Jonathan Swift ( ) was part of the inner circle of the Tory government.

With the death of Queen Anne and ascension of George I in 1714, the Whigs returned to power and the Tory leaders were tried for treason.

With the return of the Whigs, Swift left England and returned to Ireland in exile, to live "like a rat in a hole".

In Ireland, Swift turned his pamphleteering skills in support of Irish causes, producing some of his most memorable works, earning him the status of an Irish patriot.

Across Ireland, poor Catholic children were living in squalor because their families were too poor to keep them fed and clothed.

"A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burden to their Parents, or the Country, and for Making them Beneficial to the Public”

The tract proposes "a fair, cheap, and easy method" for converting the starving children of Ireland into "sound and useful members of the Commonwealth."

“I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food...”

His proposal is to fatten up undernourished children and feed them to rich land-owners. Poor children could be sold at a meat market at age one.

ADVANTAGES of this Proposal: combat overpopulation and unemployment, spare families the expense of child-bearing while providing them with a little extra income, improve the culinary experience of the wealthy, and contribute to the overall economic well-being of Ireland.

“A Modest Proposal” is the first documented satirical essay.

Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts, by Lemuel Gulliver, first a surgeon, and then a captain of several ships, Swift next began writing his masterpiece, Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts, by Lemuel Gulliver, first a surgeon, and then a captain of several ships, better known as Gulliver's Travels.

Much of the material reflects his political experiences of the preceding decade.

Gulliver's Travels (1726) was published under a pseudonym, the fictional Lemuel Gulliver.

Often published in abridged form as a children's book, Travels is a sophisticated satire of human nature based on Swift's experience of his times.

Each of the four books-- recounting four voyages to fictional exotic lands-- has a different theme, but all are attempts to deflate human pride.

Part I: A Voyage to Lilliput Gulliver is washed ashore and awakes to find himself prisoner of a race of people 6 inches tall.

Gulliver assists the Lilliputians in subduing their neighbors the Blefuscudians by stealing their fleet. However, he refuses to reduce the country to a province of Lilliput, displeasing the King and the court. Gulliver is charged with treason and sentenced to be blinded.

satirize the religious feud between Catholics and Protestants The feuding between the Lilliputians and the Blefuscudians is meant to represent the feuding countries of England and France, but the reason for the war is meant to satirize the religious feud between Catholics and Protestants.

Part II: A Voyage to Brobdingnag Gulliver is abandoned by his companions and found by a farmer 900 feet tall, who brings Gulliver home. His daughter cares for Gulliver. The farmer treats him as a curiosity and exhibits him for money.

The Queen of Brobdingnag loves Gulliver and buys him to keep as a favorite at court.

In between small adventures, Gulliver discusses the state of Europe with the King, who is not impressed. Gulliver gets picked up by a giant eagle who drops him into the sea where he is picked up by sailors who return him to England.

Part III: A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Glubbdubdrib, Luggnagg and Japan After Gulliver's ship is attacked by pirates, he is marooned near a desolate rocky island near India and is rescued by the flying island of Laputa...

On Laputa, inhabitants are so lost in thought that they constantly run into one another.

Gulliver is taken to Balnibarbi to await a Dutch trader. While there, he tours the country and sees the ruin brought about by blind pursuit of science without practical results.

He meets the Struldbruggs, who are completely senile, but immortal. Gulliver returns home, determined never to travel again.

Part IV: A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms

Gulliver returns to sea as a captain. His crew members mutiny and leave him on the first piece of land they come across so they can continue on as pirates.

He is abandoned in a landing boat and comes upon a race of hideously deformed creatures.

He learns that horses here (Houyhnhnms, "perfection of nature") are the rulers.

The hideously deformed creatures ("Yahoos") are human beings.

The Houyhnhnms are grave, rational, and virtuous; they have created a perfect society. They only tolerate the Yahoos and use them for menial services.

However, the Houyhnhnms rule that Gulliver, a Yahoo with some reason, is a danger to their civilization, and he is expelled.

He is rescued by a Portuguese ship, and is surprised to see that the captain, a Yahoo, is a wise, courteous, and generous person.

Gulliver returns home to England. However, he is unable to reconcile himself to living among Yahoos.

He becomes a recluse, remaining in his house, avoiding his family, and spending several hours a day speaking with the horses in his stables.

THEMES: 1.A satirical view of the state of European governments, and of petty differences between religions. 2.An inquiry into whether men are inherently corrupt or whether they become corrupted.

The causes of Gulliver's misadventures become more malignant as time goes on - he is first shipwrecked, then abandoned, then attacked by strangers, then attacked by his own crew. Gulliver's attitude hardens as the book progresses. Each part is the reverse of the preceding part. No form of government is ideal. Specific individuals may be good even where the race is bad. Gulliver progresses from a cheery optimist at the start of the first part to a pompous misanthrope at the book's conclusion.