Jonathan Swift He was a writer, poet, essayist, and religious man, known mostly for his satirical and critical style of social and political issues. The beginnings of his academic training, during the years 1681 and 1688, were governed by the religious order at Trinity College, Dublin.
Swift is known especially for being the writer of the play Gulliver's Travels, published anonymously in 1726. One of the most outstanding characteristics of this work is that it represents a critique of the society of the time, which was considered by Swift as vain and empty.
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Jonathan Swift was born on November 30, 1667, in Dublin, Ireland. At Trinity College, Dublin, he trained in Theology thanks to the help of his uncles, since he was an orphan by his father, also called Jonathan Swift, who died long before he was born..
After his studies he met in Leicester, England, with his mother, Abigail Erick. Not long after he moved to Surrey, England.
This transfer was due to the opportunity he had to exercise the position of secretary of the diplomat Sir William Temple, who was a distant relative of his mother and an important man, a member of Parliament..
As Sir Temple's secretary, his duties were to write and keep accounts, but his performance was impeccable and in a short time he gained the trust of Temple, who was also his protector for 10 years. For this he came to have access to information on matters of great importance and met King William III.
During his closeness with Temple, Swift met daughter, Esther Johnson, with whom he shared a series of intimate letters that were published posthumously in 1766 under the name of Letters to Stella. Several rumors indicated that both got married in secret, despite the young age of Johnson, born on March 18, 1681.
Certain incompatibilities with his protector and work boredom made Swift leave his position and return to Dublin again. There he was ordained a priest in 1694 and worked for a year in the parish of Kilroot..
Once he reconciled his relationship with Sir William, he returned to England to participate in English politics, as well as becoming involved in religion and literature. In this period he wrote what was his first work: The battle between ancient and modern books, but it was not published until 1704.
The Irishman worked with Temple until January 1699, the year in which the latter died. Swift inherited the secretariat - although it was eventually taken over by someone else - and the chaplaincy of the Earl of Berkeley.
Given this, his working life resumed the religious course and took charge of the churches of Laracor, Agher and Rathbeggan, in addition to the Dunlavin lover, in St. Patrick's Cathedral, in Dublin..
Simultaneously, he served as chaplain with Lord Berkeley and in 1701 they both returned to England, where Swift once again devoted himself to literature, anonymously publishing a political pamphlet called A Discourse on the contests and dissension in Athens and Rome.
During the years 1710 and 1714 he served as an adviser to the Tory government, while in 1713 he was dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral, but with difficulties due to discrepancies as Queen Anne.
His stay in Dublin was definitively finalized together with his partner Esther Vanhomrigh, daughter of a Dublin merchant of Dutch origin, whom Swift called Vanessa (as well as Esther Johnson called Stella).
Swift suffered a severe depression when he learned of Stella's death in 1728. At this time, the Irishman began to suffer incipient symptoms of dementia, vertigo and mental decline.
Finally, he died on October 19, 1745 and was buried in the cathedral where he was dean, next to Stella's tomb..
The epitaph, written by himself, says: “Here lies the body of Jonathan Swift, D., dean of this cathedral, in a place where burning indignation can no longer lacerate his heart. Go, traveler, and try to imitate a man who was an irreducible defender of freedom ".
Most of his money was left for low-income people and at the disposal of the construction of a madhouse..
Without a doubt, Swift's most recognized work is Gulliver's Travels, published anonymously in 1726, but its authorship was discovered not too late.
The text has a great satirical, political, social and philosophical content, but from which only the absurd and imaginary sense of its meaning has been taken, which led it to be a success in children's literature. In addition, for being recognized worldwide, it has numerous adaptations for film and television.
Gulliver's Travels tells the story of Lemuel Gulliver, an Englishman who is shipwrecked in a place called Lilliput, where the inhabitants of the place have an average height of 6 inches.
The adventures narrated in Swift's characteristic austerity style are conceived as a direct critique of the politics and society of the time, which, the writer showed, were full of vanity and hypocrisy.
Swift took about 6 years to write the novel, which has a four-part structure:
- Part I: Journey to Lilliput.
- Part II: Journey to Brobdingnag.
- Part III: Trip to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib and Japan.
- Part IV: Journey to the country of the Houyhnhnms.
In each of these parts, practices, uses, beliefs, conflicts and / or professions that illustrate the European daily life of the 18th century are described..
In his collection of literary works are the following:
- The battle between ancient and modern books (1704).
- History of a barrel (1704).
- An argument against the abolition of Christianity (1708).
- The Journal to Sabu (1710-1713).
- The behavior of the allies (1711).
- Art of political lies (1712).
- The tale of the barrel (1713).
- The Intelligencer (with Thomas Sheridan).
- Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers.
- Three Sermons / Prayers.
- Cadenus and Vanessa.
- The benefit of Farting (1722).
- Letters from the draper (1724).
- The Grand Question Debated (1729).
- A modest proposition to prevent the children of the poor in Ireland from being a burden to their parents or to the country (1729).
- Verses on His Own Death (1731).
- Directions to Servants (1731).
- A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation (1731).
- The Lady's Dressing Room (1732).
- On Poetry, a Rhapsody (1733).
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