Examine how Addison and Steele present the contemporary social ethos in the essays prescribed in your syllabus.

Examine how Addison and Steele present the contemporary social ethos in the essays prescribed in your syllabus.

Answer: The Tatler (12 April 1709–30 December 1710) and The Spectator (1 March 1711–6 December 1712) were written by Richard Steele and Joseph Addison, amongst others, with Steele being the main contributor to the first and Addison to the latter, though each contributed to both. The periodicals contain a wide variety of topics, such as familial relationships, education, drama, politics, industry, marriage, and literary criticism, as well as less far-reaching articles on ghosts, the taking of snuff, dueling, and drinking. The writers themselves pleaded anonymity and masked their identities with fictional narrators in their varied discourses that are sometimes satirical and sometimes serious.

    The narrator of The Tatler is Isaac Bickerstaff, an old astrologer who “ is pushed out of character when introduced in unlikely milieux” (38), whereas Addison’s Mr. Spectator, along with the cast of his friends (Sir Roger de Coverley, Sir Andrew Freeport, etc.), allows for a greater flexibility of narration. Counter-intuitively, The Spectator has a greater uniformity of voice than its forerunner, possibly due to the diminished level of satire in the later periodical and the excising of certain topics, such as the news of the day. The satire, while still amusing to the modern audience (such as when Bickerstaff condemns the seeking of peace in the war with France, as it will put writers out of business), is oftentimes confusing when the tone changes throughout a single article and between articles. While the satire itself encourages thought, so do the oscillating tone and the anonymity of the author, as the reader is not explicitly told what to think and instead must think on his own. Throughout the works, the importance of thought is stressed over the importance of decisiveness: “When the Arguments press equally on both sides in Matters that are indifferent to us, the safest Method is to give up ourselves to neither” (Spectator 117). Their methods suggest their desire to create a thinking public in which various ideas are batted around, rather than a Hobbesian system in which people must agree in the public sphere. Instead, what we discussed as “private” discourse for Hobbes, such as politics, is allowed into the public discourse in Addison and Steele.............................

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