Like the preacher, the satirist seeks to persuade and convince, but his
James Suthland, English Satire, London, 1958, pp.3-4. Others more serious) he is driven to protest. It is, on theĬontrary, the mark of satirist that he cannot accept and refuses to tolerate.Ĭonfronted with the same human shortcomings as the writer of comedy(and his normal position is among spectators in the public gallery. James Suthland said that the difference between satire and irony is the former is neutral to moral aspect, the latter reveals the contradiction between reality and idealism. The purpose of this article is to know what is satire and how Swift expressed his ideas.
the reader are forced to take examine things we ordinary take for granted. He attacted what he considered were man's most conspicuous vices. Swift kept the form of the voyage book but expended his target. Therefore it is not a proper study to criticize about its defects even if we recognize them. Angus Ross, Swift: Gulliver's Travels, (Copied by Hong Sung Co., 1982), p.9. Settled views of the complacent reader off balance. Two of the most valuable weapons of the satirist, with which he knocks the May be in kind: these are strenuous energy and concise expression. Two qualities are common to all Swift's greatest works, however different they But Swift expressed his thoughts with his imaginary, energetic, shocking style, and it is the reason for many readers to love Gulliver's Travels. For instance, it has no plot, development of character in a sense. In fact, it has some defects as a true novel. (But some critics he was not moral, 'a mad parson' who never forgave the world.) Arnold Kettle, An introduction to the English Novel, London: Hutchinson&Co. According to Arnold kettle, he thought Gulliver's Travels is not a true novel because it is moral fables. And there are many different ideas about it.
Some read it as a fairy tale, others read it as a moral book which shows many aspects of human being. Even though he wrote many works in the fields of poem, critics and prose, without Gulliver's Travels, he would not known as a famous writer. Jonathan Swift is well known by his work, Gulliver's Travels. After Queen Anne died, the Tory government fell. But consequently shifted his allegiance to the Tories in 1710. Patrick's cathedral and wrote articles and letters for the English Whigs. After Temple died he became one of the canons of St. he read widely and met many scholars, politicians there. In 1988, the political turmoil that followed the Glorious revolution made academic life seem dull, and he took a post as a secretary to the Whig statesman and essayist, Sir William Temple. Swift entered Trinity College, at the age of fourteen. He lives with his uncle who provided him a good education. His father who was a lawyer died before his birth. He was born in Dublin on November 30,1667. The method, for example, which Gulliver must use to swear his allegiance to the Lilliputian emperor parallels the absurd difficulty that the Whigs created concerning the credentials of the Tory ambassadors who signed the Treaty of Utrecht.Jonathan Swift's life is ambiguous and contradictory, has many different aspects. Using certain political events of 1714-18, he described in Gulliver's Travels many things that would remind his readers that Lilliputian folly was also English folly - and, particularly, Whig folly. Swift turned to the Tories for political allegiance and devoted his propaganda talents to their services. They refused, and Swift turned against them even though he had considered them his friends and had helped them while he worked for Sir William Temple. Representing the Irish bishops, Swift tried to get Queen Anne and the Whigs to grant some financial aid to the Irish church. Why, one might ask, did Swift have such a consuming contempt for the Whigs? This hatred began when Swift entered politics as the representative of the Irish church. And in using the fire in the Queen's chambers, the rope dancers, the bill of particulars drawn against Gulliver, and the inventory of Gulliver's pockets, he presents a series of allusions that were identifiable to his contemporaries as critical of Whig politics. By emphasizing the six-inch height of the Lilliputians, he graphically diminishes the stature of politicians and indeed the stature of all human nature. Behind the disguise of his narrative, he is satirizing the pettiness of human nature in general and attacking the Whigs in particular. Swift has at least two aims in Gulliver's Travels besides merely telling a good adventure story.