“SATIRE IN WORKS OF JONATHAN SWIFTS” Юрпольской Ирины Андреевны обучающейся 11А класса. Работа №47375

МУНИЦИПАЛЬНОЕ АВТОНОМНОЕ ОБЩЕОБРАЗОВАТЕЛЬНОЕ УЧРЕЖДЕНИЕ

ЛИЦЕЙ «НАДЕЖДА» Г. ХОЛМСКА

МУНИЦИПАЛЬНОГО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ «ХОЛМСКИЙ ГОРОДСКОЙ ОКРУГ»

“SATIRE IN WORKS OF JONATHAN SWIFTS”

Выполнила:

Юрпольская Ирина Андреевна

обучающаяся 11А класса

МАОУ лицей «Надежда»

г. Холмска

Руководитель:

Большакова Елена Владимировна,

учитель английского языка

Холмск

2022

Many kids were raised reading one of Jonathan Swift’s most famous works, «Gulliver’s Tales». But what, I think, is really distinguishable about this book is not a great quantity of its readers, but rather that as you grow up the meaning of it to you changes, as you come to realize that it is not just a really good novel about travel, maybe even funny one to some extent, as you might have thought in your childhood, but an epic satire on many of human beings’ follies.

And it is not the only satire in Jonathan Swift’s collection. His most famous one is «The Modest Proposal», which, I believe, really shows the true genius of Jonathan Swift’s satire. Those two works will be the ones I will cover in this essay in order to analyse how he applied different kinds of satire in order to bring up the issues of society and the world that he saw.

Despite being born in Dublin, Jonathan Swift is often referred as to Anglo-Irish writer and essayist, as he spent numerous years in both Ireland and England, and held different political and religious positions in various institutions in both of the countries. I believe, those experiences gave him a broader world view, and enhanced his ability to observe differences in people’s role in the society. He also wanted to point out and help to deal with all the issues he saw, and, in my opinion, it was one of the main reasons why he became a writer and also why he choose to use satire in many of his works.

For example, «Modest Proposal» can be viewed as his answer to a difficult economical situation in Ireland, as well as to discrimination against Catholics and several other problems. Starting from the title to the very end of the pamphlet, Jonathan Swift employs different kinds of satire. Does a proposal for killing one hundred and twenty thousand children to be eaten to abolish the problem of the impoverished population seem modest to you? That is an example of irony and ridicule at its finest. Hyperbole, stereotypes and logical appeals are all used to express the main idea as well. By writing this pamphlet he also mocks people that suggest that they can come up with something that can cure all problems of the society in just writing an open letter, or a pamphlet, or something similar. He turns to statistics to support his proposal to show that we cannot just reduce everything to facts and numbers, we always need to remember about ethics and moral. This vivid image of baby-eating that he created amplifies that even more. But he does not just highlight what is wrong with the society, he actually introduces what should be done through the literary device of paralipsis. It is when something is introduced, by implying it should not be talked about. He suggests taxing a fee on those who live abroad, using only Irish-made goods, to refuse from imported merchandise and goods, start educating people about how they should not live in vain spending all money on luxuries, but instead tighten up on personal expenses, etc. All of these are decent measures to be taken.

«Gulliver’s travels» brings up a lot of issues as well. It is one of my favourite books. It is curious to note that it is not just an epic satire and a great parody of travel novel, but also an ancestor to nowadays science fiction genre books. And it is indeed full of curious encounters and scenarios, imagined creatures, fictional exotic lands, etc. For each place and encounter there is some deficiency or failure that stays hidden behind curtains of understatement, situational irony or other satirical devices. For example, he is using mock seriousness and detachment in Gulliver’s attitude towards the events around him, the main character also never quite connects what is happening to the similar events in England, which creates a satirical tone of the narrative, he also stresses the sense of the absurdity to satirise European practices and mankind's belief in self-superiority.

Each country represents something that is faulty in humans. The Lilliputians show us how war is often conducted meaningless, just for the sake of goal which might be not even valuable to achieve. England sounds like a malicious and violent place to the peaceful giants of Brobdingnag. Through the Laputians author criticizes overdevotion to science, reasoning and logical appeal, without understanding human nature behind the events. The immortal Struldbrugs show that wisdom and happiness do not come with age.The most extreme and crucial point of the book is its fourth part. Horse-like creatures Houyhnhnms turned out to be more humane than any people that main character ever saw. To gain permission to stay with them he tries to cover up human flaws, but the more Gulliver is questioned the more those flaws are proved. Gulliver, himself, starts seeing all humans, including his family, Yahoo-like.

Jonathan Swift’s satires about humanity are implicit and continue throughout the book. «Gulliver’s travels» are very deep in meaning as it reflects all follies of human society.

All in all, we can see that Jonathan Swift masterfully employed satire trying to make people think about their flaws and become more decent and humane. I deeply recommend you to read each of his works mentioned above.

Заявка на участие в Конкурсе

Ф.И.О. участника (с указанием пола)

Моженкова Алина Михайловна (жен)

Дата рождения

11.01.2001

Образовательная организация

МАОУ лицей «Надежда»

Класс

11А

Название работы

Satire in Works of Jonathan Swift

Ф.И.О. руководителя

Большакова Елена Владимировна

Место работы

МАОУ лицей «Надежда»

Должность

Учитель английского языка

Контактный телефон

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