Houyhnhnm

In Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, Swift portrays the differences of state religions as a comedic spectacle, directly contrary to his personal viewpoints in favor of a state religion. In Louis XIV’s Versailles, religion, specifically Catholicism, was intertwined into the French government. As an absolutist king, Louis controlled the entire state of France and ensured all of France was Catholic. At Versailles, Louis displayed his power over France through religion. Both Swift and Louis XIV…

The famous author Jonathan Swift once said, “When a great genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign; that the dunces are all in confederacy against him" (Swift Introduction vi). Jonathan Swift himself was a great genius who lived through the end of the 16th century. He was born with a gift ahead of his time that allowed him to see the world as it really was: a dystopia. Born in Dublin in 1667, he lived through an aggressive time period in Europe. Political unrest, religious…

perpetually and unalterably cheerful, but feel my own mind restless and uneasy. I am unsatisfied with those pleasures which I seem most to court . . . am only loud and merry to conceal my sadness” (363). This introduces the idea that happiness can be faked, and just like Rasselas fakes his happiness, his friends too can fake their own happiness. Imlac reassures Rasselas, that just like he questions his own happiness, his friends might be doing the exact same thing, only maintaining fronts to fit…

In the novel, Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift expresses his ideas about politics, society, and the presumed self-righteousness of human society. The effects of social darwinism are profound and are evident within the characters in the story. Throughout the story, the desire to rise to a higher social standard is the driving motive behind the character’s actions. A main theme of the novel is how an individual can become distorted by their own thirst to climb up the social hierarchy. In her…

Name: Liam Barry-Hayes Student No: 13112481 Module No: EH4714 Title: Scatological preoccupations in Gulliver’s Travels establish the human body as a metaphor for the colonial body in the text. Discuss. Mary Immaculate College University of Limerick Lecturer: Dr Maria Beville Submitted to Mary Immaculate College: Date: ................. Declaration: I declare that this essay is all my own work and that I have acknowledged and referenced all sources of information I have used in the essay…