英美文学选读学习笔记 Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), a posthumous child, was born in Dublin, Ireland, of an English family, which had important connections but little wealth. Through the generosity of an uncle, he was educated at Kilkenny Grammar School and then Trinity College, Dublin. Between 1689 and 1699 he worked as a private secretary to a distant kinsman Sir William Temple, a retired diplomat. During those years Swift read widely and had time to put his general ideas in order and discover his talent as a prose satirist. And there he also received a first-rate education in politics through contact with Temple and many other well-known politicians, learning much about the vice, hypocrisy, intrigues, deception and corruption in the political world. From 1699 to 1701 he was at different clerical posts in Ireland. In 1704 he published two powerful satires on corruption in religion and learning, A Tale of a Tub (1704) and The Battle of the Books (written 1679, published 1704), which established his name as a satirist. For several years, he was a most notable figure in London as the editor of the official Tory organ,

The Examiner. As a reward for his service to the government, in 1713, he was appointed dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, where he became not only a popular clergyman, but also a leader in the Irish resistance to the English opssion. In 1724, he published, under the pseudonym of Drapier, a series of letters that called on the whole country to refuse   the newly-minted English copper coins which would further debase the coinage of the already poverty-stricken country. The English government offered 300 pounds for information as to the identity of the Drapier, but nobody would be tempted to reveal it, though his authorship of the letters was known to all Dublin. Even today Swift is still respected as a national hero in Ireland. In 1726, he wrote and published his greatest satiric work, Gulliver's Travels.

Swift was a man of great moral integrity and social charm. He had many friends in the literary circle and was also admired and loved by many of the distinguished men of his time. A man with a bitter life experience, he had a deep hatred for all the rich opssors and a deep sympathy for all the poor and opssed. His understanding of human nature is profound. In his opinion, human nature is seriously and permanently flawed. To better human life, enlightenment is needed, but to redress it is very hard. So, in his writings, although he intends not to condemn but to reform and improve human nature and human institutions, there is often an under- or overtone of helplessness and indignation.

Swift is a master satirist. His satire is usually masked by an outward gravity and an apparent earnestness which renders his satire all the more powerful. His "A Modest Proposal" is generally taken as a perfect model. By suggesting that poor Irish parents sell their one-year-old babies to the rich English lords and ladies as food, Swift is making the most devastating protest against the inhuman exploitation and opssion of the Irish people by the English ruling class. The apparent eagerness, sincerity and detachment of the author adds force to the bitter irony and biting sarcasm.

Swift is one of the greatest masters of English prose. He is almost unsurpassed in the writing of simple, direct, cise prose. He defined a good style as "proper words in proper places." Clear, simple, concrete diction, uncomplicated sentence structure, economy and conciseness of language mark all his writings -- essays, poems and novels.

Swift's chief works are: A Tale of a Tub, The Battle of the Books, The Drapier's Letters (1724-1725), Gulliver's Travels and A Modest Proposal (1729).