1. Unit 3: Satire - Gulliver’s Travels, - “A Modest Proposal”, - Importance of Being Earnest

2. Gulliver’s Travels Written by John Smith during the enlightenment time period. This was a time where people were in a charitable state of mind and tried to help out the common man. This was also the first time people questioned the existence of God. This lead to the idea of the Ancients vs. Modern.

3. Background (cont.) The Modern represents the parliament/people. The Ancients represent the monarchy/king. These ideas branched off into new political parties in England; Whigs, and Tories. The Whigs represented the modern train of thought and the Tories represent the ancient train of thought. Science at the time is considered completely ridiculous and a waste of time.

4. Book: 1 Gulliver is stranded on an island of miniature people; however the people enslave and use him. Swift uses the character of Flimnap as a representation of Robert Wilpole, the leader of the Whig party. The games the Lilliputians play represent the loopholes English politicians use to impress the monarchy.

5. Book: 1 (cont.) There are satires of science in the fact that Gulliver is a man of science because he is a ships surgeon; however is curious and in awe of the little Lilliputians. The event of the egg breaking war comments on the dispute between Catholic France and Protestant England fighting over the sacrament of communion.

6. Book: 1 The character of Flimnap is a cuckold. This is someone who knows their wife is having an affair and is embarrassed by it. In the end of book one the charges brought against Gulliver are a satire on Bowling Brook and the idea of punishing the Whig party.

7. Book: 2 In book two Gulliver travels to a land of giants where he is also kept in confinement. However unlike the Lilliputians the Brobdinagians are kinder towards him. He is treated like a circus animal, being brought around from town to town earning money for his master.

8. Book: 2 (cont.) The most obvious and important satirical attack in book two is when Gulliver is presented to the king and talks to him. Gulliver tells the king about the greatness of English society; however in the end the king laughs and says that the people he described are bad.

9. Book: 3 In book three Gulliver travels to the land of Laputa and meets the Laputans. These are an intelligent people of math and science. First swift attacks England and Ireland and their relation to each other, then attacks the modern. The two people represent England and Ireland. The first people are free thinkers, whom are scientifically great, but morally corrupt. The second people just act and do not plan anything.

10. Book: 4 Now Gulliver travels to a very strange land where horses are intelligent and people (men) are Yahoos. The horses represent Adam before the fall, and the Yahoos represent Adam after the fall. Gulliver is split between what side to chose because he has common traits with both sides. This is a satire on humanity.

11. Gulliver’s Travel’s in Review Swift masterfully complies these stories into one to satire the whole being of English society. He touches on every aspect and even focuses some criticism on humanity as a whole.

12. “A Modest Proposal” Also written by Jonathan Swift this proposal introduces the insane idea of using babies for a national resource. He argues that the babies of the poor could be taken a be used for food (compares humans to livestock) to increase productivity and benefit the nation.

13. “A Modest Proposal” (cont.) This is a satire on the English government for the responsibilities of its control of Ireland. After the English tool control the crops failed and then the English did nothing to help. They just let Ireland suffer until everyone was starving. This proposal was a direct attack on this basic human indecency.

14. Importance of Being Earnest Written by the eccentric Oscar Wilde it describes the story of a young man living in Victorian society. It mainly satires Victorian society and marriage.

15. Earnest (cont.) The storyline Two characters Jack, and Algernon, who are family, lie to girls they like and say their names are Earnest. The girls only like them for their names and in the end they find out their real names. Then Algernon legally changes his name and Jack’s name turns out to already be Earnest and they all get married.

16. Earnest (cont.) The technical elements Farse: is a play in three acts; often includes a change in identity, and lovers who are misunderstood. Bunbury: men whom go out to be with other men. There are criticisms on family and food. In act 1 Algernon sees family as an obligation. Food represents sex because of the taboo of it in Victorian society.

17. Earnest (cont.) The idea of secret lives pervades throughout the text. Everyone has one or two and usually one produces and excuse for the other. Miss Prism/Father Chasuble are the only two “real” people in the story. They represent what a real relationship should be.

18. Earnest (cont.) The word means to be honest; however no one in the story ever is. It is a pun. In the end the upper class only care about trivial matters.

19. Writing Prompts Chose one of the prompts below and write one well developed paragraph. – Write a short satire about modern society. – Chose one of the satirical stories previously reviewed and analyze it using a biographical approach. – Chose a satirical element (such as lampooning, characture, reductio-ab-absurdum, parody, …) and explain how and why the author uses them.