Gulliver’s Travels II Jonathan Swift
“SATIRE is a sort of glass wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own; which is the chief reason for that kind reception it meets with in the world, and that so very few are offended with it.” Swift, Author’s Preface, The Battle Of The Books
Irony “A broad term referring to the recognition of a reality different from its masking appearance. Verbal irony is a figure of speech in which the actual intent is expressed in words that carry the opposite meaning.... In general, irony is most often achieved by either hyperbole or understatement....
... In the drama, irony refers specifically to the knowledge held by the audience but hidden from the relevant characters. Tragic irony is a form of dramatic irony in which characters use words that mean one thing to them but have a foreboding meaning to those who understand the situation better.”
Burlesque “A form of satire or comedy characterized by ridiculous exaggeration. Such a distortion may occur in a variety of ways: the sublime may be made absurd, honest emotions may be turned into sentimentality, a serious subject may be treated frivolously or a frivolous one seriously....
... Perhaps the essential quality that makes for burlesque is the discrepancy between subject matter and style.”
Book I Who are being satirized? Gulliver or the Lillipudlians? How? What is being satirized?
Book II Who are being satirized? Gulliver or the Brobdingnagians? How? What is being satirized?
Book III Satire of scientists; the Royal Society; the fetishization of Reason and the ignorance of morality and sense
Book IV In “Gulliver’s Fourth Voyage: ‘Hard’ and ‘Soft’ Schools of Interpretation,” James L. Clifford describes a struggle between approaches to the last book of Gulliver’s Travels:
“By ‘hard’ I mean an interpretation which stresses the shock and difficulty of the work, with almost tragic over-tones, while by ‘soft’ I mean the tendency to find comic passages and compromise solutions.” James L. Clifford
“Hard”: “The Houyhnhnms are a norm or standard for conduct; Swift provides uncompromising standards of behavior to his reader; the ending of [the book] is poignant, even tragic”
“Soft”: “the Houyhnhnms serve a largely ironic function; Swift does not provide absolute standards; the ending of [the book] tends to be comic, with Swift directing laughter at both Gulliver and the reader”
the meaning of the Yahoos? the meaning of the Houyhnhnms? the significance of Captain Mendez? a clear interpretation of the ending? Clifford’s Questions: What is
Possibilities for the Houyhnhnms: a vision of prelapsarian perfection, unattainable by humans an unattainable ideal which humans should nevertheless strive to reach an ideal limited by Swift’s view of the nature of humanity not an ideal objective, but an insulting impossibility
mere absence of vice one of two opposing sides of human nature pure reason, but not ideal cold, inhuman beings, lacking Christian benevolence deistic rationalism, which Swift hated merely rhetorical devices through which to attack our pride in thinking ourselves better than animals