OCTOBER 2030

Jonathan
Swift
 Background
• Born on November 30, 1667, Dublin, Ireland
• British- Irish
• His parents are Abigail Erick, Jonathan Swift
• He had also a sister named Jane Swift
• He died on October 19,1745 at Dublin, Ireland
• He came from the english family
 Introduction
• ·Jonathan swift was an Anglo-Irish satirist,
author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first
for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and
Anglican cleric who became Dean of St
Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, hence his
common sobriquet, "Dean Swift"
• jonathan Swift was born into a poor family
that included his mother (Abigail) and his
sister (Jane). His father, a noted clergyman
in England, had died seven months before
Jonathan's birth.
• Jonathan swift at the age of 19. He was
employed by sir william temple as a poweful
stateman
• ·He tutored an 8 years old Esther ‘stella’
johnson
• ·he was a student at Dublin's Trinity College
during the anti-Catholic Revolution of 1688
in England.
• ·Irish Catholic reaction in Dublin led Swift,
a Protestant, to seek security in England,
where he spent various intervals before
1714.
His
Works
·1696 and 1699, A Tale of a Tub, one of his major works.
Published anonymously in 1704, this work was made up
of three associated pieces: the “Tale” itself, a satire
against “the numerous and gross corruptions in religion
and learning”; the mock-heroic “Battle of the Books”;
and the “Discourse Concerning the Mechanical
Operation of the Spirit,” which ridiculed the manner of
worship and preaching of religious enthusiasts at that
period.
·Battle of the Books,” Swift supports the ancients in the
longstanding dispute about the relative merits of
ancient versus modern literature and culture.
·A Tale of a Tub” is the most impressive of the three
compositions. This work is outstanding for its
exuberance of satiric wit and energy and is marked by an
incomparable command of stylistic effects, largely in the
nature of parody.
 Career as satirist, political
journalist, and churchman
After Temple’s death in 1699, ·in 1701, 1702, 1703, and 1707 to
Swift returned to Dublin as 1709—and won wide recognition in
London for his intelligence and his
chaplain and secretary to the
wit as a writer
earl of Berkeley, who was then
going to Ireland as a lord
justice
 Art gallery
• his religious and political essays;
A Tale of a Tub;
• certain impish works, including
the “Bickerstaff” pamphlets of
1708–09, which put an end to the
career of John Partridge, a popular
astrologer, by first prophesying
his death and then describing it in
circumstantial detail.
• Swift’s works brought him to the
attention of a circle of Whig
writers led by Joseph Addison, but
Swift was uneasy about many
policies of the Whig
administration. He was a Whig by
birth, education, and political
principle, but he was also
passionately loyal to the Anglican
church, and he came to view with
apprehension the Whigs’ growing
determination to yield ground to
the Nonconformists
• He also frequently mimicked and
mocked the proponents of “free
thinking”: intellectual skeptics
who questioned Anglican
orthodoxy. A brilliant and still-
perplexing example of this is
Argument Against Abolishing
Christianity (1708).
Art gallery
 Withdrawal of Ireland of
Jonathan Swift
Swift's career in England came to an end with the death of Queen Anne in The magnificent poem "Verses on the Death of Doctor Swift," among
August 1714 and the accession of George I, who left the Tories in ruins. others, was the result of his return to verse, which he wrote during the
He withdrew to Ireland, where he would spend the most of the rest of his 1720s and the early '30s. By 1720, he had also rekindled his interest in
days. Swift gradually regained his vitality after spending some time alone politics.
in his deanery.

He addressed many of the social and economic issues facing Swift primarily attributed Ireland's apparent backwardness to
Ireland at the time in his Irish pamphlets from this time. His the English government's blindness, but he also often
demeanor and His delivery style and tone ranged from exhortation, emphasized what he thought the Irish themselves should do to
humor, and biting irony to direct factual presentation. improve their lot.
 The Success of
Gulliver’s Travel
Gulliver's Travels, Swift's most famous satire, was released in 1726. Although it is
unknown when he started writing this, it is clear from his correspondence that he
began seriously in 1721 and had written the entire work by August 1725. It was an
instant hit and is still regarded as his best work. It has been successful in engrossing
(and entertaining) readers of all reading levels both back then and now. It was finished
when he was close to John Gay and Alexander Pope, two poets and playwrights. Since
1713, they had both been members of the Scriblerus Club, and through their
communication, Pope remained one of his most significant links to England.
 Gulliver travels to Brobdingnag in Book II, a place populated by giants.
Glumdalclitch, a nine-year-old girl, takes good care of him, but because of his small
stature, he is subject to risks and humiliations like having his head stuck in the mouth
of a crying infant. The giants' minor physical flaws, such as their enormous pores, are
also quite apparent to him and unsettling. He makes it back home after being dumped
into the water by an eagle.
• Gulliver travels to Laputa, a floating island whose residents are so absorbed with
higher thoughts that they are constantly in risk of colliding, in Book III. He visits
the Academy of Lagado, a parody of the Royal Society in England, and discovers
its mad scientists engaged in such useless research.
• Gulliver travels to the Houyhnhnms, a society of moral, logical, and stern horses,
in book IV. There is another race on the island that the Houyhnhnms grudgingly
accept and employ for menial tasks. These are the physically repulsive and violent
Yahoos. Gulliver is finally compelled to acknowledge that the Yahoos are people,
despite his initial denials
 Last year and Swft’s
Legacy
• There have been some inaccurate depictions of
Swift's final years, and tales of his irrational rage
and lack of self-control have been circulated. There
have been claims that he was mad. He experienced
Ménière's disease, an ear condition that affects the
semicircular canals and results in episodes of
nausea and vertigo, when he was a young child.
However, his mental faculties were unaffected, and
he continued to be active throughout the most of
the 1730s as Ireland's greatest patriot dean and
Dublin's most prominent citizen. A large ceremony
was thrown in his honor in the fall of 1739.
However, he had started to deteriorate physically,
and he later had a paralytic stroke followed by
aphasia.
·The rationalism that was prevalent in late 17th-century England
was where Swift's intellectual foundations were found. This
rationalism provided him with the standards by which he
evaluated human behavior because of its strong moral sense,
emphasis on common sense, and disdain for emotionalism. He
also offered a novel explanation of the limitations of reason and
how individuals can fool themselves by using it. His moral
beliefs are hardly novel, but his literary skill and satirical
creativity are what truly set him apart.
Swift's conceptual foundations were found in the rationalism that
was pervasive in late 17th-century England. This rationalism,
with its strong moral sense, stress on common sense, and
contempt for emotionalism, gave him the standards by which he
judged human behavior. He also provided a fresh justification for
the limitations of reason and how people can deceive themselves
by applying it. His moral convictions are not ground-breaking,
but his writing talent and satirical ingenuity are what really make
him stand out.
W W W. R E A L LY G R E AT S I
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