Jonathan Swift was an 18th century Anglo-Irish satirist born in Dublin, Ireland in 1667. He is best known for works like Gulliver's Travels, A Tale of a Tub, and A Modest Proposal. As a satirist, Swift used works like Gulliver's Travels to criticize politics, society, and human folly through techniques like exaggeration, parody, and name-calling. In Gulliver's Travels, Lemuel Gulliver travels to strange lands that represent flaws in human society. The final journey, where he lives with rational horses and human-like Yahoos, shows signs of Swift's declining mental state. Swift remained a controversial figure who

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INDEX
Sl.no. Topic Page no.
01 Introduction 03
02 The human satirist 04
03 Analysis of Gulliver’s travels satire 05
04 An Irish hero 06
05 A brilliant satire 07
06 Conclusion 08
07 References 09

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INTRODUCTION
Anglo-Irish poet, satirist, essayist, and political pamphleteer Jonathan Swift was born in 1667 in
Dublin, Ireland. He spent much of his early adult life in England before returning to Dublin to
serve as Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin for the last 30 years of his life. It was this later
stage when he would write most of his greatest works. Best known as the author of A Tale of a
Tub (1704), Gulliver’s Travels (1726), and A Modest Proposal (1729), Swift is widely
acknowledged as the greatest prose satirist in the history of English literature.
Swift’s father died months before Jonathan was born, and his mother returned to England shortly
after giving birth, leaving Jonathan in the care of his uncle in Dublin. Swift's extended family had
several interesting literary connections: his grandmother, Elizabeth (Dryden) Swift, was the niece
of Sir Erasmus Dryden, grandfather of the poet John Dryden. The same grandmother's aunt,
Katherine (Throckmorton) Dryden, was a first cousin of Elizabeth, wife of Sir Walter Raleigh.
His great-great grandmother, Margaret (Godwin) Swift, was the sister of Francis Godwin, author
of The Man in the Moone which influenced parts of Swift's Gulliver's Travels. His uncle, Thomas
Swift, married a daughter of the poet and playwright Sir William Davenant, a godson of William
Shakespeare. Swift’s uncle served as Jonathan’s benefactor, sending him to Trinity College
Dublin, where he earned his BA and befriended writer William Congreve. Swift also studied
toward his MA before the Glorious Revolution of 1688 forced Jonathan to move to England,
where he would work as a secretary to a diplomat. He would earn an MA from Hart Hall, Oxford
University, in 1692, and eventually a Doctor in Divinity degree from Trinity College Dublin in
1702.
Swift’s poetry has a relationship either by interconnections with, or by reactions against, the
poetry of his contemporaries and predecessors. He was probably influenced, in particular, by the
Restoration writers John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester and Samuel Butler (who shared Swift’s
penchant for octosyllabic verse). He may have picked up pointers from the Renaissance poets
John Donne and Sir Philip Sidney. Beside these minor borrowings of his contemporaries, his
debts are almost negligible. In the Augustan Age, an era which did not necessarily value
originality above other virtues, his poetic contribution was strikingly original.
Swift suffered a stroke in 1742, leaving him unable to speak. He died three years later, and was
buried at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin.

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Jonathan Swift, The Human Satirist (1667-1745)
Jonathan Swift was born in Hoey’s Court, Dublin to Jonathan Swift and Abigail Erick in 1667.
His mother left early in his life and his uncle Godwin took primary responsibility of Swift for the
rest of his childhood. In 1682 he attended Dublin University. Swift was studying for his Master’s
when political issues arose in Ireland surrounding the Glorious Revolution. Ultimately, the
Revolution forced Swift to leave for England in 1688. Here he obtained a position as Sir William
Temple’s personal assistant. Temple was a diplomat, and often trusted Swift with matters of great
importance. Swift enjoyed this work, as he became closer to powerful people. From then on,
politics would be a major focus for the rest of his life. He incorporated many political issues into
his works of literature in somewhat obscure ways; whether this be through his characters or the
setting surrounding his characters. Swift left Temple in 1690 because he contracted Meniere’s
Disease, which caused vertigo. This disease would plague him for the rest of his life. In Ireland,
Swift began to utilize his pamphleteering skills in support of Irish causes, producing some of his
most memorable works: "Proposal for Universal Use of Irish Manufacture" (1720), "Drapier's
Letters" (1724), and "A Modest Proposal" (1729), earning him the status of an Irish patriot. Also,
during these years, he began writing his masterpiece, Gulliver’s Travels. Much of the material
reflects his political experiences of the preceding decade. Gulliver’s Travels was published in
November 1726 and was an immediate hit. Around 1731 it is believed he had a stroke and lost
much of his mental ability. He had written Verses in the Death of Dr. Swift, which became his
own obituary, published in 1739. Many critics believe that the final chapters of Gulliver’s Travels
are proof of Swift’s imminent insanity. On October 19, 1745, Swift died. The bulk of his fortune
was left to found a hospital for the mentally ill, dubbed St. Patrick’s Hospital for Imbeciles, which
opened in 1757. It still exists today as a psychiatric hospital.
Significant Works:
A Tale of a Tub (1704)
Drapier’s Letters (1724)
Gulliver’s Travels (1726)
A Modest Proposal (1729)

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Analysis of Swift and Gulliver’s Travels Using
the Psychological Approach
Jonathan Swift is well-known for his satirical styles. His works ridicule politics and society. Such
questioning and criticism of public figures and institutions was revolutionary and uncommon for
the time. Swift published all of his works under pseudonyms, due to the controversy they caused.
Jonathan Swift was always politically active. This is evident throughout many of his famous
pamphlets. He also was very close to powerful people, but cannot be considered as one of the
wealthy or part of the high society. He voiced against the government for the people, and was
often see as a hero for it but at the same time looked down upon from members of high class. In
the last few chapters of Gulliver’s Travels, his most famous work, Swift’s sanity is questionable.
While writing his novel, his health was failing and it was believed that he may have suffered from
a stroke. Each of Gulliver’s travels become more and more strange and obscure, and while this
many have been the direction he wanted to pursue, his health may have been the ultimately been
the cause of this. Jonathan Swift is revolutionary for his time. He was not afraid to voice his
opinion, and most of his opinions negatively portrayed the society that he was a part of. He once
said, "Human brutes, like other beasts, find snares and poison in the provision of life, and
are allured by their appetites to their destruction." He foresaw that the final destruction of his
society would be the cause of the peoples own doing.
In Gulliver’s Travels Swift writes about the adventures of Lemuel Gulliver; an adventurer that
travels to various strange lands. Lemuel is an intelligent Englishman, who sees most of the world
very black and white. There is no "in between" for ideas or facts, only right and wrong. Gulliver
rarely shows any emotion or self-reflection, making him less than the hero he would be. This
makes the book rather dry, but this was done purposefully by Swift to reflect on the fact that
people in this time period did not take the time to look at their own actions. Gulliver travels to
four unknown lands that are the home of unusual flawed creatures. Each adventure reflects on the
flaws of human society.
We begin to see Swifts faltering mental ability in the final journey. In this chapter, Gulliver sets
out to sea, and lands on an island populated by Houyhnhnms; horses with rational thinking ability
who rule the land. They are served by Yahoos, brutish humanlike creatures. Gulliver is enticed
and enjoys the Houyhnhnms culture, and wants to stay with them forever. However, his bared
body reveals to the horses that he is very much like a Yahoo and is banished.

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An Irish Hero
Since then he was considered a national hero, though he continued to regard Ireland as a place
of exile. Gulliver's Travels was a controversial work when it was first published in 1726; and
in 1729 he published "A Modest Proposal", in which he suggests that the Irish problems of
famine and overpopulation could be easily solved by having the babies of poor Irish subjects
sold as delicacies to feed the rich.
His biting irony was directed against the Irish as well, who seemed to him passive in their
misfortune. The proposal mocked the figure of the projector who builds rational plans for the
benefit of humanity, a figure that was becoming popular in the 18th
century. Swift's later years
were characterised by the decay of his mental faculties and he died in 1475.
A Controversial Writer
Swift is without doubt one of the most controversial among English great writer. He has been
labelled alternatively as a misanthrope, a man with a morbid attitude, a monster or a lover of
mankind. What clearly emerges from his works is that he was seriously concerned with
politics and society, and that his attitude was prevalently conservative. In a letter to Pope he
defined himself as a hater of man, whom he described as "an animal capable of reason".
Reason is an instrument that must be used properly; too intensive a use of reason is an error
of judgement and therefore unreasonable.
Swift found in irony and satire the means that suited his temperament and his interests. He
usually achieved the effect of parody combining ironic intent with the simplicity of his style
and his diction.
Jonathan Swift is one of the most cutting satirists in the history of British literature. Born in
1667 in Dublin, Ireland seven months after his father's death, Swift had a difficult life. He
remained with his uncle throughout his childhood, attending Kilkenny School, the best
education to be had in Ireland at the time. He later, in 1682, went on to attend Trinity College
where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree.

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A Brilliant Satirist
Jonathan Swift, son of the English lawyer Jonathan Swift the elder, was born in Dublin,
Ireland, on November 30, 1667. He grew up there in the care of his uncle before attending
Trinity College at the age of fourteen, where he stayed for seven years, graduating in 1688. In
that year, he became the secretary of Sir William Temple, an English politician and member
of the Whig party.
She proved his faithful and ideal companion as the letters posthumously collected in "A
Journal to Stella". In 1694, he took religious orders in the Church of Ireland and then spent a
year as a country parson. He then spent further time in the service of Temple before returning
to Ireland to become the chaplain of the earl of Berkeley. Meanwhile, he had begun to write
satires on the political and religious corruption surrounding him, working on "A Tale of a
Tub", which supports the position of the Anglican Church against its critics on the left and
the right, and "The Battle of the Books", which argues for the supremacy of the classics
against modern thought and literature. He also wrote a number of political pamphlets in favour
of the Whig party. In 1709 he went to London to campaign for the Irish church but was
unsuccessful. After some conflicts with the Whig party, mostly because of Swift's strong
allegiance to the church, he became a member of the more conservative Tory party in 1710.
Unfortunately for Swift, the Tory government fell out of power in 1714 and Swift, despite his
fame for his writings, fell out of favour. Swift, who had been hoping to be assigned a position
in the Church of England, instead returned to Dublin, where he became the dean of St.
Patrick's. During his brief time in England, Swift had become friends with writers such as
Alexander Pope, and during a meeting of their literary club, the Martinus Scriblerus Club,
they decided to write satires of modern learning. After his return to Ireland, Swift became a
staunch supporter of the Irish against English attempts to weaken their economy and political
power, writing pamphlets such as "A Proposal for the Universal Use of Irish
Manufacture", which urged a complete boycott of English imports, and "The Drapier's
Letters", a series of pamphlets Swift wrote in an assumed character, M.B. Drapier, attacking
the government's proposal for a new coinage which would have increased the poverty of
Ireland.

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Conclusion
Gulliver's Travels was unique in its day; it was not written to woo or entertain. It was an
indictment, and it was most popular among those who were indicted — that is, politicians,
scientists, philosophers, and Englishmen in general. Swift was roasting people, and they were
eager for the banquet.
Swift himself admitted to wanting to "vex" the world with his satire, and it is certainly in his
tone, more than anything else, that one most feels his intentions. Besides the coarse language
and bawdy scenes, probably the most important element that Dr. Bowdler deleted from the
original Gulliver's Travels was this satiric tone. The tone of the original varies from mild wit
to outright derision, but always present is a certain stratum of ridicule
After that literary operation, the original version was largely lost to the common reader.
The Travels that proper Victorians bought for the family library was Bowdler's version, not
Swift's. What irony that Bowdler would have laundered the Travels in order to get a version
that he believed to be best for public consumption because, originally, the book was bought
so avidly by the public that booksellers were raising the price of the volume, sure of making
a few extra shillings on this bestseller. And not only did the educated buy and read the book
— so also did the largely uneducated.
However, lest one think that Swift's satire is merely the weapon of exaggeration, it is
important to note that exaggeration is only one facet of his satiric method. Swift uses mock
seriousness and understatement; he parodies and burlesques; he presents a virtue and then
turns it into a vice. He takes pot-shots at all sorts of sacred cows. Besides science, Swift
debunks the whole sentimental attitude surrounding children.
Swift is also a name-caller. Mankind, as he has a Brobdingnagian remark, is "the most
pernicious race of little odious vermin that Nature ever suffered to crawl upon the
surface of the earth." Swift also inserted subtly hidden puns into some of his name-calling
techniques. The island of Laputa, the island of pseudo-science, is literally (in Spanish) the
land of "the whore."

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References
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Swift
2. https://study.com/academy/lesson/introduction-to-jonathan-swift-
biography-gulliver-and-a-modest-proposal.html
3. https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/g/gullivers-travels/critical-
essays/swifts-satire-in-gullivers-travels
4. https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2014/03/20/jonathan-swift-leo-
damrosch-satire
5. biography+of+jonathan+swift&oq=biography+of+jonathan+swift&aqs=
chrome.69i57j0l5.6962j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
6. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/jonathan-swift
7. https://www.biography.com/scholar/jonathan-swift
8. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jonathan-Swift
9. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/britlit1/chapter/jonathan-swift-
biography/
10. http:/www.online-literature.com/swift/