Jonathan Swift: A multiple life, multiple perspective

Apart from being part of the “Scriblerus Club”, Jonathan Swift was a clergyman and one of the most important figures in literature. His satirical way of writing is probably the axis and the zenith of a mixture of roles that he played throughout his life: orphan, Anglo-Irish, misogynist, misanthropist … Some scholars have also supported the importance of his orphanage as the reason of his problematic sexual life, which is portrayed in fragments from Gulliver’s Travels where one can notice disgusting descriptions of women or scatological themes.

(Customhouse, Trinity College, Dublin)

In regards to his education, it is important to state that Swift had a formal education (Kilkenny School and Trinity College in Dublin) and that, when he decided to move to England, he became Sir William Temple’s secretary. Temple was one of the political Whig leaders and he played the role of father. Temple put the embryo of politics within Swift’s ideas, he also had access to Temple’s library in Moor Park.

(Moor Park, nowadays)

In this new setting, Swift met Esther Johnson –his famous ‘Stella’–. After meeting her, there will other two important women in his life: ‘Varina’ and ‘Vanessa’. Although he had very good relationships with these girl-friends, Sift never married; but the relationships with these girls influenced his literature almost as much as his political inclinations.

The political inclinations of Swift varied throughout his life. At the beginning of his life, he was influenced by Temple, and after living together ten years, when Temple died, Swift asked the British government for a reduction of taxes for Ireland, which was denied. This disappointment led him to be very critical of humans and to show this criticism in his writing. This is also related to the fact that Swift was a religious person. His general dislike of people is explained in the metaphor ‘humans are rationes capas’.

His writing career started with A Modest Proposal (1713), which satirically presented Irish people making a living for selling their children and their kidneys. Even though it was presented –and also understood– as a real proposal, his use of the cannibalistic metaphor symbolizes a mock on the English taxes over Ireland. Another critical approach refers to the comparison of the Irish and the American natives as an unprotected minority.

According to some his aims in writing, Swift dared to mock authority figures and criticise society in general, with ever-increasing venom. Following this pattern, his masterpiece Gulliver’s Travels (1726) is a severe attack on the political parties of the time, and on the pointlessness of religious controversial differences between Deism, Catholicism...