Jonathan swift - gulliver's travel

SWIFT

Jonathan Swift was born in 1667 in Dublin of English parents and he was educated there. At the time of revolution Swift left Dublin for England and started work for sir William Temple, who was a scholar and a Whig statesman and who encouraged him to write his first satirical works.

Swift's masterpieces are:

Gulliver's Travels,

"the battle of the books" that is about ancient and modern literature, in which Swift defence the classics instead of modern literature;

"a tale of a tub" that is about the religious parties of his time.

Returned to Ireland, Swift became Anglican priest. In London he made friends with Pope and other writers, and started writing for the Tory administration.

In 1713 he was made Dean in Dublin, where he remained for the next thirty years.

Than he began to write pamphlets denouncing the injustices that Ireland suffered.

Since then, he was considered a national hero.

In 1726 he published his masterpiece " Gulliver's travels".

Swift was seriously concerned with politics and society, and his attitude was prevalently conservative. He did non share the optimism of his age; in a letter to Pope he defined himself as a hater of man, whom he described as an animal capable of reason. The reason for Swift is an instrument that must be use properly.

Swift found in irony and satire the means that suited his temperament and his interests. He achieved the effect of parody combining irony intent with the simplicity  of his style.

GULLIVER'S TRAVEL

In Gulliver's travel Swift followed the 17^th century tradition of imaginary voyage, but instead of celebrating the goodness of European man, he describes all the bad aspects of the society which he was living in. He was inspired both by real and imaginary literature and by scientific papers.

Swift uses his romance as a mean for political satire.

Gulliver is an invented character who is described by Swift as a typical man of is age, fully integrated in the society of his time and completely convinced of the values regulating that society. Through his travels he realizes that other ways of life are possible and that they can be even better than his.

So slowly he changes his points of view to the point that he can not tolerate to live further in the European society.

Swift allowed Gulliver to tell his stories in the first person, with a language that resembles the scientific literature, that is objective and free of literary devices.