Is Jonathan Swift A Misanthrope

352 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Swift as a satirist

Swift claims that he was a misanthrope, but most people see him as a moralist, so which was he? I believe that Swift was a moralist, I do not think that someone can truly hate humanity. Even if he says he hates humanity, he might have just said that to seem different and mysterious from everyone else. I believe that Swift just wants to address things in humanity that he wishes that could change. If Swift truly hated humanity then he wouldn’t have written about it so much, he would have written about things that he cares about. Also, I don't think it is possible for him to hate humanity because not everyone is the same and it would be very hard to hate every single kind of personality or morality from every single person. Humanity is too broad

Show More
Related

  • An Analysis Of Jonathan Swift Misanthrope

    95 Words  | 1 Pages

    I don’t agree with those who consider Swift a misanthrope. In my view, Swift does not hate or distrust human. Actually we can say that he has lost his faith in humankind. Perhaps he was tired of those who expressed hate towards the downtrodden and less fortunate, but his writing were an attempt to point out the others. If he hated mankind, he probably would not have pursued writing literature with the messages that his literature had.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of A Modest Proposal

    611 Words  | 2 Pages

    Swift wants the reader to view his speaker as a general Irish man, not as himself. He wants the reader to describe the persona he adopts as one that everybody has, one that is not uncommon to the time. He also wants the readers to believe that he is a logical, level headed man who is capable of solving and discussing the problems of the day. This creates the beginning of his proposal to be all that more dramatic as we learn that he is absurd.

    Read More

  • Gulliver's Travels

    1504 Words  | 4 Pages

    humans and the society which Swift lived in at the time. It is in Book

    Read More

  • A Modest Proposal, By Jonathon Swift

    148 Words  | 1 Pages

    If Jonathon Swift was here today, he would feel utterly disgusted about how are society is today. He would ultimately be ashamed of what we have become, the satirical pieces that we have read and the abhorrence that was explained; you can tell how he would feel if he were here today. We have unquestionably lost our touch as becoming what we are supposed to become as a whole, some of us is in it for just ourselves without even turning eye for those people in need. The way we run things, the way things are with our Governments and how many people believe that they're superior to everyone else on the totem pole, Swift himself would absolutely go berserk. In reality, we are all the same, because we all bleed red. Swift would feel the same way about

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Modest Proposal

    499 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the last part of the reading, Swift mentions “ i am not so violently bent upon my own opinion as to reject any offer proposed by

    Read More

  • Jonathan Swift Satire

    795 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jonathan Swift, in regards to the unclothe amount of poor and needy children crowding the streets of Ireland, has proposed a mathematical and systematic solution that would not only bring about the end of hunger and suffering these children face but also act as a financial boon to the country itself. His proposition is to euthanize and prepare most of these children as delicacies at the age of one, once the mother ends lactating, and to utilize the rest of these children as breeders for future products. Swift’s framework shows how the country’s pocketbook will benefit from this plan of action as well as individuals, even if their lives are much shorter lived.

    Read More

  • The Use of Satire in A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift

    724 Words  | 2 Pages

    In “A Modest Proposal” several forms of satire are demonstrated throughout the story. Satire is defined as the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose or criticize people’s stupidity or vices. (Google) In "A Modest Proposal" Swift uses parody which is a form of satire. Parody is primarily making fun of something to create a humorous feel for it. In “A Modest Proposal,” Swift uses parody to make fun of the people and children of Ireland, expressing the children as delicious food to be eaten.

    Read More

  • Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels - Yahoos and Houyhnhnms

    912 Words  | 2 Pages

    What do the Yahoos and the Houyhnhnms stand for? What moral was Swift drawing from them? The answer to the second question depends on the solution of the first. One solution could be that the Yahoos represent man as he actually is, self-seeking, sensual and depraved, while the Houyhnhnms symbolize what man ought to be, unselfish, rational, cultured.

    Read More

  • Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

    1285 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...ls of politics, deceit, and pride are all displayed as a satire to humanity’s flaws. Through these three examples, the reader is able to clearly see the theme of mankind’s corruption in the novel. The biblical standard that all humans are born in sin definitely applies in this story. After all, nearly character, significant or not, shows a propensity to commit evil. Whether Swift was reflecting on the Bible when he wrote this work is uncertain; however, the author made it clear that humanity has a spiteful nature and arrayed it into Gulliver’s Travels.

    Read More

  • Essay on the Importance of Perspective in Gulliver's Travels

    745 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Writings of Jonathan Swift; Authoritative Texts, Backgrounds, Criticism. edited by Robert A. Greenberg and William Bowman Piper. Norton Critical Editions. New York: Norton, 1973.

    Read More

  • Gullivers Travels

    1319 Words  | 3 Pages

    Swift succeeds in showing the flaws of human nature through a microscope in Gulliver’s Travels. His two extremes yield a greatly exaggerated view of mankind’s faults. The entire book Gulliver’s Travels has a natural progression heading towards Swift’s main goal, which is to show the flaws of human nature as a whole. Swift does not have a grim view of human nature, nor is he a misanthrope as some people suggest. He is merely attempting to show the flaws of mankind, and in order to achieve that, he must exaggerate those flaws greatly to make them obvious. Swift is simply trying to set a goal that all mankind should attempt to meet in order to become, in his opinion, more ideal.

    Read More

  • The Houyhnthhnms: A Race Of Individuals Who Live By Reason?

    869 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...er, the Yahoos are not very flexible and do not have multiple characteristics. “They are uniformly loathsome throughout the tale” (Sullivan, 504). It seems that the creation of the Yahoos is something that Swift does to show his attack on mankind. He uses the art of satire to show how mankind can be loathsome and despicable, through the Yahoos.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Society In Gulliver's Travels

    716 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is not likely that Swift is critiquing Utilitarianism, as the book’s publication predates both Bentham and Mill, but Swift’s criticism of unchecked reason is impossible to miss. Most pointedly, the Houyhnhnms have largely displaced positive emotions such as familial love with rational collective friendship. Meanwhile, they retain negative emotional characteristics as evidenced by their hatred of the “yahoos”. Swift writes: “Their old debate, and indeed only debate . . . The question was, ‘whether the yahoos should be exterminated from the face of the Earth?’” (160). For a society that is supposedly unable to comprehend evil in rational creatures, this proposition is particularly sinister. Modern readers, with atrocities such as the Holocaust brought to mind, have no trouble seeing that the Houyhnhnms are on a dangerous course with unchecked reason at the

    Read More

  • Jonathan Swift's Influence on the Age of Reason

    1742 Words  | 4 Pages

    Jonathan Swift was one of the greatest satirist of all time. He is most famous for piece, Gulliver’s Travels. Swift’s works and lifestyle reflect the Humanities of The Age of Reason, thus giving the reader a glimpse of the common man’s life during this time. He was a very intelligent man who had a wide imagination. He faced some struggles in his life, but they never interfered with his mind.

    Read More

  • The Nature of Man in Gulliver's Travels

    758 Words  | 2 Pages

    In conclusion, the nature of man is expressed in book four of Gulliver's Travels through three different personae. Each personae has a different role to play in describing what might be Swift's beliefs on the inherent nature of humankind. It is obviously not possible to know for sure what exactly Swift was trying to say, but from as much as one can gather from his writing, he seems to be suggesting that humans are essentially greedy, lazy and careless unless they are trying to better their personal situation.

    Read More

More about Is Jonathan Swift A Misanthrope

Open Document