Jonathan Swift 1667 1745 Jonathan Swift was born

Jonathan Swift 1667 -1745

Jonathan Swift was born in Ireland in 1667

Jonathan Swift was born in Ireland in 1667 He received a BA from Trinity College, Dublin in 1686

Jonathan Swift was born in Ireland in 1667 He received a BA from Trinity College, Dublin in 1686 He received an MA from Oxford in 1692

Jonathan Swift was born in Ireland in 1667 He received a BA from Trinity College, Dublin in 1686 He received an MA from Oxford in 1692 He became an Anglican priest in 1695

Jonathan Swift was born in Ireland in 1667 He received a BA from Trinity College, Dublin in 1686 He received an MA from Oxford in 1692 He became an Anglican priest in 1695 He was granted a Dr. of Divinity degree from Trinity in 1702

Jonathan Swift was born in Ireland in 1667 He received a BA from Trinity College, Dublin in 1686 He received an MA from Oxford in 1692 He became an Anglican priest in 1695 He was granted a Dr. of Divinity degree from Trinity in 1702 He was active in the early debates of the political parties in England— Whigs and Tories

Jonathan Swift was born in Ireland in 1667 He received a BA from Trinity College, Dublin in 1686 He received an MA from Oxford in 1692 He became an Anglican priest in 1695 He was granted a Dr. of Divinity degree from Trinity in 1702 He was active in the early debates of the political parties in England— Whigs and Tories Swift is famous for his satires: Tale of a Tub (1704) A Modest Proposal (1729) Gulliver’s Travels (1726)

Jonathan Swift Gulliver’s Travels Four “books”—four voyages: Lilliput Brobdingnag Laputa Houyhnhnms

Jonathan Swift Gulliver’s Travels is a parody of the genre of “travel narrative” During the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, these tales of voyages of exploration and colonial adventure were extremely popular: Christopher Columbus Amerigo Vespucci (for whom “America” is named) Sir Walter Raleigh Captain John Smith More’s Utopia also parodies the genre, and Shakespeare’s The Tempest invokes the genre Travel narratives are often sometimes “utopian”—Book IV of Gulliver’s Travels also parodies More’s Utopia

Jonathan Swift Lemuel Gulliver’s four voyages can be seen as a satirical exploration of the human condition: What does it mean to be a human being? The name “Gulliver” may suggest that he is “gullible” Gulliver’s first voyage, to Lilliput: Gulliver encounters a land of tiny people. According to Stuart Sherman, editor of the Longman Anthology of British Literature Vol. 1 c: The diminutive citizens of Lilliput represent human small-mindedness and petty ambitions. Filled with self-importance, they Lilliputians are cruel, treacherous, malicious and destructive. (Longman Anthology, p. 2531)

Jonathan Swift Gulliver’s second voyage, to Brobdingnag, a land of giants: In Brobdingnag Gulliver is reduced to the size of a Lilliputian. According to Stuart Sherman: He is humbled by his own helplessness and, finding the huge bodies of the Brobdingnagians grotesque, he realizes how repulsive the Lilliputians must have found him. When Gulliver gives the wise king of Brobdingnag an account of the political affairs of England—which manifest hypocrisy, avarice and hatred—the enlightened monarch concludes that most of the country’s inhabitants must be “the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that Nature ever suffered to crawl upon the face of the Earth. ” (Longman Anthology, p. 2531)

Jonathan Swift Sherman concludes: Throughout Gulliver’s Travels that which is admirable is held up to expose corruption in the reader’s world, and that which is deplorable is identified with the institutions and practices of contemporary Europe, particularly Britain. . With brilliantly modulated ironic self-awareness, Swift’s painful comedy of exposure to the truth of human frailty demonstrates that there is no room for the distortions of human pride in a world where our practices are so evidently at variance with our principles. Swift advances no program of social reform, but provokes a new recognition—literally, a re-thinking—of our own humanity. (Longman Anthology, p. 2531)

Jonathan Swift Gulliver’s Travels : Book IV Gulliver’s crew mutinies and puts him ashore on an unknown island

Jonathan Swift Gulliver’s Travels : Book IV Gulliver’s crew mutinies and puts him ashore on an unknown island The island turns out to be inhabited by the “Houyhnhnms”--creatures who look like horses but are more civilized and intelligent than humans, in Gulliver’s view

Jonathan Swift Gulliver’s Travels : Book IV Gulliver’s crew mutinies and puts him ashore on an unknown island The island turns out to be inhabited by the “Houyhnhnms”--creatures who look like horses but are more civilized and intelligent than humans, in Gulliver’s view The island also has “Yahoos”—creatures who look like humans but are sub-human in intelligence, savage and disgusting