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Swift

            Swift wrote plain perfection of prose.
             Many critics like William Deans Howells; T. have called Jonathan Swift the greatest writer of prose like T.S. Eliot says that .
             "Swift, the greatest writer of English prose, and the greatest man who has ever written great English prose."".
             But there are reasons for this greatness. One of the main reasons is that Swift wrote in a very plain and downright style. He didn't use any embellishments. At times, when Swift was writing serious stuff this same plain style appears dry but when writing humorously, this same plainness gives his wit a singular edge. Swift didn't use ornate or rhetorical language; he said what he had to in simply without any affectation as Hugh Blair says.
             "His style is of the plain and simple kind; free of all affectation, and all superfluity; perspicuous, manly and pure."".
             And at times, his style appears so simple that its seems like anybody with a little sense of writing could write like him but in this same simple ness of manner lies Swift's greatness like Scott says.
             "Swift's style seems so simple that one would think any child might write as he does, and yet if we try we find to our own despair that it is impossible."".
             This same simplicity of style in Gulliver's Travels corresponds to the naiveté and simplicity of Gulliver. .
             Another important feature of Swift's prose is that he uses the common touch. In other words, everybody can understand his language that is why even children can read his books with so much enjoyment. Also, Swift addresses people as rational and political beings, making them his equals. For example, in Drapier's Letters Swift uses the same language of the class which he is addressing i.e. rough and shrewd. Swift doesn't write long sentences or speeches or difficult words. And he familiarizes with the people by using their own simple and at times coarse language. .
             Invention or imagination is an aspect witch makes Swift one of the greatest English writers.


Essays Related to Swift

1. Essay on the methods and objectives of Swift's satire.

... is a condemnation of certain human traits. Gulliver's experiences with various flawed societies foreshadow his ultimate rejection of human society in the fourth voyage. Swift's style is composed chiefly of satire, allegory, and irony. Satire can be defined as a mocking attack against vices, stupidities, and follies of ... petty irrelevancies and ceremonial absurdities, which cloud the real issues and responsibilities of government. This conversion of Lilliput into England shows clearly that Swift intended his story to be a political allegory. The first three books of Gulliver's Travels g...

  • Word Count: 1953
  • Approx Pages: 8
  • Grade Level: High School

2. Women in the Works of Joyce and Swift

... objectification of women as well as general denigration. This is portrayed in a very seamless and almost invisible way in both James Joyce's Ulysses: episode thirteen 'Nausicaa' and Jonathan Swift's 'A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed' where both authors explore the power and the limits of women characters. Both authors challenge and push against social norms presenting both ... including their perceived social inferiority, raising the question of whether his poem is merely a portrayal of his absolute hatred of women. Controversially in James Joyce's episode thirteen 'Na...

  • Word Count: 2458
  • Approx Pages: 10
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

3. Jonathan Swift - Humor, Satire and Irony

... Travels. The dominant figure of speech in "A Modest Proposal" is verbal irony, in which a writer or speaker says the opposite of what he means. Swift's masterly use of this device makes his main argument, that the Irish deserve better treatment from the English powerful and dreadfully amusing, "Some persons ... to the passions; he excites neither surprise nor admiration; he always understands himself, and his readers always understand him: the per user of Swift wants little previous knowledge; it will be sufficient that he is acquainted with common words and common things; he is neither...

  • Word Count: 1187
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

4. Swift's Modest Proposal

... past infancy and whose wife is past "child-bearing- years. Irony is most strongly seen in the use of such an unfitting title. Obviously, Swift is a master at manipulating his audience by bringing us into the proposal quietly, then abruptly shocking us, and slowly twisting normal thought patterns into a ... myriad of unusually compelling patterns of satire. In turn, we are forced to agree theoretically with Jonathan Swift. As a result of satire, Swift is sympathetic towards his audience as his proposal begins to take shape, but he gradually becomes very callous toward his audience as he ....

  • Word Count: 896
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Has Bibliography

5. Jonathan Swift's: Gulliver's Travels

... that affect it. Gulliver's Travels is a satirical book based on the problems that faced the 17th-18th centuries. By writing this breakthrough novel, Swift expresses his personal beliefs on society as being: selfish, crude, and spoiled; which is seen through the eyes of the open-minded traveler, Lemuel ... The ignorance that Gulliver begins his journey with represents the ignorance of European society of the time. The more knowledgeable Gulliver comes represents people, such as Swift, who see the problems of society and are not afraid to express them (Elliot; Novels for Students; Vol. 6). ...

  • Word Count: 1551
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

6. Humanity of Swift

... and hide them by heaps in their kennels; but still looking round with great caution, for fear their comrades should find out their treasure. (Swift 486) When one Yahoo is threatening another Yahoo then there is a fight between the two. This resembles humans, because we lash out at others ... look like humans. They do not have desires or cravings. This is why Houyhnhnms are less like man than Yahoos. According to one view, Swift wrote Act IV of Gulliver's Travels to address three hypotheses. That the Yahoos represent mankind without the ability to rationalize. That the Houyhnhnms represen...

  • Word Count: 2448
  • Approx Pages: 10
  • Grade Level: High School

7. Swift vs. Chaucer

... what he thinks, but Chaucer makes it obvious through his caricatures. The tone of Chaucer can be seen as common, light hearted, and humorous. Jonathan Swift, however, is not apprehensive in writing what he believes to be the horrendous conditions of eighteenth century society. Swifts tone is that of an extremist, ... of the people represent their level of morality and common sense. In Liliput, Gulliver observes that the traditions of the people are foolish and Swift ridicules the government through the events on the strait rope. Conversely in Brobdingnag, the royalty seems to know so m...

  • Word Count: 1277
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

8. Johnathan Swift

... beliefs. He was to spend a huge part of his life defending his church from any unwanted attackers (Hunting 1-2). Dr. Greenacher, author of a Psychoanalytic Study of Two Lives indicated, "Swift suffered from severe anxiety and defuse hypochondriasis of the type of which so often accompanies an unusually severe castration complex, in which pregenital determinates are strong." (Hunting 3). Hunting also felt ... Elegy on the Death of a Late Famous General", the theme revolves around the great Whig general's victories and in contrary, all the death that was brought upon fellow countrymen. Sw...

  • Word Count: 873
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

9. Jonathan Swift

... Her death, though preceded by a tedious illness, shook and depressed him profoundly. The lonely life of a fatherless child is later reflected in Swift's relationships with women. Jonathan Swift's melancholy and depression increased and as the unhappy years passed his mind gradually declined. His physical illness (mainly deafness and vertigo) made him ... for Sir William Temple at Moore Park as a secretary (1689-95, 1696-99) but did not like his position as a servant in the household. Swift was ordained in the church of Ireland Dublin. In Moore Park, he also was the teacher of a young girl...

  • Word Count: 806
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

10. Jonathan Swift and A Modest Proposal

... 's net-worth, removing the responsibility of child care from families, bringing business to taverns, and encouraging husbands to treat their wives with respect. Swift really means to say that the people of Ireland should begin taxing the English landowners, using only domestic goods, exporting products made in Ireland, ... fifty thousand, for those women who miscarry, or whose children die by accident, or disease, within the year." A second instance in which Swift makes an appeal to logic is when he states that "a child, just dropped from its dam, may by supported by her milk, for ... a ...

  • Word Count: 813
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

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