Born Nov. 30, 1667 in Dublin, Ireland Began education at Kilkenny

Grammar School in 1673 Attended Trinity College 1682-1686 Received M.A. from Oxford 1692 Ordained in the Church of Ireland

1695• Ordained - to appoint somebody officially

as a priest, minister, or rabbi

Swift wrote many pieces of satirical literature, a biography and essays

From 1696-1699 A Tale of the Tub-commented on the “extremism” of Catholicism and Calvanism

1697 Battle of the Books, Ancients vs Moderns

1720-1726 Gulliver’s Travels 1729 A Modest Proposal

His father died a few months before he was born and his depressed mother left him with relatives and moved back to England

Suffered from Meniere’s Disease his entire adult life• Meniere’s Disease - a disorder of the inner ear that

can affect hearing and balance to a varying degree. It is characterized by episodes of vertigo (dizziness) and tinnitus (ringing of the year)

Became senile and suffered a stroke 1742 Guardian appointed Died October 19th 1745

Swift is satirizing (among other things) the conventions of a travel

narrative-as well as the tendency of many readers to believe everything

they read.

Gulliver’s first voyage is to Lilliput, a land of tiny people whose petty, ways poke fun at similar pettiness in England.• Petty: not broad or open in views or opinions

Gulliver is captured and brought to the King, he eventually becomes a national resource and helps fight the nation of Blefuscu but after urinating on the palace to put out a fire he is sentenced to death.

Gulliver’s second voyage, to an island named Brobingnag full of giants, satirizes England’s appetite for excess (food, drink, and sex), as well as an over- inflated egotistical, grandiose feeling of self worth.• Grandiose - more complicated or elaborate

than necessary

The third voyage, to the floating island of Laputa populated by mad scientist and loony academics, satirizes the English craze for the latest technologies and scientific discoveries.

The voyage also satirizes the concept that the best solution to any problem is a technological one.

The 4th and final voyage to the land of Houyhnhnms (pronounced “Hwinn-ems”) is the most complex because Gulliver loses his sense of objective thought. He becomes convinced that a society of “reasoning” horses who keep human-like “yahoos” as pets is better than his home England.