Jonathan Swift And Neoclassicism

Jonathan Swift was a highly satirical writer who often openly criticized politics and political issues. Due to the time they were published, their politically-focused themes, and the base from which most of his writings were inspired puts Swift and his works resolutely in the Neoclassical era. Even after the end of the period in the late eighteenth century, Swift’s work continued to influence writers and stories world-wide, even to present day. The Neoclassical period lasted from 1660 to the late 1790’s, including set-minded works and criticisms. The period was a time of negativity in literature that directly opposed the ideas of Romanticism and the Renaissance. The era chose to focus on the infinite flaws and corruptness of man, in direct …show more content…
He displayed many obvious traits of Neoclassicism in his writings, usually through his criticisms of politics. The idea that everyone was flawed and incredibly prone to corruption is a main theme in many of his novels. One prime example is arguably Swift’s most famous novel Gulliver’s Travels, in which the main character Gulliver states almost outright that he is choosing to leave the realm of society in favor of another species due to his inability to deal further with the horribleness and corruptness of humanity. The rest of the book then explains through the tales of different species and peoples the exact flaws of politics and society as a …show more content…
Jonathan Swift’s satirical works influenced a great number of authors including many renowned ones, such as George Orwell, H.G. Wells and Jorge Luis. George Orwell took the same approach to Swift as Swift took to Defoe, however, saying that at best Swift was “a Tory Anarchist, despising authority while disbelieving in liberty” (Webster). Despite this, Orwell admitted that Swift was undoubtedly one of the top influencers of his work. H.G. Wells on the other hand, another highly revered author, used many of Swift’s main themes and concepts and interwove them into his own stories. The most obvious case of this is in Wells’ book The Time Machine. Outside of this, Jonathan Swift influenced a great number of plays, musicals and even books directly based off his own works. Multiple movie adaptations of Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels were made in the twentieth and twenty first century, and multiple books and movies were written as spoofs of the book while maintaining the same basic themes and