Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift

In an age of where rationality and morals were held to the accepted values, Jonathan Swift stood out as a champion of humanism. All his life he attacked pretense and begged people to see that life is not always what it seems when you look harder and think deeper. In addition, Swift was one of the most powerful writers of his time; able to rally people and nations around the caustic and moral views expressed in his works. His political writings for the Tories exposed the corruptions of government and paved the way for his acclaimed satires. Swift's great strength lied in impressing people into believing his ideals without blatantly professing them or becoming preachy.

Swift was raised in Dublin, and was schooled well despite getting just average grades. After getting a job as a secretary, he moved on to being a priest in Ireland. By this time, Swift was already approaching thirty, but still had not published anything of much worth. His years of reading in the church libraries and his growing acute eye for the vices of society were honed at this time, and his great works were about to come.

Swift had the power to easily implement new ideas and insights into people with his writings. A great satirist has explicit convictions about right and wrong, but he must be able to make these convictions sound convincing in words. Swift had a sharp perception into the delusions and hopes of people's everyday lives, so he often filtered his ideas through characters and tales that were easy for common people to relate to. When we read Gulliver's Travels, it almost seems like a straightforward adventure story, filled with tales of new creatures and distant countries. On further inspection, it can be seen as a biting satire on s...

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...s and thoughts are still imbedded in many people's minds today. Swift is a satirist who compels us, by the complexity and indirection of his ironic methods, to be alert and aware at every point (Williams 5). Ultimately, Swift's greatness lies in his skill to make us think and feel for ourselves in new ways.

Bibliography:

1. Cook, Richard. Jonathan Swift as a Tory Pamphleteer. Seattle: University of Washington Press. 1967.

2. Gilbert, Jack. Jonathan Swift: Romantic and Cynic Moralist. Austin : University of Texas Press. 1966.

3. Hunting, Robert. Jonathan Swift. Boston: Twayne Publishers. 1967.

4. McMinn, Joseph. Jonathan Swift: A Literary life. New York: St. Martin's Press. 1991.

5. Quintana, Ricardo. Jonathan Swift: An Introduction. London : Oxford University Press. 1955.

6. Williams, Kathleen. Jonathan Swift. New York: Humanities Press. 1968.