JONATHAN SWIFT AND HIS WORK

Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin of English parents on November 30^th, 1667. His father was a steward of a law society in Dublin and he married a Leicestershire woman, Abigail Erick. Since his father died before he was born, he brought up with the help of his uncle, Godwin Swift. At first, he was sent to Kilkney School and then he attended and graduated from Trinity College in Dublin. His mother returned to Leicestershire with her daughter, Jane. Brought up as an orphan, Swift bitterly resented the lack of a real home and it made him introspective. He was fond of reading and his favourite book was the Bible in his early childhood (Reeves, 1967, pp. 1-2).

Because of James II’s abdication and the invasion of Ireland Swift moved to England where he was a member of the household of his kinsman Sir William Temple, a retired diplomat, between the years 1689-1699. During these years, Swift met the leading political figures of the day and read widely. He met the daughter of Temple’s steward, Esther Johnson, or Stella, and at first she was his pupil and then she became his companion. There is not enough information about Stella and their supposed marriage but there is ample evidence that their acquaintances believed that they were married (Horrel, 1958, p. xxiv).

In 1694, his aim was to be a clergyman and for a short time he became a clergyman in Ireland, but he was soon back at Moor Park. He wrote some poems; “An Ode to the

Athenian Society”, “Ode to the King” and two other poems (Downie, 1984, pp. 32-33).

For these poems, Dryden said “Cousin Swift, you will never be a poet” (Reeves, 1967, p. 3). However, Swift discovered his astonishing gift as a satirist, about 1696-1697 he wrote two satires A Tale of a Tub and The Battle of the Books in which he reflected corruptions in religion and learning.

The death of Sir William Temple occurred in 1699, and after his lost Swift was obliged to accept the living of Laracor. In Ireland, he saw the misery and the poverty of the peasants, and this observation aroused the passion for justice and freedom in his heart.

In the first decade of the eighteenth century, Swift spent at least four years in London where he became the friend of wits and writers. He earned himself a reputation as a witty pamphleteer as his some of comical hoaxes were published in Addison and Steele’s periodical, The Tattler. In 1708, the Whigs came to power and Swift hoped that they would give him a worthy position because of his talents. However, he was loyal to the Church of England and he was opposed to Dissenters, and The Whigs needed the support of them. For that reason, he began to associate with Tories and they put him in charge of The Examiner. In 1713, the other Tory wits, Alexander Pope, John Gay, Thomas Parnell, John Arbuthnot and Swift found “Scriblerus Club” and their main aim was to ridicule the jargon of scholars by using fictitious characters. Also, Swift formed close relations with the leaders, Robert Harley (later Lord Oxford) and St. John (later Lord Bolingbroke). Although he had intimate relations with the leaders, Queen Anne did not trust Swift and so he became the Deanery of St. Patrick’s, the Protestant Cathedral of Dublin. With the death of Queen Anne in 1714, The Whig ministry was recalled by George I, the successor of Queen Anne. Therefore, Swift thought that he would not get a promotion as a clergyman in England (Reeves, 1967, pp. 5-6).

Swift was an influential political writer and a clear thinker, but he was also a gloomy and dissatisfied man. Even though he seemed to have failed in his political desires, he fulfilled himself in friendships of the best minds both in London and in Dublin. When he was in London, he had an affair with Vanessa, as he called Esther Vanhomrigh for whom he wrote the long poem, “Cadenus and Vanessa”. As a young woman, Vanessa desired to be the wife of Swift but he would not leave Stella, so her death in 1723 caused him deep anguish. From 1720 onwards, he became very active in Irish politics

and wrote a series of historic pamphlets on political and economic wrongs. Through his works, Proposal for Universal Use of Irish Manufacture (1720), Drapier’s Letters (1724), A Modest Proposal (1729) and other writings in verse and prose, he became

‘Hibernian Patriot’ (Rawson, 2008, p. ix).

During the years 1721 to 1725, Swift wrote Gulliver’s Travels which was written as the parody of traveller’s books and it was published in 1726 by Benjamin Motte. Alexander Pope wrote a letter to Swift on November 16, 1726 and said in his letter that “Motte receiv’d the copy (he tells me) he knew not from whence, nor from whom, dropp’d at his house in the dark, from a Hackney coach [...]” and the long title, “Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World” shortened as “Gulliver’s Travels” (Corr., Vol III, p. 181). Swift made a mysterious appearance for the manuscript because he and his friends intended to protect the author from political persecution. Before the anonymous publication of the novel, Swift wrote letters to his friends, and in these letters he indicated that he was working on a book of travels. As far back as September 29, 1725, Swift wrote a letter to Alexander Pope, indicating that:

I have employd my time (besides ditching) in finishing correcting, amending, and Transcribing my Travells, in four parts compleat newly Augmented, and intended for the press, when the world shall deserve them, or rather when a printer shall deserve them, or rather when a Printer shall be found brave enough to venture his Ears [...] (Correspondence,Vol III, p.102)

In the same letter, he indicated that he might soon visit England but because of his illness, he couldn’t set foot on the soil of England until March, 1726. After his landing to London, he visited his intimate friends, Arbuthnot, Gay and Pope. Arthur E. Case indicated in his book Four Essays on Gulliver’s Travels that Swift’s most intimate friends; Pope and Gay might read the book and offered suggestions. Like Pope and Gay, the other close friend of him, Charles Ford in whom Swift had confided most freely while writing his book may have had a part in consultations (Case, 1958, p. 2). With the help of his friends Gulliver’s Travels was published anonymously in November, 1726.

Shortly after its publication, it immediately became popular, and it was translated into French, German and Italian (Real, 2005, p. 3).

After the deaths of Esther Johnson, John Gay and John Arbuthnot, Swift’s health started to get worse. In 1738, he was suffering from a disease that affected his inner ear and caused dizziness. His last years were less happy because of his infirmities that affected his social life and as well as his mental condition. With the definite symptoms of becoming mentally disabled, Swift spent his last three years in gloom and lethargy.

Then, on October 19, 1745 Swift passed away and he was buried in St. Patrick’s Cathedral as he wished for (Stephen, 1898, pp. 221-227).

Jonathan Swift is regarded as one of the most remarkable writers of satire and the man of wit. He has defined a good style as “proper words in proper places” and like this description, his style is simple, clear and full of wit. As a poet and as the master of prose, he was in favour of a style without exaggeration and ornamentation. In his early prose work, A Tale of a Tub, Swift lays bare the close connection between religion and politics. Although it is about the adventures of three brothers, representing Roman Catholicism, the Church of England and the Puritan Dissenting Church, the most remarkable character is the narrator through who Swift criticizes modern insanity. As in this work of him, his later works also reflect the allegorical and symbolical implications to religion, politics and humankind (Greenblatt, Vol I, 2006, p. 2302). Throughout his life, Swift devoted his talents to politics and religion. As a clergyman, he was hostile all the constitutions which were against the Anglican Church and as a political pamphleteer he criticized the corruption in and among the institutions. As an English man growing up in Ireland with his uncle, he observed the current dynasty’s injustice upon Irish folks who were in miserable conditions. Finally, as a human, he was opposed to the optimistic view that human nature is essentially good. All these elements shaped the thoughts of Swift to religion, politics and mankind in general, and they nourished his witty works.