A Tale of a Tub by Johnathan Swift

1. PREPARED BY
Ms. Vaidehi Hariyani
(Research Scholar)
Department of English, MKBU

2. Overview
• Author - Jonathan Swift
• Year Published -1704
• Type -Novella
• Genre - Satire
• Perspective and Narrator - A Tale of a Tub is written from a first-
person omniscient perspective.
• Tense - The narrative portions of A Tale of a Tub are recounted in the
past tense, but the many "Digressions" are often written in the
present tense.

3. About the title
• Swift explains in the preface that the title A Tale of a Tub alludes to
the nautical practice of flinging an empty tub overboard to distract a
whale and prevent harm to the ship. Satirists, he suggests, similarly
throw out allegedly empty or insubstantial works of literature to
distract the "Leviathan" (mass) of society from political interference.
The term Leviathan is a biblical reference to a sea monster. Given the
work's status as a religious satire, the 18th-century use of tub as slang
for pulpit should also be kept in mind.

4. Jonathan Swift
• 1667-1745
• Born in Dublin, Ireland.
• • Developed Ménière’s Syndrome, a disturbance of the inner ear.; aphasia
• • 1694: Became Deacon and later Priest in Dublin
• • 1696: Returned to Temple’s service. Temple died in1699. Swift held series of clerical
jobs in Ireland.
• • 1704: Wrote Tale of the Tub: satire on corruptions in religion and learning. Also Battle
of the Books, a mock- epic on the debate between Ancients and Moderns.
• • 1696: Returned to Temple’s service. Temple died in1699. Swift held series of clerical
jobs in Ireland.
• • 1704: Wrote Tale of the Tub: satire on corruptions in religion and learning. Also Battle
of the Books, a mock-epic on the debate between Ancients and Moderns.
• • 1707: Involved with The Tattler. Uses pseudonym Issac Bickerstaff.
• • 1729: Wrote “A Modest Proposal.”
• • 1726: Wrote Gulliver’s Travels.
• • 1742: Established site for insane asylum (St. Patrick’s Hospital).
• • Never married, despite lifelong affair w/ ‘Stella’.

5. A Tale of a Tub
• First major work written by Jonathan Swift.
• Swift's least classifiable work and most difficult satire.
• Published anonymously.
• And it’s a perfect example of Swift's devastating intellect at work.
• By its end, little seems worth believing in.

6. Significance of the title
• Jonathan Swift explained that it derived from a maritime tradition in
which sailors, when threaten by a whale, would throw an empty tub
to divert it from attacking their ship.
• Symbolically, the whale was Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan.
• Swift's tub is intended to distract Hobbes and other critics of the
church and government from picking holes in their weak points.

7. Introduction
• The Tale is a prose parody, which is divided up into sections of
"digression" and "tale.“
• The sections of the “Tale” alternate between the main allegory about
Christian history and ironic “Digressions” on modern scholarship.
• “Tale” - satirizes religious excess.
• “Digressions” - series of parodies of contemporary writing in
literature, politics, theology, Biblical exegesis, and medicine.
• The overarching parody is of enthusiasm, pride, and credulity.”

8. Tale’s Allegory
• Concerns three brothers.
• Each represents one of the primary branches of Christianity in the
west.
• Peter (oldest) represents for the Roman Catholic Church.
• Martyn (middle born) represent the Church of England and
Lutherans.
• Jack (youngest) represents Protestant churches or Dissenters.

9. • The brothers have inherited three coats
• Representing religious practice
• From their father
• Representing God
• They have his will to guide them.
• Representing the Bible

10. Lack of Unity
• Although the will says that the brothers are forbidden from making
any changes to their coats, they do nearly nothing but alter their
coats from the start.
• Peter upgrades his garments with gold lace, shoulder knots, and such
trappings. Martin removes the false ornamentation from his without
tearing the cloth. Jack zealously rips his garment to shreds to get rid
of all ornament.
• The allegory of the narrative is supposed to be an apology for the
British church’s (MARTYN) refusal to alter its practice in accordance
with Puritan (JACK) demands and its continued resistance to alliance
with the Roman church (PETER).

11. Satire
• Swift was annoyed by people who were so eager to possess the newest knowledge that they
failed to pose skeptical questions.
• • If he was not a particular fan of the aristocracy, he was a sincere opponent of democracy •
which was often viewed then as the sort of "mob rule" that led to the worst abuses of the
Interregnum.
• “A Tale” - more obvious satire is that on abuses in religion.
• Religious satire works through the allegory of the three brothers: Martin, Peter, and Jack.
• ‘Digressions’ -a satire on modern learning and print culture
• Tub is most consistent in attacking misreading of all sorts.
• Both in the narrative sections and the digressions, the single human flaw that underlies all the
follies Swift attacks is over-figurative and over-literal reading, both of the Bible and of poetry and
political prose.
• One of the attacks in the tale was on those who believe that being readers of works makes them
the equals of the creators of works.