The Restoration period marked a dramatic shift in English culture and literature. After years of Puritan rule, the monarchy's return ushered in an era of renewed artistic expression, scientific advancement, and social change.
Restoration drama flourished, introducing new themes and styles. Comedies satirized upper-class society, while tragedies explored heroic ideals. Playwrights like Congreve and Behn pushed boundaries, leaving a lasting impact on theatre.
Historical and Cultural Context
Context of Restoration period
The Restoration period began in 1660 when Charles II returned from exile to reclaim the English throne. This ended over a decade of Puritan rule under the Commonwealth, and the cultural mood shifted almost overnight.
One of the most visible changes was the reopening of theatres, which the Puritans had shut down in 1642. New patent theatres like the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane were established, and for the first time in England, women were allowed to perform on stage. Before this, female roles had always been played by boys or young men.
Socially, the period was a reaction against Puritan strictness. Wit, satire, and libertinism (a hedonistic, pleasure-seeking lifestyle) became fashionable, especially among the aristocracy and court circles. If Puritan culture valued restraint, Restoration culture celebrated cleverness and indulgence.
Science and philosophy also advanced rapidly during this time. The Royal Society was founded in 1660 to promote scientific inquiry, and thinkers like John Locke (empiricism) and Isaac Newton shaped the intellectual landscape toward reason and observation.
Politically, tensions ran high between the monarchy and Parliament. Religious conflict was a constant undercurrent, leading to measures like the Test Act of 1673, which barred Catholics from holding public office. These power struggles between crown, church, and government show up repeatedly in the literature of the period.
Literary Characteristics and Key Figures
Themes in Restoration drama
Restoration drama split into two main categories: comedy and tragedy. Each had distinct conventions, but both reflected the era's fascination with social performance and public identity.
Restoration comedy focused on upper-class society and its flaws. These plays featured recognizable stock characters: the fop (a vain, fashion-obsessed man), the rake (a charming but morally loose man), and the witty heroine (a sharp, independent woman who could match the rake in verbal sparring). The comedy of manners, a subgenre that became the period's signature form, explored themes of marriage, infidelity, and social climbing. William Wycherley's The Country Wife is a prime example, using a plot built on deception to expose the hypocrisy lurking beneath polite society.
Restoration tragedy took a very different tone. Often called heroic drama, it featured grand emotions and noble characters, typically written in rhyming couplets with elevated, formal language. These plays centered on themes of honor, duty, and political intrigue. John Dryden's The Conquest of Granada is a key example, presenting larger-than-life heroes caught between love and loyalty.
Across both genres, common stylistic elements included:
- Wit and repartee in dialogue (fast, clever exchanges between characters)
- Sexual innuendo and double entendre woven throughout
- Sharp satire of social conventions and hypocrisy
Works of Restoration playwrights
William Congreve is often considered the master of Restoration comedy. His plays The Way of the World and Love for Love feature intricate plots and razor-sharp dialogue. The Way of the World in particular dissects the economics of marriage and the limited power women held in negotiating their futures.
Aphra Behn was the first professional female playwright in England, a remarkable achievement in a period when women had only just been allowed on stage. Her comedy The Rover follows cavalier soldiers and independent women navigating love and freedom, while her prose work Oroonoko offered an early critique of colonialism and slavery. Themes of female agency run through nearly all her writing.
John Dryden, the dominant literary figure of the era, worked across genres. All for Love, his retelling of the Antony and Cleopatra story, blended classical sources with Restoration sensibilities. Marriage à la Mode mixed comic and serious plots in a single play, a technique that became characteristic of the period.
- George Etherege satirized Restoration manners and aristocratic vanity in The Man of Mode, creating one of the era's most memorable rake characters in Dorimant.
- Thomas Otway wrote Venice Preserv'd, which combined political conspiracy with a passionate love story and became one of the most performed tragedies of the next century.
Impact of Restoration literature
The Restoration transformed English theatre in practical and artistic ways that lasted well beyond the period itself.
Stagecraft innovations were significant. Movable scenery, painted backdrops, and mechanical effects like trap doors made productions far more visually elaborate than anything seen in Shakespeare's time. The stage itself was evolving into something closer to what we'd recognize today.
New dramatic forms took shape during this period. The comedy of manners was refined into a distinct genre, and heroic tragedy established conventions that later playwrights would both imitate and react against. Acting styles also shifted toward more naturalistic performance, though actors still tended to specialize in character types like fops and rakes.
The influence carried forward directly into the 18th century, when writers like Richard Steele and Oliver Goldsmith developed sentimental comedy partly as a response to what they saw as the moral looseness of Restoration plays. And the Restoration's legacy reaches even further: Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest and Noël Coward's drawing-room comedies owe a clear debt to the witty, socially observant style that Congreve and his contemporaries perfected.