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Jonathan Swift
(1667 – 1745)
From A Glimpse Of English Literature, by O.Zabolotny, Kyiv 2011

Jonathan Swift’s 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. 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.
Swift received his M.A. from Hertford College, Oxford in
1692. With Temple’s death in 1699 Swift’s career in
England came to the end. He went back to Ireland and
soon became a priest in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin (see the picture on the right).
In February 1702, Swift received his Doctor of Divinity degree from Trinity College,
Dublin.
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. Also in these years 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. Patrick’s Cathedral.
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.
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. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin where he had served
as a dean for so many years.

Swift’s Works
A Tale of a Tub, (see the illustration on the right) the first Swift’s
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
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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.

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 (see the illustration on the right).
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...”

Gulliver’s Travels
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.
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.
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.
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.

Part II: A Voyage to Brobdingnag

Gulliver’s 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.
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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.
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.
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.

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.
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.
However, Swift’s 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.
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.
Mystery #3
Laputa has a “word machine” that is nothing less than a giant mechanical computer used for
making sentences and books. Compare its illustration (on the left) with the 1971 Intel 4004
Microprocessor (on the right).

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
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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.
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.
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.

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.
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.
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
behavior of the Yahoos reflects the behavior of people in general.

Part 1: Part 2: Part 3: Part 4:

Lilliput Brobdingnag Laputa Country of the
Houyhnhnms

Gulliver BIG SMALL IGNORANT INTELLIGENT

(as /feels /feels inferior/ (does not (but is not
compared superior/ understand) understood)
to local
people)
Country COMPLEX SIMPLE SCIENTIFIC NATURAL

Governmen WORSE BETTER WORSE BETTER

t (as
compared
to
England’s)

The book contains some distinct messages such as:

• No form of government is ideal. In Brobdingnag they enjoy public executions and

have streets infested with beggars. The honest and upright Houyhnhnms who have
no word for lying are ready to kill a filthy Yahoo and don’t see how Gulliver differs
from a Yahoo.
• Specific individuals may be good even where the race is bad — Gulliver finds a friend
in each of his travels.
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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

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. Patrick’s ______________.
7. The Lilliputians are _____ cm high.
8. Gulliver helps the Lilliputians in the war with their neighbours by stealing
their _________.
9. Gulliver’s visit to Brobdingnag ends when his travelling box is seized by a
giant _________.
10.The third part of Gulliver’s 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 _______________.

Task 2: Mark the statements “True” or “False”

1. A lot is known about the life of young Jonathan.
2. Swift’s career in England came to the end because of Temple’s death.
3. Swift returned to Ireland and never visited England since then.
4. The three brothers in the Tale of a Tub represent main branches of western
Christianity.
5. The Battle of the Books is set in the King’s Library.
6. In his Modest Proposal Swift suggests that poor Irish people sell their
children as slaves to America’s plantations.
7. Gulliver is sentenced to be blinded because he refuses to attack Blefuscu.
8. The King of Brobdingnag is greatly impressed with Gulliver's accounts of
European affairs.
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9. Gulliver is rescued by the flying island of Laputa after being attacked by

pirates.
10.In the third part of Gulliver’s Travels Swift describes a computer.
11.In the end of the fourth part Gulliver thinks that all the people are similar to
the Yahoos.
12.Specific individuals are no better than the rest of the race.