Concetti Chiave
- Jonathan Swift's early satires, including "Battle of Books" and "A Tale of a Tub," highlight his critique of modern scholarship and religious contrasts.
- "Gulliver’s Travels" uses fantastical lands and creatures to satirize human nature and societal flaws, contrasting corrupt societies with uncorrupted natural life.
- Swift's work often reflects his belief in common sense over reason, critiquing the excessive use of reason in society and scientific endeavors.
- The Lilliputians in "Gulliver's Travels" represent the flawed use of reason, while Gulliver embodies human instinct and natural behavior.
- Book 3 of "Gulliver’s Travels" satirizes language reform and scientific absurdities, emphasizing Swift's skepticism of extreme rationalism.
Indice
His first satires
Battle of Books in which he supported Temple’s defence of classics and mocked the modern scholarship. A tale of tub, about the contrasts between Catholics and dissenters. When Jonathan Swift was priest, he denounced how many injustices that Ireland suffered.
His masterpiece was Gulliver’s travels and A Modest Proposal. Swift’s target was not only to England, but it was directed to Irish too, who seemed too passive in their misfortune.
Jonathan Swift can be alternatively a misanthrope, a monster or a lover of mankind. It’s clear he didn’t share the general optimism of his age. He thought that reason was an instrument that must be used properly. He instead believed more on common sense of people.
Gulliver’s travels plot
The structure is:
- Book 1:He sails from Bristol and shipwrecked into a south pacific shore and he falls asleep. The inhabitants (Lilliputians) are only six inches tall and carried his huge body to their capital.
- Book 2:He shipwrecks in a place Swift located in Alaska. The inhabitants (Brobdingnag) are giants twelve times taller than Gulliver. During this period he has trampled nearly to death: he must escape from rats as big as lions and wasps as big as birds. He is sent to the royal palace and becomes King’s pet. After a while, his cage is lifted up by a huge bird and dropped into the ocean.
- Book 3: He meets in the island of laputa absent-minded astronomers and scientists. Their experiments consist in extracting sunbeams from cucumbers or turning humans excrement into food.
- Book 4: He meets some horses endowed with reason (Houyhnhnms) and a bad species of animals resembling human being. He is ashamed of his similarity with the Yahoos and he builds a canoe and comes back to England, where he re-sees his wife and his children. Then he goes living into stable, because he cannot stand human smell.
Comment
Jonathan Swiftshowed the life of these inhabitants as an uncorrupted life, in which they followed their natural instincts. Then he compared this model of natural life with the contemporary society which loses common sense and falls into a state of corruption, showed in the ridiculous experiments leaded by the mad scientists, who stand the modern man which used too intensively the reason.
The inventory(Book 1)
In this pass Gulliver was supervised by two little officers. The Lilliputians stand for the systematic use of reason opposed to the big body of Gulliver, which stand for instinctivity. Jonathan Swift satirized man’s pettiness and littleness.
Language reforms(book 3)
Gulliver meets three professors which want to create a new language form constituted by monosyllabic word, exclusively nouns, deleting all the verb and the preposition. It implies the advantage on preventing the lungs from corrosion due to the speech. Women and common people opposed the scientist.
Jonathan Swift satirized the intensive reason of scientist and believed more on common sense. A big satire of the absurdities of the scientist is upon the wafer, which is so disgusting that the student discharge it before it could operate.
Swift was concerned with the aberration of human reason.
Domande da interrogazione
- Qual è il tema principale delle prime satire di Jonathan Swift?
- Qual è la struttura del racconto "I viaggi di Gulliver"?
- Come Jonathan Swift utilizza la satira per criticare la società contemporanea?
- Cosa rappresentano i Lillipuziani nel primo libro de "I viaggi di Gulliver"?
- Qual è la critica di Swift riguardo alle riforme linguistiche nel terzo libro?
Le prime satire di Swift, come "Battle of Books" e "A Tale of a Tub", si concentrano sulla difesa dei classici e sulla critica della borsa di studio moderna, oltre a mettere in luce le ingiustizie subite dall'Irlanda.
"I viaggi di Gulliver" è diviso in quattro libri, ognuno dei quali descrive un viaggio in terre diverse con abitanti unici, come i Lillipuziani, i Brobdingnagiani, gli scienziati di Laputa e i cavalli razionali Houyhnhnms.
Swift utilizza la satira per confrontare la vita naturale e non corrotta degli abitanti delle terre visitate da Gulliver con la società contemporanea, che considera corrotta e priva di buon senso, come dimostrato dagli esperimenti ridicoli degli scienziati.
I Lillipuziani rappresentano l'uso sistematico della ragione, in contrasto con il grande corpo di Gulliver, che simboleggia l'istintività. Swift satirizza la piccolezza e la meschinità dell'uomo.
Swift critica le riforme linguistiche proposte dagli scienziati di Laputa, che vogliono creare una lingua composta solo da sostantivi monosillabici, eliminando verbi e preposizioni. Questa satira evidenzia l'assurdità dell'uso intensivo della ragione da parte degli scienziati.
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