jonathan swift ( 乔纳森. 斯威夫特 ) (1667-1745) satire 讽刺文学, 讽刺 satire is often...
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Jonathan Swift ( 乔纳森 . 斯威夫特 )(1667-1745)
• Satire 讽刺文学 , 讽刺 Satire is often defined as a literary genre or form. In satire,
human or individual vices 恶习 , 恶行 , follies 愚蠢 , abuses陋习，弊端 , or shortcomings are held up to censure 公开谴责 by means of ridicule 奚落 , derision 嘲笑 , burlesque ( 夸张性模仿 ), irony, or other methods, with intent to bring about improvement. Although satire is usually meant to be funny, the purpose of satire is not primarily humor in itself so much as an attack on something of which the author strongly disapproves, using the weapon of wit 机智 . Satire condemns, either overtly 公然地 or covertly 偷偷地 , what it believes to be wrong, generally with intent to achieve reform. It works best when there is general agreement among its readers about what is right or normal. Jonathan Swift is probably the greatest of all satirists to have written in English.
Life and Literary Achievements• Jonathan Swift, son of the English lawyer Jonathan Swift
the elder, was born in Dublin, Ireland, on November 30, 1667. His father died when he was born, and he was compelled to accept aid from relatives, who gave it grudgingly. He attended Trinity College, Dublin, at the age of fourteen. He detested the routine curriculum, reading only what interested him. Therefore, he was often at war with the college authorities. He took his degree by a ‘special favor’ after seven years at that university in 1688. In that year, he became the secretary of Sir William Temple, an English politician, member of the Whig party and Swift’s distant relative. Temple was old and irritable, so Swift’s position was not a pleasant one. He was looked down upon as a servant and ate at the servants’ table.
• 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( 私人、社团、医院、监狱、贵族、私人教堂、军中等的 ) 牧师 of the earl of Berkeley. 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 favor. Swift, who had been hoping to be assigned a position in the Church of England, instead returned to Dublin, where he became the dean 教长 of St. Patrick's. 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 the satirical A Modest Proposal, in which he suggests that the Irish problems of famine( 饥荒 ) and overpopulation could be easily solved by having the babies of poor Irish subjects sold as delicacies to feed the rich.
• Late in life, Swift seemed to many observers to become even more caustic( 刻薄 )and bitter than he had been. Three years before his death, he was declared unable to care for himself, and guardians were appointed. Based on these facts and on a comparison between Swift's fate and that of his character Gulliver, some people have concluded that he gradually became insane and that his insanity was a natural outgrowth （增长的结果） of his indignation and outrage against humankind. However, the truth seems to be that Swift was suddenly incapacitated使丧失能力 by a paralytic stroke late in life, and that prior to this incident his mental capacities were unimpaired.
• While living in Temple’s house, Swift read and studied widely. During that time, he wrote two works, A Tale of a Tub （一个木桶的故事） and The Battle of the Books （书战） , which were published together in 1704 and made him well-known as a satirist.
• A parable is a brief, succinct story, in prose or verse, that illustrates a moral or religious lesson. It differs from a fable in that fables use animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as characters, while parables generally feature human characters. Some scholars of the New Testament apply the term "parable" only to the parables of Jesus (For example, “The Prodigal Son”)
• A Tale of a Tub is written in the form of a parable. An old man died and left a coat (the Christian doctrine) to each of his three sons, Peter, Martin and Jack, with minute directions for its care and use. These three sons stand for Roman Catholics, Anglicans, and Puritans. They evade their father’s will, interpret it each in his own way, and change the fashion of their garment. This is a satire upon all religious sects. The Roman Catholic Church and Puritans are terribly satirized while the church of England is professed to be justified. But by the time one has finished reading the tale, he will discover the Church of England looks just as ridiculous as any other church, for nothing is left to her but a thin cloak under which to hide her hypocrisy. Thus this satire is an attack on Christianity itself.
• The Battle of the Books, an unfinished work argues for the supremacy of the classics against modern thought and literature.
Gulliver's Travels
• Swift wrote his masterpiece in Ireland. Gulliver's Travels recounts the story of Lemuel Gulliver, a practical-minded Englishman trained as a surgeon who takes to the seas when his business fails. In a deadpan (blank, expressionless) first-person narrative that rarely shows any signs of self-reflection or deep emotional response, Gulliver narrates the adventures that befall him on these travels.
• Gulliver's adventure in Lilliput 小人国 begins when he wakes after his shipwreck 船只失事 to find himself bound by innumerable tiny threads and addressed by tiny captors who are in awe of him 对 ... 望而生畏
• 对 ... 感到害怕 but fiercely protective of their kingdom. They are not afraid to use violence against Gulliver, though their arrows are little more than pinpricks( 小孔 ) But overall, they are hospitable, risking famine in their land by feeding Gulliver, who consumes more food than a thousand Lilliputians combined could. Gulliver is taken into the capital city by a vast wagon the Lilliputians have specially built. He is presented to the emperor, who is entertained by Gulliver, just as Gulliver is flattered by the attention of royalty.
• Eventually Gulliver becomes a national resource, used by the army in its war against the people of Blefuscu, whom the Lilliputians hate for doctrinal differences concerning the proper way to crack eggs. (Should eggs be broken at the big end or the little end?) But things change when Gulliver is convicted of treason for putting out a fire in the royal palace with his urine and is condemned to be shot in the eyes with poisoned arrows. The emperor eventually pardons him and he goes to Blefuscu, where he is able to repair a boat he finds and set sail for England.
• Absurdity of religion and politics are satirized here.
• After staying in England with his wife and family for two months, Gulliver undertakes his next sea voyage, which takes him to a land of giants called Brobdingnag 大人国 . Here, a farmer discovers him and initially treats him as little more than an animal, keeping him for amusement. The farmer eventually sells Gulliver to the queen, who makes him a courtly diversion and is entertained by his musical talents. Gulliver is often repulsed by the physicality of the Brobdingnagians, whose ordinary flaws are many times magnified by their huge size.
• Thus, when a couple of courtly ladies let him play on their naked bodies, he is not attracted to them but rather disgusted by their enormous skin pores and the sound of their torrential 奔流的 urination撒尿 . He is generally startled by the ignorance of the people here—even the king knows nothing about politics. Even Brobdingnagian insects leave slimy （粘糊糊的） trails on his food that make eating difficult. On a trip to the frontier, accompanying the royal couple, Gulliver leaves Brobdingnag when his cage is plucked up by an eagle and dropped into the sea.
• Next, Gulliver sets sail again and, after an attack by pirates, ends up in Laputa 勒普泰岛 , where a floating island inhabited by theoreticians 理论家 and academics oppresses the land below, called Balnibarbi. The scientific research undertaken in Laputa and in Balnibarbi seems totally inane空洞的 and impractical, and its residents too appear wholly out of touch with reality.
• This part is a satire on philosophers and projectors. (impracticality)
• Finally, on his fourth journey, Gulliver sets out as captain of a ship, but after the mutiny of his crew and a long confinement in his cabin, he arrives in an unknown land. This land is populated by Houyhnhnms 具有理性的马匹 , rational-thinking horses who rule, and by Yahoos, brutish humanlike creatures who serve the Houyhnhnms. Gulliver sets about learning their language, and when he can speak he narrates his voyages to them and explains the constitution of England. He is treated with great courtesy and kindness by the horses and is enlightened by his many conversations with them and by his exposure to their noble culture.
• He wants to stay with the Houyhnhnms, but his bared body reveals to the horses that he is very much like a Yahoo, and he is banished. Gulliver is grief-stricken but agrees to leave. He fashions a canoe and makes his way to a nearby island, where he is picked up by a Portuguese ship captain who treats him well, though Gulliver cannot help now seeing the captain—and all humans—as shamefully Yahoolike. Gulliver then concludes his narrative with a claim that the lands he has visited belong by rights to England, as her colonies, even though he questions the whole idea of colonialism. (The rationality of horses VS the irrationality of human beings.)
• Gulliver's Travels serves as a biting satire, and Swift ensures that it is both humorous and critical, constantly attacking British and European society through its descriptions of imaginary countries.
Swift’s Pamphlets on Ireland
• Swift’s pamphlets on Ireland form a very important part of his works. They have now become part of classic English literature. Swift’s life in Ireland gave him an intimate knowledge of the miserable condition of the Irish people. He saw around him poverty and vice due to the exploitation of the English government, which took everything it could get from Ireland and gave little in return. In a series of pamphlets Swift denounced the cruel and unjust treatment of Ireland by the English government. Two of the most famous pamphlets are:
• The Drapier’s Letters ( 布商的书信 )• A Modest Proposal
• In A Modest Proposal, Swift suggests, in bitter irony, that the poverty of the Irish people should be relieved by the sale of their children at a year old as food for the rich. “I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children.” With the utmost gravity, he set out statistics to show the revenue that would come if this idea were adopted. It would give the people something valuable of their own and help to pay their landlord’s rent; it would save the cost of maintaining very many children; it would lead to a lessening of the number of papists, i.e. Catholics in Ireland; it would be a great inducement to marriage.” The remedy, Swift took care to point out, was only for the kingdom of Ireland, “and for no other that ever was, is, or, I think, ever can be upon earth. ”
• The suggestion was quite disinterested, “I have no children by which I can propose to get a single penny, the youngest being nine years old, and my wife past childbearing.” This proposal is a most heartbreaking piece of sarcasm that fiery indignation has given birth to and a most powerful indictment of the English government’s policy of exploitation and oppression in Ireland.
Swift’s Style
• Swift is one of the greatest masters of English prose. His language is simple, clear and vigorous. He said, “Proper words in proper places, makes the true definition of a style.” There are no ornaments in his writing. He seems to have no difficulty in finding words to express exactly the impression which he wishes to convey. In simple, direct and precise prose, Swift is almost unsurpassed in English literature.
• Swift is a master satirist and his irony is deadly. But his satire is masked by an outward gravity and an apparent calmness conceals his bitter irony. This makes his satire all the more powerful, as is shown in his A Modest Proposal.