英语专业The Social Significance of Gulliver’s Travels.docVIP

Introduction Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) was a great Irish satirist, poet, political pamphleteer and writer. Coming from a family which had several interesting literary connections, Jonathan Swift was well-educated. Jonathan Swift wrote his own epitaph which William Butler Yeat poetically translated it from the Latin as: Swift has sailed into his rest; Savage indignation there Cannot lacerate his breast. Imitate him if you dare, World-besotted traveler; he Served human liberty. From this epitaph, it is not hard to have a general understanding of Jonathan Swift’s whole life. He held the belief his whole life that each man is born to be equal and should have their freedom, which was showed widely in his masterpieces. Jonathan Swift is probably the foremost prose satirist in the English language, and is less well known for his poetry. He is well-known for many works such as A Modest Proposal, A Journal to Stella, The Battle of the Books, Gulliver’s Travels, An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity and A Tale of a Tub. The most famous is Gulliver’s Travels(1726, amended 1735) which describes Lemuel Gulliver’s travels into several remote nations of the world, in four parts (Lilliput、Brobdingnag、Laputa、Houyhnhnms). The protagonist is Lemuel Gulliver, first a surgeon, and then a captain of several ships. This book became popular as soon as it was published. Gulliver’s Travels serves as a biting satire which is both humorous and critical, constantly attacking British and European society through its descriptions of imaginary countries. Gulliver’s Travels has been the recipient of several designations: from Menippean satire to a children’s story, from Proto-Scence Ficton to a forerunner of the modern novel. It has great social significance, such as a satirical view of the state of European government and of petty differences between religions; an inquiry into whether men are inherently corrupt or whether they become corrupted and a restatement of the older argument” an