Jonathan Swift

(1667 1745)
From A Glimpse Of English Literature By O.Zabolotny Kyiv 2011

Jonathan Swifts Biography

Jonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer and cleric who became Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. He is probably the most outstanding prose satirist in the English language.

Jonathan Swift was born on 30 November 1667 in Dublin, Ireland.

Jonathan Swifts Biography

His father died early, and not much is known about the life of young Jonathan. His relatives took care of him and he was sent to Kilkenny College. In 1682 he attended Dublin University (Trinity College, Dublin), receiving his B.A. (Bachelor of Arts degree) in 1686. Political troubles in Ireland forced him to leave for England. In 1688, he received a position as secretary and personal assistant of Sir William Temple, a prominent English diplomat in his estate at Moor Park, Farnham.

Jonathan Swifts Biography

Swift received his M.A. from Hertford College, Oxford in 1692.

With Temples death in 1699 Swifts career in England came to the end. He went back to Ireland and soon became a priest in St. Patricks Cathedral, Dublin.

In February 1702, Swift received his Doctor of Divinity degree from Trinity College, Dublin.

Jonathan Swifts Biography

During his visits to England in 1702 1713 Swift published A Tale of a Tub and The Battle of the Books (1704) and began to gain a reputation as a writer.

Swift became increasingly active politically. From 1707 to 1709 and again in 1710, Swift was in London, representing the interests of the Irish clergy.
In 1713 he returned to Ireland and received the position of a dean in St. Patricks Cathedral.

Jonathan Swifts Biography

Once in Ireland, Swift began writing pamphlets in support of Irish causes. Such his works as Proposal for Universal Use of Irish Manufacture (1720), Drapier's Letters (1724), and A Modest Proposal (1729), earned him the status of an Irish patriot. Also during these years, he began writing his masterpiece, Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts, by Lemuel Gulliver, first a surgeon, and then a captain of several ships, better known as Gulliver's Travels.

Jonathan Swifts Biography

His health declined in the last decade of his life, and his mind failed. Swift died on October 19, 1745, leaving the money to start a hospital for mentally disabled. He is buried in St. Patricks Cathedral in Dublin where he had served as a dean for so many years.

Swifts Works: A Tale of a Tub

A Tale of a Tub, the first Swifts major work, published in 1704, is probably his best satire. The Tale is a prose allegory telling about the life of three brothers each representing one of the main branches of western Christianity (the Roman Catholic Church, various Protestant churches and the Church of England). The brothers have inherited three wonderful coats (representing religious practice) by their father (representing God), and they have his will (representing the Bible) to guide them. The will says that the brothers cannot make any changes to their coats, but they start to alter their coats from the very beginning.

TUB

Swifts Works:

The Battle of the Books

The Battle of the Books is a short allegoric satire published together with A Tale of a Tub in 1704. It depicts a literal battle between books in the King's Library as ideas and authors struggle for supremacy.

Swifts Works: A

Modest Proposal

In 1729, Swift published A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public, a satire in which the narrator, with intentionally grotesque logic, recommends that Ireland's poor escape their poverty by selling their children as food to the rich:

I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food...

Swifts Works: Gullivers

Gulliver's Travels was written in 1726 and amended 1735. It is a four-part satire on human nature. Part I: A Voyage to Lilliput On his first voyage, Gulliver is washed ashore after a shipwreck and awakes to find himself a prisoner of a race of people one-twelfth the size of normal human beings, less than 6 inches (15 cm) high, who are inhabitants of the neighbouring and rival countries of Lilliput and Blefuscu.

Travels

Swifts Works: Gullivers

Travels

After he promises to behave himself well, he is given a residence in Lilliput and becomes a favourite of the court. From there, the book follows Gulliver's observations on the Court of Lilliput.

Swifts Works: Gullivers

Travels
Gulliver helps the Lilliputians in the war with their neighbours the Blefuscudians by stealing their fleet. However, he refuses to attack Blefuscu, displeasing the King and the court. Gulliver is charged with treason and sentenced to be blinded.

Swifts Works: Gullivers

With the assistance of a kind friend, Gulliver escapes to Blefuscu, where he finds an abandoned boat and sails away. He is picked up by a ship and rescued.

Travels

Swifts Works: Gullivers

Travels
Part II: A Voyage to Brobdingnag Gullivers ship loses its way in storms and forced to go in to land for want of fresh water. The land is inhabited by giants. Gulliver is abandoned by his companions and found by a farmer who is 72 feet (22 m) tall. He brings Gulliver home and his daughter cares for Gulliver.

Swifts Works: Gullivers Travels

The farmer treats him as a curiosity and exhibits him for money. The word gets out and the Queen of Brobdingnag wants to see the show. She loves Gulliver and he is then bought by her and kept as a favourite at court.

Swifts Works: Gullivers

Travels
The queen orders to build a small house for Gulliver so that he can be carried around in it. He calls it his "travelling box." In between small adventures such as fighting giant wasps and being carried to the roof by a monkey, he discusses the state of Europe with the King.

Swifts Works: Gullivers

The King is not impressed with Gulliver's accounts of Europe, especially upon learning of the usage of guns and cannons. On a trip to the seaside, his travelling box is seized by a giant eagle which drops Gulliver and his box right into the sea where he is picked up by some sailors, who return him to England.

Travels

Swifts Works: Gullivers

Travels
Part III: A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib, and Japan After Gulliver's ship is attacked by pirates, he is marooned on a small island. Fortunately he is rescued by the flying island of Laputa, a kingdom devoted to the arts of music and mathematics but unable to use them for practical purposes.

Swifts Works: Gullivers

Travels

While on Laputa, he tours the country as a guest and sees the ruin brought about by blind pursuit of science without practical results. This part is considered to be a satire on the Royal Society (English Academy of Sciences) and its experiments.

Swifts Works: Gullivers

However, Swifts description of scientific achievements on Laputa presents some surprising and mysterious details. Mystery # 1 Laputa looks and performs just like a UFO propelled by a magnetic engine. Some experts say that such engine can be built and the only problem is the size of the energy source. Laputa's method of throwing rocks at rebellious surface cities also seems the first time that aerial bombardment was mentioned as a method of warfare.

Travels

Swifts Works: Gullivers

Mystery #2 Laputan astronomers were reported by Swift to have discovered two moons of Mars. In reality Phobos and Deimos were discovered 150 years later.

Travels

Swifts Works: Gullivers

Mystery #3

Travels

Laputa has a word machine that is nothing less than a giant mechanical computer used for making sentences and books. Compare its illustration with the 1971 Intel 4004 Microprocessor.

Swifts Works: Gullivers

Travels
Part IV: A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms Gulliver returns to sea as the captain of a ship. While at sea he faces a mutiny on board and is marooned in the land where he comes first upon a race of ugly creatures called Yahoos. Soon afterwards he meets a horse and understands that the horses (in their language Houyhnhnm or "the perfection of nature") are the rulers and the Yahoos are human beings in their most primitive form.

Swifts Works: Gullivers

Travels

Gulliver becomes a member of the horse's household. He admires the Houyhnhnms and their lifestyle, rejecting Yahoos even though he himself looks like them. However, an Assembly of the Houyhnhnms rules that Gulliver, a Yahoo with some semblance of reason, is a danger to their civilization and he is expelled.

Swifts Works: Gullivers

Travels

He is rescued by a Portuguese ship, and is surprised to see that Captain Pedro de Mendez, a Yahoo, is a wise, courteous and generous person. He returns to his home in England, but he is unable to live among Yahoos and remains most of the time in his house, avoiding his family, and spending several hours a day speaking with the horses in his stables.

Swifts Works: Gullivers

Travels

The book has three major themes: a satirical view of European system of government; a satirical view of unimportant differences between religions; an inquiry into whether men are naturally corrupt or whether they become corrupted.

Swifts Works: Gullivers

Travels

The story follows a pattern: Gulliver's misadventures go from bad to worse - he is first shipwrecked, then abandoned, then attacked by strangers pirates), then attacked by his own crew.

Swifts Works: Gullivers

Travels

Gulliver's attitude hardens as the book progresses first he is sincerely surprised by the viciousness and politicking of the Lilliputians; but in the end he thinks that the disgusting behaviour of the Yahoos reflects the behaviour of people in general.

Swifts Works:

Gullivers Travels

Part 1: Lilliput

Part 2: Brobdingnag SMALL

/feels inferior/

Part 3: Laputa

Part 4: Country of the Houyhnhnms INTELLIGENT

(but is not understood)

Gulliver
(as compared to local people)

BIG
/feels superior/

IGNORANT
(does not understand)

Country Government
(as compared to Englands)

COMPLEX WORSE

SIMPLE BETTER

SCIENTIFIC WORSE

NATURAL BETTER

Swifts Works: Gullivers

Travels

Some distinct messages:

No form of government is ideal. Specific individuals may be good even where the race is bad Gulliver finds a friend in each of his travels.

Swifts Works: Gullivers

Travels

Despite the depth of the book, it is often classified as a children's story because of the popularity of the Lilliput section. It is still possible to buy books entitled Gulliver's Travels which contain only parts of the Lilliput voyage.

Jonathan Swift and His Works

Check-up
Task 1: Fill in the blanks with one word. Write the word on your answer sheets. 1. Jonathan Swift was born on 30 November 1667 in___________, Ireland. 2. In 1688, he received a position as ___________and personal assistant of Sir William Temple. 3. Sir William Temple was a prominent English ___________. 4. Swift received his M.A. from Hertford College, ____________. 5. His works earned him the status of an Irish ____________. 6. He received the position of a dean in St. Patricks ______________. 7. The Lilliputians are _____ cm high. 8. Gulliver helps the Lilliputians in the war with their neighbours by stealing their _________. 9. Gullivers visit to Brobdingnag ends when his travelling box is seized by a giant _________. 10. The third part of Gullivers Travels is considered to be a satire on the ___________Society. 11. Houyhnhnm means the perfection of ___________" in the local horses language. 12. In each of his travels Gulliver finds a _______________.

Jonathan Swift and His Works

Check-up
Task 2: Mark the statements True or False on your answer sheets. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. A lot is known about the life of young Jonathan. Swifts career in England came to the end because of Temples death. Swift returned to Ireland and never visited England since then. The three brothers in the Tale of a Tub represent main branches of western Christianity. The Battle of the Books is set in the Kings Library. In his Modest Proposal Swift suggests that poor Irish people sell their children as slaves to Americas plantations. Gulliver is sentenced to be blinded because he refuses to attack Blefuscu. The King of Brobdingnag is greatly impressed with Gulliver's accounts of European affairs. Gulliver is rescued by the flying island of Laputa after being attacked by pirates. In the third part of Gullivers Travels Swift describes a computer. In the end of the fourth part Gulliver thinks that all the people are similar to the Yahoos. Specific individuals are no better than the rest of the race.