Explore the rich tapestry of 17th-century thought with ""Character Writings of the 17th Century."". This compelling collection features diverse writings that delve into the nature of character, personality, and morality from a pivotal era in literary history. As the writings unfold, immerse yourself in the varied perspectives and insights offered by authors of the 17th century. The book provides a fascinating look at how character and virtue were perceived and articulated during this dynamic period. But here's a thought-provoking question: How do these 17th-century writings reflect the changing views on character and society of their time? The collection invites readers to explore the historical and philosophical contexts that shaped these influential works. Discover the depth and diversity of ""Character Writings of the 17th Century,"" where each piece offers a unique perspective on character and morality. The book’s varied contributions provide valuable insights into the intellectual and cultural milieu of the 17th century. Are you ready to explore the complexities of character in ""Character Writings of the 17th Century""? Engage with thought-provoking and historical content that offers a window into past perceptions of character and virtue. The collection’s rich historical context provides a valuable resource for readers interested in literature and philosophy. Don’t miss the opportunity to delve into this historical literary exploration. Purchase ""Character Writings of the 17th Century"" today, and gain insights into the evolving views on character from a significant period in literary history. Get your copy now and uncover the diverse writings that shaped the understanding of character in the 17th century.

The guide to Seventeenth Century Literature and Culture provides students with the ideal introduction to literature and its context from 1603-1688, including: - the historical, cultural and intellectual background including religion, politics and culture during the Civil War, Commonwealth and Restoration - major writers and genres including John Donne, George Herbert, Andrew Marvell and John Milton - concise explanations of key terms needed to understand the literature and criticism - key critical approaches from the eighteenth century to the present - a chronology mapping historical events and literary works and further reading including websites and electronic resources.

Nation and Nurture in Seventeenth-Century English Literature connects changing seventeenth-century English views of maternal nurture to the rise of the modern nation, especially between 1603 and 1675. Maternal nurture gains new prominence in the early modern cultural imagination at the precise moment when England undergoes a major paradigm shift — from the traditional, dynastic body politic, organized by organic bonds, to the post-dynastic, modern nation, comprised of symbolic and affective relations. The book also demonstrates that shifting early modern perspectives on Judeo-Christian relations deeply inform the period's interlocking reassessments of maternal nurture and the nation, especially in the case of Milton. The book's five chapters analyze a wide range of reformed and traditional texts, including A pitiless Mother, William Gouge's Of Domesticall Duties, Shakespeare's Macbeth, Charles I's Eikon Basilike, and Milton's Paradise Lost, and Samson Agonistes. Equal attention is paid to such early modern visual images as The power of women (a late sixteenth-century Dutch engraving), William Marshall's engraved frontispiece to Richard Braithwaite's The English Gentleman and Gentlewoman (1641), and Peter Paul Rubens's painting of Pero and Cimon or Roman Charity (1630). The book argues that competing early modern figurations of the nurturing mother mediate in politically implicated ways between customary biblical models of English kingship and innovative Hebraic/Puritan paradigms of Englishness.

Framed by an understanding that the very concept of what defines the human is often influenced by Renaissance and early modern texts, this book establishes the beginning of the literary development of the satanic form into a humanized form in the seventeenth century. This development is centered on characters and poetry of four seventeenth-century writers: the Satan character in John Milton's Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, the Tempter in John Bunyan's Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners and Diabolus in Bunyan's The Holy War, the poetry of John Wilmot, earl of Rochester, and Dorimant in George Etherege's Man of Mode. The initial understanding of this development is through a sequential reading of Milton and Bunyan which examines the Satan character as an archetype-in-the-making, building upon each to work so that the character metamorphoses from a groveling serpent and fallen archangel to a humanized form embodying the human impulses necessary to commit evil. Rosenfeld then argues that this development continues in Restoration literature, showing that both Rochester and Etherege build upon their literary predecessors to develop the satanic figure towards greater humanity. Ultimately she demonstrates that these writers, taken collectively, have imbued Satan with the characteristics that define the human. This book includes as an epilogue a discussion of Samson in Milton's Samson Agonistes as a later seventeenth-century avatar of the humanized satanic form, providing an example for understanding a stock literary character in the light of early modern texts.