The Satire of Jonathan Swift

The Satire of Jonathan Swift (1667 - 1745)

 

The nature and purpose of satire:

            Satire is a literary form in which the faults of society are exposed, often through irony, exaggeration, and ridicule.  The aim of satire is to improve society by causing individuals to re-examine their values and social organizations in order to make improvements. (Mr. Clark's definition)

            Satire is the literary art of diminishing a subject by making it ridiculous and evoking toward it attitudes of amusement, contempt, indignation, or scorn.  It differs from the comic in that comedy evokes laughter mainly as an end in itself, while satire derides; that is, it uses laughter as a weapon, and against a butt existing outside the work itself.  That butt may be an individual, a type of person, a class, an institution, a nation, or even the whole race of man. (Abrams)

            Swift's technique is defined as Situational Satire.  That is, Swift never tells the reader what the point is.  The reader must observe a reality presented through the eyes of a narrator who is limited in his appreciation of the events going on around him.
The technique of the naive narrator to achieve satire is evident in The Canterbury Tales.  Swift's approach is somewhat similar.

Gulliver's Travels (1726)

• The letter to Sympson from his cousin Captain Gulliver shows the reader a fanatical neurotic.  Reading the letter should warn the reader not to follow Gulliver blindly down the road of despair.

 

• The deepest, most primal human being within us is symbolized by the Yahoos.  A human can be shaped into something that is fairly good and decent.

• Gulliver fails to realize the point that is being made by Swift. 
• The biggest single error of interpretation is by those who would equate Gulliver with Swift.  One should realize that Gulliver is neurotic and insane and learn from his experiences.

 

• It is in Gulliver's collapse that one could experience some catharsis.
• What happens to Gulliver is a psychological preparation for the reader.  If the reader is to see humanity in all its nakedness, he should also see it in all its potential.  It is his duty to strengthen the potential for good, which, however defective, does exist.  Humankind has the potential to rise above the state of Yahoos.

            eg)  Book IV 
Don Pedro is willing to make sacrifices for an undeserving Gulliver.

• Swift's satire is somewhat complex.  It uses a variety of instruments:

                        -Straight Narrative
-Comic Section
-Double voice of Irony

• There are two kinds of Satire:

                        -Comic Satire
-Corrosive (Caustic) Satire

 

Unity Among the Books:

Contrasting Symbolism -- Size and proportion

• In the first two books there is the size and proportion perspective.
• small-mindedness and "seeming" perfection of Lilliputians to larger mind of Brobdinag king.
• useful math of giants contrasted with the complex math of the Laputians.

Book III

• World of abstract reasoning supposed to improve the world
• Comment on view of world that dominated the 18th Century
• application of abstract scientific principles to human problems
• belief in the perfectibility of Man.

 

Contrast with

Book IV

• World of Houyhnhnms based on common-sense reason.
• Neither land is perfect.  Both Laputa and the land of the Houyhnhnms are  dystopias
• sets up a ridiculous notion of a perfect world based on common sense and reason.
• ridicules belief that humans can perfect the world.  So ridiculous that the world is governed by horses.

 

Other Contrasts:
Book III - preoccupation with immortality
Book IV - indifference of horses to death

 

 

The Voyage to Lilliput

 

What is it that Swift is satirizing, and how does he go about the satire?

• Voyage to Lilliput is most entertaining of voyages
• The first four chapters are almost entirely narrative.  There are a few satiric touches:
• high heels and low heels:  ridicule of political difference based on manners and  style.  The prince tries to serve the interests of both sides by wearing heels of different heights. 
• Showing Gulliver England
• Reader sees things of which Gulliver should be critical but is not.

 

 

Swift's Views and Political Situation:

• Swift was a Tory.  It was the fashion to ridicule new-fangled ideas.
• At the time of the discussion, there was a struggle between Ancients and Moderns.
• Swift believed that science not as good as Classical values, which he was promoting as being healthy to society.

 

• Religious Differences between England and France (Roman Catholic or Protestant?)
• makes wars between countries over small distinctions in the Christian faith seem ridiculous.
• Foolish little people fighting over little things.
• In Swift's time, Roman Catholics could not be elected to public office, or attend university.  He exposes the mistreatment of a large section of the population for a small difference in belief.

           

• Narrative is of chief importance in book I until chapter 6, where the foolishness of Gulliver becomes a satiric device.

 

• When a lady of the court is accused of seeing Gulliver alone, Gulliver defends the reputation of the lady, but fails to explain the impossibility of the scandalous relationship they are accused of.  (He speaks of her honour, but neglects the obvious)  -- Causes comedy.

• Gulliver's lack of true observation shows us that he is a fool for only seeing the Lilliputians as perfect.

           

• The most caustic satire in Book I is in Chapter 7.  Gulliver, who should have had the greatest gratitude from the Lilliputians, is charged with capital offences.

 

• Reveals small-mindedness of Courtiers and their fickle, self-serving characters.  Even his friend Reldresal advocates the putting out of Gulliver's eyes.  -- hypocrisy, ingratitude, small-mindedness, and cruelty represents the English Court.

-Satire has shifted from comic to caustic.  The evil nature of the nasty little people is revealed.  Gulliver never really judges them.  He is blind to the evil, though surprised by his friend's advice to the court about the putting out of Gulliver's eyes.

 

Book II   Second Voyage

• Satire carries more weight
• In this voyage, Gulliver becomes an object of the satire in his reduced physical stature.  He is central -- the average Englishman satirized.
• Comic satire is most interesting in Gulliver's discussions with the king.
• He is proud of being English, and boasts ridiculously and hypocritically of war and English systems.  He advises the king on the use of firearms.
• The king hopes Gulliver has avoided contamination by English society

 

• In Brobdignag, laws are written so that everyone can understand them.  This is contrasted with obscure English laws.

• Gulliver speaks condescendingly to the king, believing him to be possessed of an insufficiency of knowledge and understanding of politer societies.
• The king is horrified by Gulliver's inhumanity.

 

• Swift achieves a bitter irony in Gulliver's continual self-assurance.  He appears more of a fool when the king sets him straight.
• moves from simple to complex for satiric climax -- comic and ironic undertones.
• Gulliver has made a spectacle of himself and of English and European society by exposing cruelty and injustice.
• Swift is not targeted in his satire

• In the first two voyages, Lemuel Gulliver's mind is limited, but not closed.  His experiences alter his attitudes so much that he has real difficulties in perceiving the real scale of things.

 

Book III

• 2 targets of satire:

                        -political
-intellectual

Political:       

• Floating island of Laputa represents British Parliament, which imposed its will on the empire beneath it.

           

• Control is achieved largely economically (sunlight, rain) -- things that allow people to feed themselves.  In rebellion, they are plunged into poverty through cruel methods.

           

• Laputa comes up with theories to improve the conditions of the people below.  This is similar to the condition of Ireland after English reforms that only made things worse

           

• The Lindalinian rebellion is similar to a struggle Swift participated in -- the boycott of British goods.

           

• Swift was born to English parents in Dublin.  He was head of the Church of England in Ireland, and took up the Irish cause.

           

• He ridicules the British for their attempts to dominate the empire.

 

Intellectual:

• Swift shows the ineffectiveness of abstract reasoning applied to ordinary things.
• seems anti-scientific:

            -Academy of Projectors -- satire of Royal Society

• science is not going to answer all the problems of society and make a perfect world
• against the application of Natural Law to society.
• the old farm is perfect because the farmer has not tried the new methods.
• the more scientific principles are applied, the more imperfect the world becomes.
• As Aristotle says in the book, all science is relative to the time.  That which seems to be solid may only be the explanation of the time.

• Book III is most scattered in its satiric intent.  It is the first book in which Swift gets away from the difference in perspective.

 

• Swift seems to be prophetic of the revolutions throughout Europe towards a perfect society based on Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.
• Plans to reform society, but not the individual are bound to fail.

 

Book IV

• not as picturesque as other voyages.  Mostly conversation.

 

• attack on Deifying of Common Sense rationality.
• There is a difference in this voyage.  It is not funny because the other voyages had led the reader on a path towards rationality as the answer to everything.  Unfortunately, the rulers are Yahoos.
• Common Sense is only good for something other than Humankind because we are made up of spirituality and other things as aspects of our personality.

• Chief elements of satire become symbols:  Houyhnhnms and Yahoos
• previous books were against man's actions and values.  Book IV is attacking human nature itself.  The reader is the object of satiric attack

 

Article:

Ross, John F.  "The Final Comedy of Lemuel Gulliver".  Swift.  Ernest Tuveson,   editor. Prentice Hall, 1964. Print.

Ross has educated thinkers on Gulliver's Travels in recognizing the distinction between Gulliver and Swift.

• comedic effect in the foolishness of Gulliver's behaviour after his return.
• one must look behind misanthropy

• Caustic satire -- goes beyond revealing our faults in striking out at the reader personally.
• attack is direct, literal, and severe.  Relief of misanthropy is not given until the last three chapters, where Gulliver's foolishness is ridiculed.  Gulliver's analysis should not be ours.

 

• Swift pokes fun at the dispassionate Houyhnhnms. (indifference to death, trading of children.  Their world is a dystopia.
• he exposes Gulliver as a fool for admiring the Houyhnhnms even though they throw him out.

 

• Both the Houyhnhnms and Gulliver fail to realize that there could be some relationship between Houyhnhnms and a Yahoo of superior intellect.

• Gulliver does not learn from his experiences.  He becomes close-minded, while the reader's mind is opened.
• Swift is able to create an impression through understated comments. 
• Enough insight is given through Gulliver's words without having Gulliver understand them.  He misses the point.  Swift is more subtle here.

 

How much of book is Gulliver and how much is Swift?

• people who are Yahoos are led by passions in decisions, and behave with more viciousness than benevolence.  Satire and Misanthropy
• Gulliver a misanthrope
• Houyhnhnm world does not blend reason, passion, and religion in a balanced view of humanity.

 

• Gulliver's intellectual sense of proportion is out of balance in book IV.
• canoe of Yahoo skin and tallow
• Houyhnhnms fail to treat him as a human being
• Houyhnhnms are as blind as Gulliver is to a balanced view of humanity which embodies both reason and animal tendencies.
• when sent away, Gulliver is amusing because he behaves in a foolish manner.

• Balance is promoted, fitting the mould of Neoclassical thinking (ideal of any society is proportion)

 

 

Climax of Satire of the Whole:
Gulliver has adopted a rigid and over-simplified attitude that possesses him to the point that he cannot believe the evidence of his own experience.
eg) Don Pedro -- treats Gulliver kindly, but Gulliver rejects his help and is                      unappreciative.

• When we picture Gulliver talking to horses, one must be assure that Gulliver's attitude is not the solution for Swift or ourselves.

 

From John F. Ross:

            By rising to a larger and more comprehensive understanding than he gives Gulliver, Swift is satirically commenting on the insufficiency of Gulliver's attitude.  The evils of the world and in man are such that it is not wonder that a simple and ethical nature may be given to despair and misanthropy.  Through comic satire, Swift demonstrates that such an attitude is inadequate and absurd.  Swift transcends the misanthropic solution.  The final comedy is that Swift could make an elaborate joke at the expense of an important part of himself.  Swift rises above the corrupt attitude to the realm of comic satire, still indignant of the Yahoo in man, but at the same time smiling at the absurdity that can only see the Yahoo in man.

 

• It would be wrong to think that Swift had no misanthropic tendencies.  Gulliver's Travels spells out a phase in which Swift had rejected humanity.  He overcomes this.  One must have some faith in humanity.

 

Important Novel Because:

• extended work of prose fiction.
• mock travel book
• people beginning to accept fictional extended work as prose literature.
• conversation.
• The movement of the 18th Century towards extended prose fiction had the largest influence on the literature of that period.

 

• The satire depends on the narrator and the equality between the writer and reader. 
• Gulliver doesn't understand what's going on.
• Following Gulliver would not be Swift's fault, but ours.

 

"A Modest Proposal"  (1729)

 

• Indirect criticism of Whig solutions for Ireland

• Narrator is a cool economist.  He never doubts the rationality of his proposal for the relief of the poor in Ireland.

 

• A measure of the power of Swift's irony is the frequency with which he is criticized for his bad taste in the proposal.  This mistake shows the failure to distinguish between Swift and his narrator.

• Swift's treatment of the poor moves the reader deeply, but he is not moved to action or meditation, but feels he really wants to be rid of that which makes the reader uncomfortable.

 

• Elaborate metaphor of how English are devouring the Irish.  Becomes a literal rather than figurative interpretation.

• plan to make poor children from being burden on their parents and make them useful to society.
• Would not be profitable to sell them into slavery
• resentment shown against English landlords
• Children could be sold as food.

 

Swift expresses his true beliefs by telling his audience not to:

• buy clothing and furniture that was made in Ireland
• stop pride, vanity, idleness and gaming in women.
• love Ireland
• teach landlords mercy to peasants
• teach just dealings to merchants

• In various proposals, Swift had promoted the opposite of the above beliefs as being necessary.  Irony that he tells the people NOT to do these things, but instead to go ahead with the fattening of children for slaughter.

 

• implies that England would eat the entire country without salt.

• this is one of the most powerful examples of ironic writing
• revolting, but reveals horror of conditions and suffering.
• cold and detached narration.