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󰡔현대영어영문학󰡕 제55권 제1호 (2011) 겨울 307-325

Reading Jonathan Swift’s Mind in His Works: Searching for His Genuine Humanity

Shin, Won-Kyung (Hanyang University) Shin, Won-Kyung. “Reading Jonathan Swift’s Mind in His Works: Searching for His Genuine Humanity.” Modern Studies in English Language & Literature. 55.1 (2011): 307-25. Jonathan Swift has been thought to be a misanthrope because he describes men as hateful animals in his satiric works such as Gulliver's Travels. In particular, he is accused of misogyny by depicting disgusting female figures in his prose and verse alike. I study the way he expresses his hatred of man, the reason of his fury, the real intention of his satire by analysing his biographical materials such as Correspondence, Journal to Stella. Absurdity and degeneration of man led him to strong anger at the gap between the reality and the ideal. Disillusioned by the reality veiled under the falsehood, he advises us to have an insight to penetrate the surface. Here lies the end of his satire. This paper aims to examine if he should be called a misanthrope or a misogynist. Having observed a lot of bitterness of life, Swift says that his work is a tortured attempt to make people look into things as they are. This is his love for men, not hatred. And as to his misogyny, I think differently: he had many female friends for whom he showed his genuine respect and love all his life. Swift felt keenly the gap between the ideal and the real, never giving up love for man. (Hanyang University) Key Words: Jonathan Swift, misanthrope, misogyny, humanity

I Many think that Jonathan Swift was a misanthrope because of his pessimistic views of man in general, believing that his satire comes from his hatred toward man to the core. Besides, they think Swift is a misogynist. For the evidence, they point to his constantly describing

Shin, Won-Kyung

308

disgusting men in his works, such as Gulliver's Travels and "The Lady's Dressing Room." This essay looks into the nature of his view of

man

from

a

different

perspective;

that

is,

I

regard

his

"misanthropic" description as his sincere concern for man, not hatred of man. To understand his concern for humanity, I review his letters and essays. Swift's misogyny also requires further examination because he was constantly on intimate terms with women, including Esther Vanhomrigh known as "Vanessa" and Esther Johnson more famous by her poetic appellation, "Stella," for whom he wrote many poems and letters. Another important woman in Swift's life is Jane Waring, who refused Swift's offer of marriage. Even though he is said to have unhealthy or abnormal fears of sexuality, his poetry shows his affection for women he had close relationship with. However, he wrote some misogynistic poems, feeling sorry for a gap between the ideal and the real.

II What is a satire? According to Bullitt, the most serious function of Swift's

satire

is

a

mediator

between

two

perceptions



the

disillusioned perception of a man as he actually is and the ideal perception of him as he ought to be: At the very heart of Swift's comic perception there is a tragic potentiality. . . . Now, Swift's comedy, as we have noted, is founded upon his perception of a disparity between reality and the ideal. . . . Like the journey of Oedipus from ignorance to a tragic self-knowledge of "reality." (8)

Reading Jonathan Swift’s Mind in His Works

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If the purpose of satire is to expose the difference between two extremes, a satirist should have a keen insight into the nature of men. Swift must realize the gap between the ideal and the real, this feeling leading him into an intolerable rage. Swift's satire, in which he casts a critical eye on human nature, has been narrowly interpreted as mere emotionalism or his blind loathing of human beings, and this has led many, particularly feminists, to criticize Swift's attitude, condemning him as a misogynist. Susan Gubar notes that in Swift's work female sexuality is equated with degeneration, disease, or death, and in many "obscene" poems women are described as prudes in the guise of religiosity. For example, in "A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed" women are seemingly spiritual, beautiful, healthy, but they turn out to be physical, ugly, diseased. Saying that Gulliver prefers his horses to his wife, Gubar argues that Swift's satire projects his dread of physicality of the stinking creature, the degenerate woman, concluding that Swift's poetry ignores physical attributes to extol moral and intellectual qualities that his society classified as masculine(142-4). Gubar is right to say that Swift emphasizes the moral qualities of man, but she identifies Swift with Gulliver or other male speakers in his poems. On this point, Samuel Holt Monk also points out that in Gulliver's

Traverls, it is not the author himself who mistakes human beings for Yahoos1: The most powerful single symbol in all Swift is the Yahoos. They do not represent Swift's view of man, but rather of the bestial element in man┈the unenlightened, unregenerate, irrational element in human 1 A Yahoo is a legendary being in the novel Gulliver's Travels (1726) by Jonathan Swift. Swift describes the Yahoos as savage and disgusting creatures resembling human beings.

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nature. . . . Gulliver has to admit with shame and horror that he is more like them than he is like the Houyhnnms. (Lund 91)

Thus, Swift expresses his anxiety next to fury about human ignorance and degeneration, and it does not necessarily mean he is a misanthrope or misogynist. Besides, in Gulliver's Travels, where Gulliver sees human beings with fear and loathing, Gulliver himself admits he is also a Yahoo. If Gulliver represents the author's voice, Swift is indignant about the absurdity of man like himself. In the prefatory letter in Gulliver's Travels, Gulliver clarifies the underlying purpose of the book: These, and a Thousand other Reformations, I firmly counted upon by your Encouragement; as indeed they were plainly deducible from the Precepts delivered in my Book. And, it must be owned, that seven Months were a sufficient Time to correct every Vice and Folly to which Yahoos are subjects. (Gulliver's Travels iii-iv)

Certainly Gulliver is not Swift himself in his work, but Gulliver here sounds like Swift. We can assume that Swift-Gulliver's purpose is to enlighten human beings as he writes, "seven months were a sufficient time to correct every Vice and Folly" of Yahoos. Then what does Swift think about the nature of man? As he grew older he came to concentrate increasingly upon the agony of life, motivated by an acute moral sensitivity to fraud and deceit(Bullitt 9), as described in Swift's letters to his friends. He shows his bitterness against life. For example, in a letter to Bolingbroke:

I never wake without finding life a more insignificant thing than it was the day before, which is one great advantage I get by living in this country, where there is nothing I shall be sorry to lose. But my

Reading Jonathan Swift’s Mind in His Works

311

greatest misery is recollecting the scene of twenty years past, and then all on a sudden dropping into the present. I remember, when I was a little boy, I felt a great fish at the end of my line which I drew up almost on the ground, but it dropped in, and the disappointment vexes me to this very day, and I believe it was the type of all my future disappointment. (Correspondence IV, 77)

In this letter, Swift feels things are not going as his wishes. Before his birth, his father died, leaving the family penniless; as a child, he relied on his uncles' charity, enjoying only occasional contact with his mother. This initial calamity had consequences that Swift continued to feel throughout the whole life(Lund 51). Frustrated by his patron, Sir William Temple, who would not advance him politically, he was ordained in the Church of Ireland only to be disillusioned by clerical life; he proposed to Jane Waring, but she refused it. I believe that his proposal of marriage should not be overlooked because he has been accused of a misogynist and thought as if he could not feel love for women at all. Some critics such as Laura Brown argue that the negative representation of women in Swift's works must be understood from a historical perspective because Swift felt disillusioned from political corruption and mercantile capitalism of the eighteenth century(433-6). The circumstances he had been in must have forced him to feel and express bitterness toward ugly man and the world. Even though he is in unfavorable human conditions, he does not entirely give up love and hope for man in Gulliver's Travels. In a letter from Gulliver to his cousin Sympson in Gulliver's Tavels, Gulliver states his intention of this novel and his definition of man's capacity for reason, which has evoked the controversial argument about his misanthropy.

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I have employed my time in finishing correction, amending, and transcribing my Travels, in four parts . . . the chief end I propose to my self in all my labors is to vex the world rather [than] divert it, . . . I have ever hated all Nations profession and [communities] and all my love is towards individuals . . . Principally I hate and detest that animal called man, although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas and so forth. . . . I have got Materials Towards a Treatis[e] proving the falsity of that Definition animal rationale; and to show it should be only rationis capax. Upon this great foundation of Misanthropy (though not Timon's manner2) the whole building of my [Travels] is erected.3 (Correspondence 102-3)

This statement directly reflects the "misanthropy" in Swift's work including Gulliver's Travels, to which a large portion of criticism has been devoted. While Swift concedes that the "whole building of [his travels] is erected" on the "great foundation of Misanthropy," he insists that such misanthropy is "not in Timon's manner." He is not like Timon. In other words, as Lund points out, Gulliver's Travels offers misanthropy less desperate than we might otherwise expect (52). Even though he says he hates "that animal called man," he also admits his hearty affection for close friends as he writes, "all my love is towards individuals." Swift is not a misanthrope like Timon who flees, but like Gulliver who eventually returns home and adapts to his family, identifying himself as a savage Yahoo. Moreover, he clearly says that man has the potential for change: man is not "animal

rational" but "rationis capax." Swift proves such a potential by depicting Gulliver who is able to learn Houyhnhnm's virtue and rationality as shown in Gulliver's letter:

2 Timon is a misanthrope in Shakespeare's Timon of Athens. He, disappointed and angry with men, flees to the forest where he hurls curses at all who come near him. 3 It is a letter from Swift to Alexander Pope (29 September 1725).

Reading Jonathan Swift’s Mind in His Works

313

Yahoo as I am, it is well known through all Houyhnhnmland, that by the Instructions and Example of my illustrious Master, I was able in the Compass of two Years (although I confess with the utmost Difficulty) to remove that infernal Habit of Lying, Shuffling, Deceiving, and Equivocation, so deeply rooted in the very Souls of all my Species; especially the Europeans. (Lund 122)

Gulliver, who sees human beings as inborn deceivers and swindlers, realizes education is the only power to reform man's corruptibility. While describing men as disgusting animals in his verse and prose, he had been on good terms with people. For instance, Journal to

Stella presenting his daily routine and private feelings shows that he is intimate with so many people, with whom he meets and has dinner almost every day. Journal to Stella shows his concerns about people, and vice versa: "I wish my dearest pretty Digley and Stella a happy new year, and health, and mirth,"(JS 84) or "I saw poor Patty Rolt, and gave her a pistole to help her a little,"(JS 204) or "I fear I shall have the gout. . . . they Besides misanthropy, Swift has been accused of misogyny. He foresees readers' reaction to Gulliver's Travels, which ridicules man. He began: "I see myself accused of reflecting upon great States-Folk; of degrading human Nature, and of abusing the Female Sex." In his satire, male speakers usually conceive an ideal image of a woman only to be shocked to observe a detestable female bodies or their awfully dirty stuffs. Their astonishment comes from the disparity between the ideal beauty a woman ought to have and what they actually observe. An effective device Swift adopts is to make gigantic female body images. In Book II of Gulliver's Travels, the size of woman body is emphasized. For example, being shocked to witness a woman nursing her child, Gulliver thinks her gigantic body is most disgusting:

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I must confess no object ever disgusted me so much as the sight of her monstrous breast, which I cannot tell what to compare with, so as to give the curious reader an idea of its bulk, shape and colour. It stood prominent six foot, and could not be less than sixteen in circumference. The nipple was about half the bigness of my head, and the hue both of that and the dug so varified with spots, pimples and freckles, that nothing could appear more nauseous. . . . This made me reflect upon the fair skins of our English ladies, who appear so beautiful to us, only because they are of our own size, and their defects not to be seen but through a magnifying glass. (II, i, 74)

Here Swift intentionally exaggerates the woman's disgusting figure by magnifying it. In this case, the gap between the ideal and the real is more effectively widened because the subject is a woman than a man. Because the speaker thought a woman's body should be beautiful, the sight is a big shock. Therefore, describing woman's ugly body is a special strategy of Swift's satire, which does not necessarily mean he is a misogynist. Moreover, he portrays gigantic figures not only of female but also of male characters as shown in Gulliver's Travels, in which Gulliver's body is comparable to the woman's in Brobdingnag:

My face appeared much fairer and smoother when he looked on me from the ground, than it did upon a near view when I took him up in my hand, and brought him close, which he confessed was at first a very shocking sight. He said he could discover great holes in my skin . . . and my complexion made up of several colours altogether disagreeable. (II, i, 74-5)

Here, Swift describes Gulliver's body in the same way as women: huge and disgusting. Likewise, in "The Lady's Dressing Room,"

Reading Jonathan Swift’s Mind in His Works

315

Strephon, while examining Celia's dressing room, accidently finds his gigantic body in a magnifying glass:

The Virtues we must not let pass, Of Celia's magnifying Glass. When frighted Strephon cast his Eye on't It shew'd the Visage of a Gyant. A Glass that can to Sight disclose, The smallest Worm in Celia's Nose. (60-4)4

Strephon is frightened to see his huge body reflected in a magnifying glass, which is the same device in Gulliver's Travels. However, the emphasis of gigantic figures does not specifically express Swift's misanthropy. For another characteristic of Swift's satire, David Fairer focuses on Swift's special capacity of combining dissimilar things by imagination. He compares this skill to "Locke's theory of association," by which two

remote

ideas

can

become

associated

in

the

mind

simultaneously(55-56). For example, in "The Lady's Dressing Room," before Strephon peers into the things in Celia's private dressing room, he conceived a stereotypical image of a lady, but he is shocked at Ceia's room full of stinking stuffs. Here, his imagination links the stench of the dirty things to women he knows, concluding that most women are disgusting:

Thus finishing his grand Survey, Disgusted Strephon stole away

For Swift's poems, I use The Poems of Jonathan Swift. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1948. Poems are cited by line numbers within parentheses. 4

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Repeating in his amorous Fits, Oh! Celia, Celia, Celia shits! ................................................. His foul Imagination links Each Dame he sees with all her Stinks: And, if unsav'ry Odours fly, Conceives a Lady standing by: All Women his Description fits, And both Idea's jump like Wits: By vicious fancy coupled fast, And still appearing in Contrast. (115-28)

The speaker's illusions about women shatter, and he realizes acutely the gap between the appearance and the reality. So, he jumps to a conclusion that all women he knows are disguising their hideous colors: "By vicious fancy coupled fast/ And still appearing in Contrast." In the same manner, the discrepancy between appearance and reality is applied to "A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed."5 This poem carries the ironic subtitle "Written for the Honour of the Fair Sex" and a Latin epigraph from Ovid's Remedia Amoria, 1:334: "A woman is the least part of herself" (ECP 85). Women disguise their real appearance:

Returning at the Midnight Hour; Four Stories climbing to her Bow'r; Then, seated on a three-legg'd Chair, Takes off her artificial Hair: Now, picking out a Crystal Eye, 5 The title of this poem is perhaps an ironic parallel to John Donne's famous Elegy To His Mistris Going to Bed. Both poems describe the process of a woman undressing(ECP 85).

Reading Jonathan Swift’s Mind in His Works

317

She wipes it clean, and lays it by. Her Eye-Brows from a Mouse's Hyde, Stuck on with Art on either Side, Pulls off with Care, and first displays 'em, Then in a Play-Book smoothly lays' em. ................................................................... A Set of Teeth completely comes. (7-20)

The speaker depicts women's use of artificial beauty aids. The woman is a prostitute who uses a variety of devices to make herself up pretty. In a sense, the speaker is warning men not to judge women's beauty by the superficial beauty. Swift's notorious scatological prose and verse such as "Gulliver's

Travels," "The Lady's Dressing Room," and "A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed" have offended readers, especially feminists, but there have been different responses to these poems. Some critics see these as female disparagement, but others, like Schakel, insist that the scatological poems satirize the overemphasis on physical relationships and the naive idealism of romantic love(119). Schakel's perspective has something in common with Swift's intention in that he tries to keep the balance between the two extremes. He thinks that women are not so adorable as they appear, so it is not advisable to judge them only by external appearance. Such an attitude does not seem really malicious toward women. I think he is expressing his deep concern for men. He sincerely advises men to have insights into reality. Swift felt a lifelong suspicion of marriage, and yet he also maintained deep attachment to a series of younger women. He was also surrounded by a bevy of adoring females(Lund 84). So, it is premature to conclude he is a misogynist, though he attacks women in

318

Shin, Won-Kyung

his works. Actually, some critics, instead of the possibility of misanthropy or misogyny of Swift's satire, offer alternative readings. One is Laura Brown who argues that Swift links female beauty, female adornments, and dress with the corruptions of mercantile capitalism, attempting to attack on the hypocritical female as the embodiment of cultural corruption(433-6). And a lot of stinking stuffs in "The Lady's Dressing Room" can be a satire for degenerate materialism, and men's exaggerated bodies may imply vanity in man. And J. A. Downie interprets Gulliver's Travels as a political analogy, pointing out that even before Gulliver's Travels was published, Swift expressed the fea r6 that persons in power would find it politically objectionable (275-8). It is said that Swift is a misogynist because of the hideous female figures in his satiric work. But he had been on intimate terms with women, including Esther Johnson, Esther Vanhomrigh, and Jane Waring. Swift first met Esther Johnson in 1689 at Moor Park, where her mother lived as a friend of the Temple family7. He helped the girl's early education, but this pedagogical relationship soon developed into probably the most important and enduring friendship in Swift's life(ECP 76). When she was thirty-eight, Swift began writing birthday poems for her under the title of "Stella's Birthday"8 and continued writing until her last birthday. The poem written in 1721 as a birthday 6 Swift had reason to be nervous. The whole question of hidden of encoded meanings became increasingly worrisome to English courts during Walpole's ministry. Swift's satire attacked Walpole with a series of thinly veiled historical fables and it turned on whether libellous or seditious innuendos (Lund 121). 7 Swift spent a considerable amount of time at Moor Park in Surrey as secretary to Sir William Temple, the retired Whig diplomat and author. 8 Swift gave Esther Johnson a poetic name "Stella," which recalls the idealized mistress of Sir Philip Sidney's sonnet-sequence Astrophel and Stella. (Fairer 76).

Reading Jonathan Swift’s Mind in His Works

319

present reveals his extraordinary affection for her: All Travellers at first incline Where'er they see the fairest Sign, And if they find the Chambers neat, And like the Liquor and the Meat Will call again and recommend The Angel-Inn to ev'ry Friend: And though the Painting grows decayd The House will never loose its' Trade; .................................................................. Now, this is Stella's Case in Fact: An Angel's Face, a little crack't; (Could Poets or could Painters fix How Angels look at thirty six) This drew us in at first to find In such a Form an Angel's Mind .................................................................. No Bloom of Youth can ever blind The Cracks and Wrinkles of your Mind, All Men of Sense will pass your Dore And crowd to Stella's at fourscore. (1-58)

Here Swift shows his affection for Esther Johnson, emphasizing her internal beauty over the external. The speaker thinks that despite the physical decay, Stella's true moral virtues will strengthen, and all men will love her even when she becomes old. Hunting notes that this poem shows Swift's beautiful tenderness toward the remarkable woman(60). Sadly, Stella died in 1728 after a long illness. A letter to Sherdidan who informed him that Stella's death was imminent shows how much Swift was concerned about her health:

Shin, Won-Kyung

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I am still in the same condition, or rather worse, for I walk like a drunken man, and am deafer than ever you knew me . . . These are the perquisites of living long: the last act of life is always a tragedy at best, but it is a bitter aggravation to have one's last friend go before one . . . What have I to do in the world? I never was in such agonies as when I received your letter, and had it in my pocket. I am able to hold up my sorry head no longer. (Bullitt 11)9

As in the poem above, Swift values highly internal beauty over the external, as Schakel states that women's physical decay in Swift's satire brings out the folly of overemphasizing the physical human relationships (98). It seems that Swift loved Stella. Despite the ambiguous relationship between Swift and Stella, they may have been married. Stella was continuously

the beloved and intimate friend of

Swift(JS xi). When Swift died on the 19th of October, 1745, he was buried beside Stella, who had died before him, in 1728. In Swift's life, Esther Vanhomrigh, it seems, was Stella's rival. Swift gave her the name "Vanessa," whose acquaintance with Swift must have given pain to Stella. Vanessa had youth, fortune, fashion; all the acquired

accomplishments

and

information

in

which

Stella

was

deficient. So, Swift gave Vanessa a preference in his affection (JS vi-viii). It seems that most of the early biographers minimize the apparent gravity of Swift's conduct towards Vanessa, but it is clear that

they

shared

more

than

mere

friendship.

She

had

fallen

passionately in love with Swift, and followed him to Ireland, hoping that Swift would marry her. Orrery describes Vanessa's character and her feeling for Swift: Vanessa was excessively vain. . . . She was fond of dress: impatient to 9

417.

Letter to the Reverend Thomas Sheridan (Sept. 2. 1727), Correspondence III,

Reading Jonathan Swift’s Mind in His Works

321

be admired; very romantic in her turn of mind: superior in her own opinion to all her sex. . . . happy in the thoughts of being reputed Swift's concubine: but still aiming and intending to be his wife. (Johnston 144-5)

This explains much about what kind of woman she was and what Swift-Vanessa relationship was like. Vanessa loved Swift ardently, forming a love triangle among Swift, Stella, and Vanessa. Stella's temper and jealousy frequently occur because of Vanessa's passion for Swift and Swift's undefined relationship with Stella excited Vanessa's jealousy(JS xiii). The growing attachment between Swift and Vanessa is convincingly described in his correspondence and poems. For example, he wrote, "I wish I were to walk with you fifty times about your garden, and then drink your coffee"(Johnston 148). Finally there is a poem entitled "To Love,"10 in Swift's handwriting, which was found in Vanessa's desk after her death. The first four lines of the poem: Thou grand deluder, were it not for thee! So weak art thou, that fools thy power despise And yet so strong, thou triumph'st o'er the wise.

We can feel Swift's affection toward the girl, but he does not express intense love. In some of poems related to Vanessa, Swift's mind toward Vanessa is a friendship, not love. Similarly, "Cadenus and Vanessa" shows the process of their love story, Swift's reaction to Vanessa's love being friendship:

10 This poem was found in Vanessa's desk after her death, which is printed in full in A. Martin Freeman's Vanessa and her Correspondence with Jonathan Swift (qtd. Johnston 149).

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322

But Friendship in its greatest Height, A constant, rational Delight, On Virtue's Basis fix'd to last, When Love's Allurements long are past; Which gently warms, but cannot burn; He gladly offers in return: His Want of Passion will redeem, With Gratitude, Respect, Esteem: With that Devotion we bestow, When Goddesses appear below. (780-89)

The speaker values friendship more highly than romantic love. There was a certain gap between Vanessa's love toward Swift and Swift's affection for Vanessa. Sir Walter Scott also notes that after his marriage with Stella, Swift seems to have redoubled his anxiety to moderate the passion of Vanessa into friendship or to give it a new direction. A common conviction running through all Swift's poems about women is that in human relationships, the internal must be preferred over the external, reason over passion, friendship over romance (Schakel 119), and it is the same with Vanessa. The story of Jane Waring, whom Swift called Varina, passes unnoticed by most biographers, but she must be referred to because, it seems, she must have influenced Swift's misogynistic attitude. Johnston argues that she had evidently been flirting with Swift and refused his final offer of marriage because she did not anticipate his prospects to be a good husband(123). Swift wrote a long letter in bidding her farewell: I here solemnly offer to forego it all for your sake. I desire nothing of your fortune; you shall live where and with whom you please till my affairs are settled to your desire, and in the meantime I will push my advancement with all the eagerness and courage imaginable, and do not

Reading Jonathan Swift’s Mind in His Works

323

doubt to succeed. . . . the love of Varina is of more tragical consequence than her cruelty. Would to God you had treated and scorned me from the beginning. It was your pity that opened the first way to my misfortune; and now your love is finishing my ruin. (qtd. Johnston 123)

This letter shows how painful her refusal was. His final appeal for this lady's affections was on the 29th April, 1696, and four years later, in 1670, Varina changed her mind about his proposal as he now had more qualifications of a husband. But Swift refused to repeat his offer, but asked her whether she, on her part, was aware of some of the qualifications of a wife. This letter has been described as a model of meanness, selfishness and brutality but also as the answer of an honourable and straightforward man. To this query, he got no reply, and consequently, there the matter of marriage ended (Johnston 123). Among the three women referred to, Varina was the first woman he considered marrying seriously.

III Though criticism, it seems, says that Swift is a misanthrope, as I have discussed his works above, he loved men more than any other writer. It is mainly due to his works describing men as extremely disgusting, depraved, ignorant animals that he is regarded as a misanthrope or a misogynist. Such was his way to deal with the problem of humanity in general, the disparity between appearance and reality. The speakers in his works such as Gulliver's Travels and

Correspondence among others show fierce resentment towards men but never abandon the strong belief in improving men. Thus, there lies

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Shin, Won-Kyung

Swift's true intention in his works: moral reformation. Given that he shared his life-ling love and sincere friendship with women including Esther Johnson, Esther Vanhomrigh, Jane Waring, Swift was not a misogynist. Besides, in his poems, journal, and letters we can read his mind, genuine concern for human beings. So, it is a hasty judgement to conclude that Swift is a misanthrope or a misogynist just because of his works depicting men unfavorably.

Works Cited Brown, Laura. "Reading Race and Gender: Jonathan Swift." Eighteenth-Century Studies. 23 (1990): 433-6. Bullitt, John M. Jonathan Swift and the Anatomy of Satire, Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1953. Downie, J.A. Jonathan Swift, Political Writer. London: Routledge&Kegan Paul, 1984. Fairer, David. Eighteenth Century Poetry: An Annotated Anthology. Eds. David Fairer and Christine Gerrard. Malden: Blackwell Pub, 2004. Abbreviated as ECP. . "Wit, Imagination, and Mock-Heroic." English Poetry of the Eighteenth Century 1700-1789. London: Longmman, 2003. 55-76. Gubar, Susan. "The Female Monster in Augustan Satire." Modern Critical Views: Jonathan Swift. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House, 1896. 142-4. Hunting, Robert. Jonathan Swift: Revised Edition. Boston: Twayne, 1989. Johnston, Denis. In Search of Jonathan Swift. Barnes & Noble, 1959. Lund, Roger D. Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels: A Sourcebook. New York: Routledge, 2006. Schakel, Peter J. The Poetry of Jonathan Swift: Allusion and the Development of a Poetic Style. Madison: Wisconsin UP, 1978. Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver's Travels and Other Writings. Ed. Louis A. Landa. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1960. . Journal to Stella. London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1955. Abbreviated as JS.

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. The Poems of Jonathan Swift. vol. 3 Oxford: Oxford UP, 1948. Williams, Herold. Ed. The Correspondence of Jonathan Swift, vol 5. Oxford: Clarendon P, 1963. Abbreviated as Correspondence. Williams, Kathleen. "Giddy Circumstance." Modern Critical Views: Jonathan Swift. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House, 1896.

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