Restoration Drama

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Research problem and question: Dealing with Orient characters in English drama as reflection of the political situation in England during the renaissance era makes many critics think that what comes after this age is a continuation of the enterprise of the Empire. Despite the imperialism that the political situation has created in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, we could also add that political situation played a significant role in shaping the drama in restoration era. The discourse in restoration drama has an extreme change and has not followed the discourse of the renaissance drama. In Shakespeare's The Tempest when Prospero told Miranda to go to the Orient character Caliban she tried to escape "'Tis a villain, sir, I do not love to look …show more content…

In this research, I will try to prove that John Dryden deconstructs the imperial image that Shakespeare has drawn in his plays. Also, it is an evidence that the Restoration age (drama) is not an extension of the Renaissance drama, but a deconstruct of that image, especially when it comes to Orient characters. In order to dig deeply in understanding the significant of Restoration drama as an independent and autonomous era that deconstructs the imperial image that has been drawn by the Renaissance era, there should be a wide-range of historical and political knowledge of that period, and should be a counsel of many critical articles and many books which referred to that …show more content…

This research will take as a case of study two Shakespearian plays which deal with oriental characters, and the adaptation of those plays written by John Dryden, which will open the way to proof reading of those plays to repeal the truth about this ignorant period, which in many cases was included and is dealt with as a continuation of the previous era. My thesis will study Shakespeare's The Tempest and Antony and Cleopatra, and on the other side, is the adaptation of those plays by John Dryden The Tempest or The Enchanted Isle and All for Love respectively. My concentration in this research will be on the oriental characters in Shakespeare's plays compared with the same characters in Dryden's plays, and how did the playwright deal with those characters in his play. On the other hand, I will try to discover the reason behind the adaptation of those plays by John Dryden, what changes he has created in his adaptation, and what his ideology was when he wrote or rewrote Shakespeare's

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