Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift were two influential authors during the late 17th and early 18th centuries known for their satirical works; Defoe wrote Robinson Crusoe which explored themes of individualism while Swift's Gulliver's Travels used satire to criticize politics and society in England through the travels of Gulliver to fantastical lands. Both authors employed realistic styles and the travel narrative form to explore social and political issues of their time through satire and allegory.

1. DANIEL DEFOE AND
JONATHAN SWIFT
Daniel Defoe and
Jonathan Swift
were two
fundamental
authors of the
period between
the end of the
seventeenth
century and the
beginning of the
eighteenth
century.

2. INDICE
Diap.3: The satire
Diap.4/5: Daniel
Defoe and his life
Diap.6/7/8/9:
Robinson Crusoe
(the plot, the context
and themes)
Diap.10: Daniel
Defoe's style of
writing
Diap.11/12:
Jonathan Swift and
his life
Diap.13/14:
Guliver's travels
(plot and meaning)
Diap.15: Swift's
style of writing
Diap. 16: Defoe and
Swift comparision

3. THE SATIRE
• Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form
of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and
shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or exposing
the perceived flaws of individuals, corporations, government, or society itself into
improvement. Although satire is usually meant to be humorous, its greater purpose
is often constructive social criticism, using wit to draw attention to both particular
and wider issues in society.
• A feature of satire is strong irony or sarcasm —"in satire, irony is militant",
according to literary critic Northrop
Frye but parody, burlesque, exaggeration, juxtaposition, comparison, analogy,
and double entendre are all frequently used in satirical speech and writing. This
"militant" irony or sarcasm often professes to approve of (or at least accept as
natural) the very things the satirist wishes to question.
• Satire is found in many artistic forms of expression, including internet memes,
literature, plays, commentary, music, film and television shows, and media such as
lyrics.

4. DANIEL
DEFOE
everything you need to know about
Daniel Defoe

5. DANIEL DEFOE: LIFE
• Daniel Defoe is probably born in September 1660 in London. His parents are
Puritans and didn't accept the authority of the Church so they didn't register his
son's birth. His original name was Daniel Foe, but later he change it in Daniel
Defoe because, in his opinion it was more fashionable. He attended Newton Green
Academy where he got a solid education and, after that, he went into trade and
travelled in Europe.
Back in England he got married but he also went to bankrupt so he turned to
writing to earn money.
• Defoe wrote many treatises on commercial, economical and political subjects and
as a result of some of the opinions that he expressed, he was arrested and had to
spend time in prison. Then, the leader of the Tory party offered him a job as a
secret agent for the government and also helped him to set up his own journal
"The Review" on the condition that, in his writing he wouldn't attack the
government.
In the last years of his life he turned to write novel, in fact, was in 1719 that he
wrote his most known work: the novel "Robinson Crusoe".
He died in 1731.

6. ROBINSON CRUSOE:
THE PLOT
• Robinson Crusoe is probably the most famous adventure story in English literature. It
tells about a plantation owner, who travels from Brazil to Africa with other plantation
owners to procure slaves to work for them. On this journey he is shipwrecked off a
desert island; he’s the only survivor and remains there until he’s released 28 days later.
• Robinson Crusoe is divided in three parts. In the first part we are told something about
Crusoe’s life. The second part of the book it’s in the form of a journal in which Crusoe
writes about life on the island and how he uses his skills to overcome the difficulties of
his situation. In this part of the book Crusoe encounters a savage whom he calls Friday
and whom he resolves to convert to Christianity. He teaches him something about
language and culture, and how to use a gun to hunt and defend himself from attacks.
The final part of the book tells of Crusoe’s rescue. He return to Brazil with Friday and
he finds his plantation flourished and made him rich.
• Like Defoe’s other novels, Robinson Crusoe is written in the first person, in the form
of an autobiography. The style of the narrative is very matter of fact (realistic): Crusoe
gives us no access to his thoughts and he mainly talks about his actions. The story is a
sort of diary and there’s no real novelistic plot. The book has been interpreted as a
religious allegory.

7. ROBINSON
CRUSOE:
CONTEXT
• Many of Daniel Defoe’s interests can be found in Robinson Crusoe. Published in 1719, it was written at a
time of conflict between the Church of England, which is Protestant, and the Catholic Church. A general
sentiment of anti-catholicism predominated in the United Kingdom. Several of these conflicts are addressed
in the novel, for example when Crusoe teaches Friday Christianity (chapter 15) or when he decides against
living in Brazil because it is catholic (chapter 19). Other featured interests of Defoe are trade, business,
ships and the sea, traveling etc. English colonization and racism in general, however, are also implicitly and
explicitly mentioned in the novel which talks about slavery, settlers and the exploitation of native land and
people, reflected in Crusoe’s attempted westernization of the isolated island he lives on.
• The story of the novel was heavily inspired and influenced by another story of a Scottish sailor called
Alexander Selkirk. The sailor, originally from the town of Fife in Scotland, also left his home as a young man
to go to sea. Eventually, he became a pirate and demanded to be left behind on a deserted island after a
dispute with his captain. The novels both address elements of adventure, traveling and self-reliance.
However, Defoe never commented on the similarities, so any comparison is merely hypothetical (Severin
79).
• Due to the immense popularity of the book, selling nine printings in the first year of its publication alone,
Defoe decided to write two sequels: The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe in 1719 as well as Serious
Reflections of Robinson Crusoe in 1720. Neither was as popular and successful as the first novel, but Defoe
had already made himself a name as a successful novelist and author of the “first English novel.” Since its
publication in 1719, Robinson Crusoe has constantly been printed, adapted and even translated into over
100 languages worldwide. Its influence on English literature remains sublime and has inspired many other
authors over the years, such as The Swiss Family Robinson (1812) by Johann David Wyss and Lord of the

8. ROBINSON CRUSOE: THEMES
• At the center of Robinson Crusoe is a tension between society and individuality.
As the novel begins, Robinson breaks free of his family and the middle-class
society in which they live in order to pursue his own life. If he were to stay at
home, he would live a life already arranged for him by his father and by the
constraints of English society. By setting out to sea, Robinson prioritizes his
sense of individuality over his family and society at large. Robinson gets exactly
what he asks for (and more than he bargained for) when he finds himself
stranded alone on his island. There, he lives entirely as an individual apart from
society and is forced to struggle against nature to survive. He becomes self-
sufficient and learns how to make and do things himself, discovering ingenuity
he didn't know he had. Thus, one could say that being separated from society
leads to Robinson becoming a better person. Robinson himself seems to come
to this conclusion, as he realizes that his experience brings him closer to God
and that living alone on the island allows for a life largely without sin: he makes,
harvests, and hunts only what he needs, so there is nothing for him to be
covetous of or greedy for. And while he is alone, he does not suffer from lust or
pride

10. DANIEL DEFOE: STYLE
OF WRITING
- Fictional autobiographies (realism);
- A series of episodes and adventures;
- Unifying presence of a single hero;
- Lack of a coherent plot;
- Retrospective 1st person narrator;
- Author's point of view coincides with the protagonist's one;
- Characters are presented through their actions.
Defoe's purpose was didactic, he tended to give moral teachings, to transform
bad people in good people. Usually are presented in the form of a diary in
order to increase the idea of realism.
There's not a real plot but episodes are narrated in chronological order and are
always about the same protagonist. Characters do not develop throughout the
stories but external conditions change.
Individualism/materialism were two of the main characteristics pf the Augustan
age. The main character is forced to struggle against a lot of misfortunes, he's
forced to count only on himself/herself and has to struggle for survive

11. JONATHAN
SWIFT
Everything you need to know about
Jonathan Swift

12. JONATHAN
SWIFT: LIFE
.Was born in Dublin with English parents. He left Ireland and returned to England . He
started to work for Sir William Temple (Wig statesmen) who encouraged him to write
satirical works.The battle of the Books: Swift supported Temple to defense classics.
A tale of a Tub: spoke about religious groups of the time. In particular the superstition of
Catholicism and fanaticism of Dissenters.
1694: Swift returned to Ireland and became an Anglican priest.
1701: he invited Esther Johnson who known when I was a child. She went with him in
Dublin and she became his ideal companion.
1713: he became Dean (decano) of Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin and he remained here
for 30 years. He began to write pamphlets denouncing injustices that Ireland suffered
and he attacked the government for new coinage which would have increased the
poverty . So, he was considered an hero and he continued to consider Ireland like a
place of exile.
1726: he published Gulliver’s travels
1729: he published A modest Proposal. He explained in the first part the terrible condition
of many Irish women and children that live in streets. But he found a terrible condition
to save the poverty. Irish people should be relieved by sale of their children like food
for rich because children are expensive for families, and their flesh is very soft. In this
way they could have sustenance.
Swift was marked like mad and he died in 1745.
Swift is one of the most controversial writers.
He was just defined as a misanthrope (man who didn’t like human society).
From his works emerges is that he was seriously concerned with politics and society,
and his attitude was prevalently conservative.
It is also clear that he didn’t accept optimism of his age and the pride in England of his
contemporaries.

13. GULLIVER'S TRAVELS:
PLOT
• Jonathan Swift published Gulliver's Travels in 1726 and it's divided into four books, in
every book the protagonist is cast into fantastic lands, but always manages to come
back to England. In his first voyage he reaches the land of Lilliput, where the
inhabitants, the Lilliputians, are very tiny and mean, they are little people who have
giant ideas about themselves and their self importance. In the second book he lands
on the land of Brobdingnag, where the inhabitants are giants who make him feel a
Lilliputian, he becomes the king's pet, with whom he talks about the system of
government in England and Europe, Gulliver describes England very proudly, but the
king criticises his proudness because he's talking about injustices wars and poverty.
• In the third book he reaches the flying island of Laputa, where the inhabitants are
absent minded and immortal scientists and philosophers, who make very absurd
experiments.
In the last book Gulliver goes to the land of the Houyhnhnms, a country governed by
horses endowed with reason who rule over the Yahoos, a vile species resembling
humans.

14. GULLIVER'S TRAVELS:
MEANING
• Gulliver is the typical European, he is middle aged, well educated, sensible and
careful observer. He has experience of the world and he fully supports the English
culture, but as the circumstances force him to think he starts to develop a critical
awareness of the limitations of European values. Indeed when he goes back to
England from the fourth voyage he can no longer take part of the society, he can't
stand human beings and starts to live with horses and that's one of the reasons why
Swift has been labelled a misanthrope. Gulliver is always displaced, he's an
outsider and being out of his accustomed situation he's forced to grow.
This novel is a political allegory of the English society, Swift criticises the political,
social and religious conflicts of the time as well as the scientific progress of the time.
In this tale for children, political allegory and parody of voyage literature, Gulliver is
used both as an object and an instrument of satire because he's unconscious like
everyone else.
The style is matter of fact, Gulliver, which is the first person narrator, describes
everything he experiences with great precision and in a very detailed way. The
sources of this novel are Fedro and Esopo, he took as an inspiration the allegorical
fables in which animals embodied human faults.

15. JONATHAN SWIFT: STYLE
OF WRITING
• Certainly, the works and writings of Jonathan Swift do not focus on the technicalities of
language. It rather focuses on the satirical tone and harsh irony in his satire. In A Modest
Proposal, Jonathan Swift skillfully imitates and awfully pessimistic policymaker or an
economist. In the essay, he satirically advocates the case of eating children of Ireland as a
solution to the problems of poverty and overpopulation. Throughout the essay, Jonathan
Swift abstains from his altering the role of the character, which is so straight-faced. It creates
an absurd sarcasm.
• In the essay, Swift harshly satirizes the heartlessness and ridiculousness of the true
economists and politicians who made new imprudent and radical measures for improvement
in the economy and forgets to talk about the problems and suffering of penniless and
improvised Irish.
• Even though the measures were not that extreme as the extreme satire of Jonathan Swift,
the follies of the politicians and economists are imitated in an asinine and sarcastic manner.
As the pieces of satire are the only commentary without any explanation, Swift gives his own
personal ideas and opinions at the end of the work to make people understand the
underlying message.

16. DANIEL DEFOE AND
JONATHAN SWIFT:
COMPARISON
• Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift were two fundamental authors of the period
between the end of the seventeenth century and the beginning of the eighteenth
century.
The works of Defoe focus on the themes of bourgeois mentality and values; instead,
Swift's works are characterized by a fantastic and adventurous dimension that is
associated with a harsh and disconsolate satire of English society of time and human
nature.
• A common point between the two authors is that, in both cases, the theme of travel
does not have a melancholy expression, but is characterized as a pleasure and
enjoyment experience.
Two great books have talked admirably to the titanic and perverse fairy tale of
colonialism. "Robinson Crusoe" is the representation of Europe convinced that it can
overcome any challenge by combining the will to disciplined application of
intelligence, technology and brute force. Instead, "Gulliver’s Travels" by Jonathan
Swift shows the dark side of colonialism. Gulliver, in fact, not only does not conquer
anything but is subjugated by the higher "Houyhnhum"; Becomes a hostage to an
alien civilization and when he returns home he realizes that he can no longer bear
his old world after he has met such a scandalously different society. The British look
ugly, dirty and primitive.

17. THE END
Created by:
Renato Letizia