Achitophel
It
was indisputable to infer the role of Achitophel in Dryden’s Absalom and
Achitophel as the portray of a certain political practice that emerged from a
sort of political thought of the Restoration England. This poem was written in
a particular political situation which striked the people of the age. In this
poem the relationship between father and son attracted our attention.
Achitophel here acted as a catalyst to instigate the rebellion of son against
the father. Actually this paper was going to explore the role of Achitophel,
the Earl of Shaftesbury, as a cunning politician who represents the politicians
of the age of Restoration. A. B. Chambers opines, “the story of Absalom and
Achitophel found seventeenth-century political application with sufficient
frequency to establish a tradition in which Achitophel was a type for the
rebellious and wily politician” (592). His cunningness and unscrupulousness
regarding the antiroyal movement against King David on the one hand evoked the
rebelliousness of some other rebels towards the King and on the other hand
prepared Absalom’s state of mind to revolt against his God like father.
However, in this poem we observed a conflict between Whig and Tory, Catholicism
and Protestantism, son and father, royal power and Shaftesbury, Absalom and
Achitophel. It reminded us the great theory of Hobbes where everybody is
against everybody means war against all. Along with Dryden’s own view of
politics, one of the most prominent political theorists of his time had been
consulted to expose its influence on the political history of the Restoration
England
0 Comments