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A modest proposal is the most significative Swift's work of irony. Swift is able to say the most shoking things in the most natural way. A modest proposal was inspired by the dreadful that he found in Ireland;so, when he went there, there were famine and starvation(fame) widesprad because of a series of ruinos harvests (raccolti). The writer uses the tone and the style of a political economist.The climax of the pamphlet obviously lies in the macabre proposal of producing babies for the meat market and selling them as food;Swift also attacks the poverty due to overpopulation and the volountary abortion. The author denounce the exploitation of the island committed by the English. The apparent paradox of the modest proposal thus becomes a warning both to Ireland and to England.
Gulliver's travels was published anonymously in 1726, under the full title : 'Lemuel Gulliver's travels into several remote nations of the world. Swift's purpose, who had begun the work in 1720, was to denounce the emptiness and corruption of the society and to attack institutions and man in general.
Gulliver's travels is divided in four books:
Gulliver's travels can be read at various levels. It may be seen as:
Gulliver's travels has indeed the rare merit to appealing both to adult and to children.
This work is usually described as a satirical essay.
He actually maintained that man is not a reasonable animal, but simply endowed with reason, which he is not always able to use in the right way. This contrast between rationality and animality underlies the whole work
Book 2 (A Voyage to Brobddingnag)
The giants now embodying animality, with their bodies, and Gulliver embodying rationality , thanks to his skill and ability. But the king of giants is endowed with great moral sense, as is shown by his comments to Gulliver, who attempts to demonstrate the superiority of English culture, while it is undermined by corruption and immorality.
Book 3 (A Voyage to Laputa)
The main themes are science and philosophy and their value as evidence of man's rationality. But these purposes are ridiculed and often ed with others which are absurd, to show that men are too proud of their rationality, and have forgotten their basic common sense.
Book 4 (A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms)
Reason is represented in its extreme, pure form by the horses, in contrast with the 'bodies' of the Yahoos. But the horses, although they are models of honesty and morality, ignore emotions, and so they lack the peculiar features that could make them 'human'.
Swift by his 'contrast-within-contrast' technique, he dissects mankind, denouncing its follies and absurdities.
The King's consideration.
Gulliver is invited to illustrate the institutions of England by the King of Brobddingnag, but he idealizes his country and doesn't realize that he is actually revealing the hidden and worst sides of English political life. But the King understands what England is actually like, in fact says that it is a country dominated by hypocrisy and corruption. Considering Swift's opinion, it is not difficult to identify the list of vices with the Wighs.
The irony tat characterized the initial description of England is replaced in a bitter sarcasm, summed up with the final image 'little odious vermin'. It is important to remember that the word 'vermin' does not actually mean 'worms' but 'any of a number of small animals with filthy, destructive, troublesome habits'. So, to define people as a vermin means to regard them as harmful to others, dangerous to society, vile, worthless or objectionable.
This passage may be considered the best example of the many attacks on England scattered throughout the book.
Swift and Gulliver
Modern criticism point up how different Swift and Gulliver are from each other, in fact Gulliver seems to become one more target of Swift's irony rather than his 'mouthpiece'
In spite of a certain organic unity and the presence of a character who develops along with work, Gulliver's Tarvel can hardly be define as a novel.
Origins of the modern novel
Precursors of the novel can be found among the ancient classics, with the epic poems such as Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and Virgil's Aeneid.
Yet in the Roman world we can also find the 'proto-novels'. The two most important of these are the Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter, a sort of 'picaresque novel' and Metamorphosis, or The Golden Ass by Apuleius. These narratives were important models for later writers, like Boccaccio in Italy, Cervantes in Spain and Rabelais in France.
All of these works, however, played a marginal part in the evolution of the modern novel.
In the Middle Ages narrative fiction was dominated by the medieval romance, a long episodic story of love and adventures, often in verse. This literary genre began in about the 11th century an produced remarkable works throughout Europe, such as the French Chanson de Roland, or the English Arthurian Cycle, whose influence on future narrative was significant.
Romances, however, were not 'novels' in the modern sense of the word, since they were 'epic' works dealing with mythical, fabulous, heroic adventures and not with everyday events.
The modern novel
The world 'novel' is derived from the Latin 'novus' and Italian 'novella', meaning a prose fiction which it reported recent events or 'news'.
It initially kept this double meaning of a prose story and a story relating recent events, and it was originally applied to any prose fiction distinct from a tale of chivalry in verse, which was still called 'Romance'.
The novel was perhaps one of the last literary genre to acquire an autonomy of its own, and its features can be summarize in the following definition from the Oxford English Dictionary:
'A fictitious prose narrative of considerable length, in which characters and actions representative of real life are portrayed in a plot of more or less complexity.'
In other words, to be called 'novel' a work must portray 'characters and actions of real life of past or present times'. This does not preclude the 'fictitious' element, but simply means that characters exist within the parameters of ordinary life, move in a recognizable society and their actions remain within the range of our everyday experience. As for the impression of real life, this is increased by the novel's technique of carefully reproducing an external environment. The plot now is lengthy and complex.
We can say that the first genuine modern novel was born in Spain and it is Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. In fact Don Quixote and Sancho Panza are characters moving about and related to a completely realistic society, that of 16th-century Spain.
The picaresque novel
The picaresque novel is a particular form of adventure novel which the Encyclopaedia Britannica defines as the 'prose autobiography of real or fictitious personage, who describes his experiences as a social parasite and satirizes the society that he has exploited.'
As a literary genre, the picaresque may be regarded as a Spanish invention, pìcaro being the Spanish word for a 'rogue'.
The earliest example was 'La Vida de Lazarillo de Tormes, an anonymous tale written in the 16th century.
An other important work was 'La Pìcara Justina', the story of a woman who deceives her lovers.
The English picaresque novel acquires importance in the 18th century with Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders and Colonel Jack, certainly Moll Flanders reminds us of the female picaroon.
The characteristics of the picaresque novel are later to be found in Feelding's Jonathan Wild.
The English Novel
It was in England that fiction produced the most remarkable and influential works.
Many factors determined the rise of modern novel, like:
The influence of 'philosophical realism' which, starting with Dessectiunes and Locke, focused attention on the individual, who could discover truth through his own senses and personal experience.
The influence of Protestantism, which also focused on the individual, to whom it taught the values of everyday routine life.
The sudden growth of the reading public and particularly women readers. This growth was due partly the diffusion of newspapers, and partly to the increasing affluence of middle classes.
The growing demand for novels after the creation of circulating libraries.
The influence of earlier picaresque narrative, and exspecially Cervantes's Don Quixote.
Sensitive to new tastes and tendences of the day, novelists began to reject conventional plots and the ancient classical models and look to reality for ispiration. The novel became a "picture of life" and classifiable as realistic not only because of what it presented but above all for how it presented it.
The term realistic may sound a little ambiguous as it had been applied to other writers and it is therefore useful to consider some of the elements which characterized the 18 th century realistic novel.
clock time and physical setting began to be used. Time and place ceased to be vague concepts but were made tangible through the use of precise details.
Certain communicating qualities such as colour size extension became of primary importance
Attention was focused not only on outdoor settings but more and more frequently on "interiors".
Characters were endowed with actual names and surnames
Greater importance was given to money as a status symbol
A triangular conflict was emphasized between bourgeios values chilvaric values and the values of the traditional gentleman
A new type of protagonist developed, practical, self-made and self-reliant endowed with common sense and prudence, very far from the adventurous hero of romances
Defoe
Daniel defoe was born in london. His father, a protestant merchant, refused to record his son's birth in the parish register, so that we have some doubts about his true birth date. Educated at a college for dissenters defoe chose to go into business and, in 1680, he became a merchant. But his long neglected business took a turn for the worse and in 1792 he went bankrupt. He managed to pay back his debts venturing in many other activities including journalism and literature, also winning popularity.
In 1702 with the accession to the throne of queen anne, a strict supporter of the state church, his situation changed. When he published a satirical pamphlets in defence of dissenters he was sentenced to the pillory and to six months of prison.
In 1705 he became a secret agent and government spy. The last day of his life were wretched then he died alone and friendless in 1731.
Works
He was one of the most prolific authors of his time.
Journalism: the review.
Pamphlets: the shortest way with the dissenters. A clear attack on ecclesiastical intolerance which ironically advocated the total suppression of all dissenters.
Poems: the true-born englishmen. A verse satire against william III's enemies.
Hymn to the pillory: a mock-pindaric ode
Novels: robinson crusoe. An account of the hero's life on a desert island.
Captain singleton: relating the adventures of a captain who became a pirate
Moll flanders: the autobiography of a woman who survived several husbands
And the london underworld, turned thief and prostitute, was transported to
Virginia and became rich and respectable.
Colonel jack: the story of a pickpocket who repented and in the end obtained
Wealth and prosperity
Roxana: the autobiography of a courtesan who finally imprisoned for debts.
Other works: a journal of the plague year. An account of the plague of 1665
Jonathan wild: an example of criminal biography.
Features:
Despite the many works he wrote, defoe's fame rest almost entirely on his novels. To justify his works, however, he decided to write true stories, all containing moral lessons. This conception of fiction led him to a write novels which all more or less shared the same features which are:
realism: they are usually presented in the form of a diary or autobiography, related in the first-Person in order to increase verisimilitude.
Lack of structure: there is not a real plot.
Individualism: there is only one main character, a hero or a heroine, resolute in spirit and self-reliant for survival. This feature was in keeping with the puritan idea that it is in himself that man find salvation.
Lack of characterization: the characters do not develop during the story: it is in fact only their external situation which changes, while inside they remain the same.
Isolation: the characters usually stand alone, not only physically, like crusoe on his island but also socially as in the case of the women, moll and roxana.
No sentimentalism: there is a very little despair even in the most tragic situations. Every day the characters struggle but not for ideals or passion but for their daily bread i.e. the practical pursuit of money.
Moral attitude: all the contain prayers and expressions of gratitude to god and they all end with the protagonists repenting their mischiefs.
picaresque elements: all the most important novels contain elements which may be defined "picaresque".
a) some characters are rogues
b) there is sometimes direct or indirect satire of 18th century english society
c) they have the effect of prose autobiographies describing genuine experiences.
d) The narratives are generally linear and episodic in structure.
Robinson crusoe:
The best known of defoe's novels is undoubtedly robinson crusoe. The book is based on a real event: the experiences of alexander selkirk a seaman who was put ashore on a desert island of the juan fernandez group in the pacific ocean from which he was rescued after 4 years.
3 separate sections:
the first: the first of these relates how, in spite of his father's warning, robinson leaves the family at the age of nineteen and goes away to sea to make a fortune. After many dangerous experiences he lands in brazil where he becomes a successful ter. One day during an expedition he was shipwrecked on a remote island.
The second section describes robinson's life on the island during which time he keeps a journal with an almost daily record of certain periods.
The third section describes robinson's return to europe where he learns that his brazil tation still intanct has made him rich and where he also has many new adventures.
The buk of the work is the second section, which is related in the form of a diary-like account of robinson's experiences: how he is able to partly re-created the world he has left behind him how he eventually saves a young savage from the cannibals and makes him his servant and how he is finally rescued,
The work is one of the best examples of pure fiction able to engross the reader with its matter-of-fact as may be seen from the passages below.
Comforts and miseries
Though short, this is the passage which, perhaps, best sums up the concrete, practical philosophy of robinson. "but i am alive" this is also the message that defoe seems to convey, not only to his contemporaries but to all of us in general, since it contains a still topical teaching: it is o no use to complain and lose heart in the plights of life because this leads only to useless discomfort and despair. It is in the most critical moments that we can prove our moral strength. There is also a second possible consideration to make on the above list. The use of writing becomes an unconscious self-therapy one of the ways to release the burden of one's heart later theorized by psychoanalysis.
Conclusion
The novel was at once very successful for various reasons:
its style, simple and matter-of-fact met the need for precision and concretness of a bourgeosie founded on trade
it made robinson, self-confident and resourceful, the representative of the "new man" of the englishment, i.e. the bourgeois industrious and hardworking, as opposed to the aristocrat.
Its emphasis on work and the bible as the two main therapies against solitude and everyday problems.
Its setting on a remote island satisfied the wish for exotic stories.
After centuries of a literature more or less influenced by european models it was the first book which reflected the true "english soul".
The bourgeois novel
Features. The plot the characterization and psychological analysis, these features characterize above all richardson novel . richardson was the originator of the so-called bourgeois novel or novels of manners.
plot. The novel are no longer based on a sequence of episodes but on a single story based on a complex emotional background to analyse the flow of feelings and passions.
Setting. The novel are no longer set in far off countries but in a domestic enviroment.
Characterization. Richardson is the first author to concentrate on the new middle classes
Realism. there is plenty of realism in each novel.
Psychological analysis. unlike those of defoe his own characters are capable of emotional development
Sentimentalism. His novels are all love stories with happy or tragic endings.
Technique and style. They are all written in epistolary form
Moralizing purpose. They all share a moralizing purpose
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