Jonathan Swift &

Gulliver’s travels

Madli PavesXI b

2010

Jonathan Swift(1667-1745)

• born in Dublin, Ireland

• father died, mother left

• suffered from poverty

• Kilkenny Grammar School

• 1682-86 Trinity College in Dublin

• 1689 went to England :

hoped to gain preferment in the Anglican Church

worked for Sir William Temple

met Esther Johnson – “Stella”

• began to suffer from Meniere’s Disease

• got a M.A. degree from Oxford

Religious Beliefs• was a clergyman, member of the Church of Ireland

• a militant defender of his church

• 1700 was instituted Vicar of Laracor and later promoted as Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral (Dublin)

• attacked theological attempts to define and limit orthodoxy

• the Church = a force for rationality and moderation

• rationis capax

Political Beliefs & Later Life

• first a member of the Whig party

• later a member of the Tory Party

• supported the Glorious (Bloodless) Revolution

• became the editor of the Tory newspaper The Examiner

When Tories fell from power, all hopes for preferement in England came to an end.

He returned to Ireland “to die like a poisoned rat in a hole”. (his own words)

Published many works, compiling tracts and poems and most importantly “Gulliver’s Travels”.

By 1735 his MD had become more acute.

Jonathan Swift died on October 19, 1745.

Jonathan Swift’s worksSatires:

A Tale of a Tub

The Battle of the Books

A Modest Proposal

A Meditation Upon a Broom-Stick

Gulliver’s travels

Pamphlets:

The Abolishing of the Christianity in England

On the conduct of the allies

The Barrier Treaty

The Public Spirit of the Whigs

Poems:

A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed

Cadenus and Vanessa

A Description of a City Shower

Other:

The Journal to Stella

Also wrote many sermons, prayers, etc.

Gulliver’s travelsPart 1 – A Voyage to Lilliput

Part 2 – A Voyage to Brobdingnag

Part 3 – A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Glubbdubdrib, Luggnagg, and Japan

Part 4 – A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms

Gulliver's Travels is the story of Lemuel Gulliver and his voyages around the world. Prefaced by two letters attesting to the truth of the tales, the adventures are told by Gulliver after his return home from his final journey.

Part 1

Part 3

Part 4

Gulliver’s travelsThemes:

• Might versus Right

• The Individual versus Society

• The Limits of Human Understanding

Motifs:

• Excrement

• Foreign Languages

• Clothing

Symbols:

• Lilliputians

• Brobdingnagians

• Laputans

• Houyhnhnms

• England

Thank you! :)