problems of self-formation and moral choices in relation to
contemporary references of the Victorian period (Moran 78). The point
was to create a connection between the characters and the readers, so
writers used particular strategies to accomplish so: dramatic scenes to
provide excitement while also leaving mysteries for resolution in future
moments (Moran 79).
Furthermore, and regarding the self-formation of the characters, writers
focused attention on characters' psychological states (Moran 91), using
the power of mental disturbance and unconscious impulse (Moran 92) to
create some kind of scary atmosphere mixing fantasy, science and social
awareness (Moran 91). We have the doppelgänger as an example,
introduced by Stevenson (Moran 92). As a result of the creation of
suspenseful scenes, danger and survival are also related to different
issues the reader may face: cruelty of vivisection, the oppression of the
working class and so son (Moran 93).