ipl-logo

Satire In Gulliver's Travels

1030 Words5 Pages

Satire is the use of humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people 's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics. As the greatest satirist in the English language, Jonathan Swift was both admired and feared in his own time for the power of his writings. Gulliver 's Travels is regarded as Swift 's masterpiece. It is a novel in four parts recounting Gulliver 's four voyages to fictional exotic lands. His travels is first among diminutive people--the Lilliputians, then among enormous giants--people of Brobdingnag, then among idealists and dreamers and finally among horses. Each book has a different theme, but their common trait is to deflate human nature. Swift 's satirical attacks on …show more content…

For instance, In Laputa, Switfs is using the scientific style of writing to make fun of the scientics :“Their ideas are perpetually conversant in lines and figures. If they would, for example , praise the beauty of a woman…they describe it by rhombs , circles , parallelograms , ellipses and other geometrical terms.” Swift again satirizes specialized language in academic field when he describes the projects of the Grand Academy as completely useless and they are waste of time and money for the country : “The only inconvenience is, that none of these projects are yet brought to perfection, and in the mean time , the whole country lies miserably waste, the houses in ruins and the people without food or clothes.” Thus, Each project described, such as the extraction of sunbeams from a cucumber, is not only false but also purposeless. Even if its scientific foundation were correct, it would still serve no real purpose for the people meant to gain from it. The result is a society in which science is promoted for no real reason and time is wasted as a matter of

Show More
Related

  • The Great Influenza Rhetorical Analysis Essay

    712 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many people already see scientists as intelligent, but it is not as common to hear that scientists have “passion, patience, creativity, self-sufficiency, and courage.” Popular culture may promote scientists as automaton-like and lacking sentiment, or perhaps as the classic mad scientist, but Barry’s description of scientists shows that they are indeed real people whose work requires a great determination and confidence and extends beyond the realm of pure intellectualism. Using simple, but positive language allows Barry to create empathy in the reader for the scientist, but perhaps more importantly, to convey his message to a broad

    Read More

  • Heideggers Experiment, Rappaccini's Daughter, And The Birthmark

    508 Words  | 3 Pages

    Some think of science as advantageous, while others believe it can be immoral. Acts of science can lead to manipulation of the natural world and cause those performing the experiments to “play God.” Nathaniel Hawthorne 's short stories “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment,” “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” and “The Birthmark” each incorporate characters that attempt to alter a natural aspect of life and in turn are met with failure. It is through his short stories that Nathaniel Hawthorne reveals opinion of science: Men should not engage in scientific studies that require them to act as God.

    Read More

  • Satire In The Acharnians

    627 Words  | 3 Pages

    Satire is the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues. In today’s world satire is embedded into several things. Some things it’s embedded into is cartons, playwrights, movies, passages, jokes, etc. The play “The Acharnians” by Aristophanes and “The Word- Armistice” by Stephen Colbert uses satire and has several similarities and differences. “The Acharnians” by Aristophanes is a play that involves a lot of hilarious satire.

    Read More

  • Unwind

    1001 Words  | 5 Pages

    Sciences and technologies have improved many aspects of human lives. But as technologies are developing to be more and more advanced, science can be a deadly subject to us as well. Some writers have taken this idea and expanded on this theme of how science is deadly. In this essay I will discuss how this theme is explored in the texts: the novel Unwind written by Neal Shusterman, the film Gattaca directed by Andrew Niccol, following the short texts There Will Come Soft Rains and The Veldt written by Ray Bradbury. Science is supposed to help humans to understand more about the world and improve people’s lives.

    Read More

  • Ethos Logos In A Modest Proposal

    826 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout “A Modern Proposal,” Swift makes it a point to use ideas and terms that dehumanized people and their children. This causes the essay to make the reader feel uncomfortable and slightly detached from the world. It appeals to the moral side of people. Many people use this kind of method when writing in order to make the readers feel more sentimental. When people feel more sentimental towards a cause, they are more likely to stand up and stop being so

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Devices In Jonathan Swift's Modest Proposal

    983 Words  | 4 Pages

    Swift shapes the text in a satiric way to portray to his audience his point of view on the topic at hand, and with the use of sarcasm Jonathan Swift mocks upper-class people who are affected by the overcrowding and poverty in Dublin. The usage of a satiric tone and sarcasm help Swift develop solutions to contemporary social problems that will work. In the “Modest Proposal”, written by Jonathan Swift, diction is a key rhetorical device in this piece, because of the way Swift portrays his thoughts through satire. Diction is the style of speaking or writing determined by the choice of words by a speaker by or a writer, Swift’s audience sees his diction as inhumane because of the way he proposes solutions to the world’s problems, such as in paragraph twenty one where he

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Essay: A Modest Proposal By Jonathan Swift

    576 Words  | 3 Pages

    For example on page 2 Swift says “so as to render them plump, and fat for a good table. A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends.” statements like this make Swift’s proposal even more outrageous. This is a sarcastic attempt by Swift to make the proposal look attractive, but his statement has an underlying meaning of making the idea look repulsive. Additionally on page 2 Swift states “That a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food.”

    Read More

  • Satire In A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court

    471 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Satire is traditionally the powerless against the powerful.” – Molly Ivins. Satire is a style of criticism that can be used in many ways and in many different situations. Occasionally satire is easy to find, other times it may be disguised. Most of the time satire is found in literature.

    Read More

  • Satire In Today's Society

    594 Words  | 3 Pages

    Satire is the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues. A literary work in which human foolishness or vice is attacked through irony, derision, or wit. Mockery is teasing and contemptuous language or behavior directed at a particular person or thing. Also the behavior or speech that makes fun of someone or something in a hurtful way. “The Rape of the Lock” by Alexander Pope and “My Satirical Self” by Wyatt Mason from The New York times are both about satire and mockery.

    Read More

  • Use Of Satire In A Modest Proposal By Jonathan Swift

    739 Words  | 3 Pages

    As an element within satire, Swift uses irony to further his tongue-in-cheek essay. In such cases, his examples are written in the opposite of what he means in ways that direct the true meaning (Ehrenpreis 309). The imagery and language Swift pens is intended to promote awareness of the impoverished and the public's duty to solve it, but in actuality, his pithy remarks show he does not care for the poor or even see them as human beings. His proposal suggests this because otherwise the speaker would not advocate selling children in poverty to be consumed by the

    Read More

  • Technology In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    1605 Words  | 7 Pages

    “Do we evade the full consequences of our advances: denying the ugly while claiming the beautiful...ignoring the impoverishment while squandering the wealth”(Vargish)? Mary Shelley's, Frankenstein projects an underlying message that the rapid advancements of knowledge and science are truly monstrous. This tale illustrates a man’s dangerous, unbridled thirst for advancing science and researching a new field yet to be discovered; and questions advancements in technology, science, and the nature of humanity. Mary Shelley’s argument is more relevant today than it was during the gothic era. Our culture’s evident addiction to electronics and personal devices is taking away all forms of intuition and initiative.

    Read More

  • A Modest Proposal Satire Analysis

    834 Words  | 4 Pages

    Swift’s satire consisted of many “modest theories.” For example, you may have heard people talk about overpopulation. You may have your own theories about it, but what about eating children? In this instance, Jonathan Swift used his form of humor, also known as satire, to get his point across, in which wrote a pamphlet called “A Modest Proposal,” a mockery for the ideas of how to deal with overpopulation. “Satire is a technique employed by writers to

    Read More

  • A Modest Proposal: Juvenalian Satire

    793 Words  | 4 Pages

    The large-scale issue of poverty is dated all the way back to the 18th Century and it continues today. To raise awareness about this issue, two very brilliant writers, Jonathan Swift and Fred Grimm used different forms of satire to get their points across. Jonathan Swift is an 18th Century writer, who used Juvenalian satire in his work “A Modest Proposal” to inform the English about the raising number of those in poverty in Ireland. Juvenalian satire is often a bitter, or angry form of satire that criticizes a corruption. Fred Grimm started writing for the Miami Herald in the 20th Century, he used Horatian satire in his column “State budget solution:

    Read More

  • The Use Of Satire In The Canterbury Tales

    588 Words  | 3 Pages

    Perks of Sarcasm (Chaucer 's Use of Satire to Reach Intended Audience) Geoffrey Chaucer, also known as, “The Father of English Literature,” uses satire in his stories to influence his intended audience. Satire is the use of humor or irony to reveal a person 's stupidity. Considering Chaucer 's stories are legendary, he never fails to through some satire into his writing. With that being said, using it while writing a story is one of the most effective ways of writing.

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis Of Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal

    1083 Words  | 5 Pages

    First, he presents a problem, along with facts and calculations. Like for example when Swift discusses the “prodigious number of children” that were causing an “great additional grievance” especially in the “present deplorable state of the of the kingdom” (Swift 1200). He reels the reader in by describing images of extreme wretchedness and utter hopelessness, then he employs the use of rationalism to play down the reader’s moral considerations. He successfully uses logic to get the audience to subconsciously lower their moral defenses and seriously consider his proposal. Jonathan Swift’s use of sarcastic irony confuses the reader as to the essays true purpose, effectively causing them to put down all guards so that they will have no safeguards when he aims his penetrative

    Read More

More about Satire In Gulliver's Travels

Open Document