Class Notes

01/14/2025

Pamela

• first novel as a bestseller in English

• Conduct Books

  • how to behave

• got the idea from a servant’s letter

• Fable’s were most common

• “Epistolary fiction”

  • writing a book in the form of a letter

• Pamela is 15

• Mr. B Love and Power

  • pg. 44

  • pg. 55 - lots of traditional power

  • pg. 63 - offended by her claim of virtue

01/16/2025

• Patriarchy

  • Power of a King, Father’s Power, Religious Power, Aristocratic Male Sexual Power, Authorial Power,

• Dissenting Protestants - connected to what was going on in civil war

  • Puritans, Baptists, Methodists

  • root out the corruption to create a direct line to God from Believer

• Civil War

  • Charles I clash between that and Parliament

  • further fueled by Church of England

• God ← Pope/King ← Cardinal ← Bishop ← Priest ← Believer

• English Civil War (1642-1651)

  • Charles I’s execution ordered by Oliver Cromwell + Parliamentarians

  • son, Charles II fled to mainland Europe

• Interregnum (1649-1660)

  • time bw kings

  • Levellers vs. Diggers vs. Conservatives

• Restoration (1660-1688)

  • Charles II returns to thrown followed by Brother James II (Catholic)

  • noted for freer literature, especially drama,

• Rye House Plot (1683)

  • plot to kill Charles II and James → John Locke suspected and exiled in Netherlands

• Glorious/Bloodless Revolution (1688)

  • James II replaced by William III and Mary II

  • Parliamentarians/Whigs allied with Tories to prevent a Catholic dynasty → More power for Parliament

• Filmer’s Key Claims

  • Divine Right