Джонатан Свифт: сатирик, философ, богослов, общественный деятель.

ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЕ БЮДЖЕТНОЕ ОБРАЗОВАТЕЛЬНОЕ УЧРЕЖДЕНИЕ

ДОПОЛНИТЕЛЬНОГО ПРОФЕССИАНАЛЬНОГО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ

«ИНСТИТУТ РАЗВИТИЯ ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ САХАЛИНСКОЙ ОБЛАСТИ»

«JONATAN SWIFT: SATIRIST, PHILOSOPHER, THEOLOGIAN,

PUBLIC FIGURE»

Выполнил: Гуляев Алексей Игоревич

Обучающийся 8 класса

МБОУ «СОШ с. Чапаево»

Корсаковского городского округа

Руководитель: Гордополова Нина Ивановна

Южно-Сахалинск

2017

I’d like to write about Jonathan Swift because I appreciate this novelist from the moment I had read his famous book “Gulliver’s Travels”.  I decided to get much more information about this outstanding man. I have read several books about him and his remarkable woks. I’m interested not only in his literary works, but I admire him as a person.

Jonathan  Swift  was the greatest  English writer. He entered  the world literature as one of the wonderful  masters of satire. Swift was born on 30 November 1667 in Dublin, Ireland.  He was the son of Protestant Anglo-Irish parents- Abigail Erick  and Jonathan Swift,  an attorney at King's Inn, in Dublin. His father had died seven months before his son was born. After his father’s untimely death, Jonathan's mother left without an income, but she and the nurse did their best to provide care for the child. His mother was extremely poor so when his nurse travelled to England to see relatives she took Jonathan with her. Later the nurse left Jonathan to his uncle Godwin who supported him and provided the child with the best education, sending the child to Kilkenny Grammar School with one of his cousins. Later  in1682 Jonathan attended Trinity College in Dublin, which he finished in 1686.The same year he left Ireland and worked  three years as  secretary and personal assistant to Sir William Temple, an English diplomat. This man played an important role in the life of Jonathan Swift. He helped Swift until the death. Between 1710 - 1713 Swift began his political activity. In 1711 he published the political pamphlet “The Conduct of the Allies”. In “The Tale of the Barrel” the writer with hatred condemned the whole social system of England of that time. "We live in a treacherous time," he wrote. Swift categorically maintained that "fraud and unbelief dominate, like an epidemic, as smallpox." His pamphlet was a bitter and evil satire on the rich, on the defenders of the English socio-political system. Swift decisively condemned the war and satirically wrote about one sovereign warrior, who accepted and lost various cities for thirty years. Swift was hated by philosophers and scholastics, which drove a diverse, complex world "under their own length, width and height." Swift expressed his ideas and thoughts by various artistic means. He often resorted to parody, grotesque and hyperbole. Swift's vocabulary was very rich and diverse. He skillfully used the language of his people, religious, philosophical and scientific terminology. In 1724 the letters of the cloth-maker were published. In this pamphlet Swift on behalf of the Dublin merchant spoke out against the swindler Wood, who was given the right to mint a defective coin for Ireland and his deputies. He called for a decisive boycott of the false coin of Wood, exposing the tricks of this financier. "Wood with a pack of his founders and copper workers minted a coin for themselves until no old teapot remains in the kingdom; let them knock it out of old leather, out of clay, or street mud, let them give their dirt some name, guinea or Liard, we do not care before he and his gang of employees get along with it; I am hopeful and even confident that, to the last man, we have firmly resolved not to have any business with him or with his goods.”  In the" Cuckoo's Letters ", not only the fraudulent tricks of Wood are venomously exposed, but the whole system of exploiting of people by corrupt squires and lords.  Swift in his work urged the Irish to revolt against the enslavers-Englishmen.

In some public materials Swift expressed his views directly without irony. He dedicated some works to improvement of English language. For example, in a letter "Proposal for the correction, improvement and consolidation of the English language," he sincerely protested   against spoiling the literary language with jargon, dialectic and simply illiterate expressions.

Studying Jonathan Swift's historical views within the framework of the historical thought I came to the following conclusions: a steady interest in history was present throughout the entire period of his life. Swift repeatedly turned to the analysis of historical material, using it as evidence, as well as material of purely historical value. The educational tendency to present modernity above the classical was not adopted by Swift, because it applied to the scientific and cultural spheres. Swift was not inclined to represent the Middle Ages in extremely negative tones. Swift devoted his main historical work “The brief History of England” to medieval history, pointing out that many institutions and positive tendencies of English modernity originated in Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Thus, the process of rehabilitation of the Middle Ages was reflected in the work of Swift.

Swift was a convinced opponent of the revolution as an instrument of political transformation: an uncontrollable revolutionary element seemed the writer to be too dangerous and ineffective method of fighting for rights. The resistance to the state authorities within the framework of the current legislation seemed to be a much more safe and effective way to achieve the desired results. We should mention   that Swift was guided by the principle of universal equality before the law; therefore he recognized the right to protest regardless of the ethnic and religious characteristics of the protesters.

From 1731 his health  started to decline, possibly from Alzheimer's or Meniere's disease. He began to show sign of illness, both physical and mental.  On 19 October 1745 Jonathan Swift died. He rested beside his beloved Stella in St. Patrick's Cathedral   in Ireland.

Having made the final conclusions, I noticed that Jonathan Swift is indeed a legislative public figure, a brilliant master of satire, a magnificent philosopher and an irreplaceable theologian and priest of the Anglo-Irish church. As for me, I believe that his marvellous book “Gulliver’s Travels” will be read by many generations of children in future. That’s why I hold an opinion that Jonathan Swift is an unforgettable writer for ever.