格列佛游记的讽刺艺术毕业论文

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1、【标题】格列佛游记的讽刺艺术 【作者】任 睿 【关键词】英国文学斯威夫特象征主义讽刺技巧 【指导老师】白 敏 【专业】英语教育 【正文】1. Introduction1.1 Background The eighteenth century in English literature was an age of prose, not because the poetry of that time was bad, but because the prose was better especially with the rise and development of the Enlightenm

2、ent in Great Britain.On the base of the Enlightenment, writers continued to develop the literature to a new literary movement, which is the Sentimentalism.“As the result of a bitter discontent with social reality among the enlighteners, the representatives of sentimentalism continue to struggle agai

3、nst feudalism but they sensed at the same time the contradictions in the process of capitalist development.”9 Some talented sentimentalism writers soon went into the sight of person. Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift,Henry Fielding,Richard Bransley Sheridan are the representatives of sentimentalism.Among

4、 them Jonathan Swift is the greatest one.1.2 Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift(1667-1745) was born in Ireland in 1667.His father died before he was born. His mother was poor, and he was compelled to accept aid from relatives. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin. In 1704, his two works were published,A

5、 Tale of Tub and The Battle of Books, which criticized the corruption in religion and field of learning. They made Swift a well-known satirist. Then his articles against the war directly influenced on the signing of treaty between Britain and France. So he became the most important figure in London.

6、The lords either in Whigs or Tories, which were the two kind of party in Great Britain in the 18th century, tried every possible way to flatter and court him. However, the circumstances did not keep so long. One year later the Tories went out of power, Swift was driven out from England and returned

7、to Ireland. In Ireland, he was active in the combat of Ireland fighting for freedom and independence. In 1776, an important year, his best known and immortal literary workGullivers Travels was completed.1.3 Gullivers Travels Gullivers Travels is the representative work of Jonathan Swift. This novel

8、is divided into four parts, which tell us the adventure of Gulliver in Lillput, Brobdingnag, Laputa, Houyanhnms. When this novel was published, soon it won the favor of British. Later, it was translated into different languages and introduced to people around the world. Some famous writers such as F

9、ranois Marie Arouet,Luxun have a profound respect for this satire work of Swift. Readers of different countries give Gullivers Travels highly praise. Not only does Gullivers Travels have the profound significance, but also has the perfect skills. With unique techniques and skillful plot arrangement,

10、 Swift depicts the social reality of Great Britain of that time and creates a colorful and fantastic world. However, over hundreds of years Gullivers Travels was well known to everyone simply as an adventure travel. Most readers concentrate their attention on the unusual experiences of Gulliver, the

11、 hero of the novel, or other strange things. They neglect Gullivers Travels significance as literature work. It is against Swifts original purpose of creating this novel. However, in the literature world, Swifts Gullivers Travels is regarded as a model for satirical literature. The arts of satire in

12、 Gullivers Travels affect other famous writers like Fielding, Dickens, Bernard shaw, moreover. This novel establishes Swift as a master of satirical prose in the history of English literature. Gullivers Travels is the most wonderful one in satire works of the literature world. This paper aims at dis

13、cussing the satire in Gullivers Travels. It introduces the satire through symbolism, and discusses the satire through the following four aspects: combination of fantasy and exaggeration, satire embodied by the comments, the use of irony, satire skillfully expressed by means of grammar.2. Satire in S

14、ymbolism of the Four Countries Gulliver has been to four places for adventure.The four places are Lillput, Brobdingnag, Laputa, and Houyanhnms. Apparently, they are nothing special. They are just common places by fantasy, but Swift creates these countries with his obvious purpose.He wants to satiriz

15、e the society of Great Britain by symbolism of the four Countries, So the irony about these four countries stands for his four different points.The first country is Lilliput. Swift adopts the way of overlook. Those Lilliputians are six inches high, looking very pretty at first, but soon the potentat

16、es reveal their instinct full of duplicity and cruelty. The ministers get higher position and salary if they can jump higher. It seems that ones talent and ability is not necessary in that county, as the same as in Great Britain. There are also two parties in Lilliput scrabble for rights and power.

17、Obviously, the High Heels and Low Heels innuendo the Tories and Whigs. Breaking eggs at smaller or larger end symbolize the Catholic and Protestant. Swift satirizes the two sects with vivid metaphor. Lillput is the mirror of Great Britain. The Lilliputians have small bodies, but they have ambitions.

18、The second country is Brobdingnag. Brobdingnag is a place that the giants live in. Swift adopts the way of look-up. The giant country is the ideal country in Swifts heart. Swift further exerts his satire by the king of Brodingnag. In fact the king is just Swift, what the king criticizes is what Swif

19、t wants to do. What the king said criticizes the system of Great Britain from jobbery to unfair laws. Swift uses imaginary figure to achieve the successful effect of satire.The third country is Laputa. Gulliver views human behavior through common sense.He meets two kinds of pirates: Japanese and Dut

20、ch. Japanese stand for Pagan, but Dutch stand for nominal Christianity. By the contrast of their attitudes toward Gulliver, Swift draws the conclusion that the nominal Christianity is more wanton malice than nominal Paganism. The emperor of Laputa represents the autarchy. If the inhabitants of Laput

21、a cannot satisfy their king, they will be punished or be deprived from the benefit of the sun and rain at any moment and be afflicted with death and diseases. It reveals and satirizes the Britains colonization on Ireland, and implies that the autarchy of Britain will stir the Irish peoples sense of

22、fighting.The fourth country is Houyhnhnms, which represents an unattractive picture, but it cannot be the identical. The Houyhnhnms like a limpid lake reflecting the aspect of ugliest of mankind. Swift perfectly abandons the previous implicative satire technique. He uses another naked way to satiriz

23、e.Yahoo symbolizes the dirty, greedy, vicious, lecherous and the stupid.The Europeans described by Gulliver to his master are exactly like yahoos except they are more intelligent, but this only makes them worse. Corruption of that faculty might be worse than brutality itself. Civilized men behave mo

24、re disgustingly than animals.From the four countries above we discuss, we can be exposed to the satire in Gullivers Travels from symbolism. When we understand the nature of satire,we can further discuss satire of swift in details, that is the way of ironythe spirit of satire.3. The Characteristics o

25、f His Irony3.1 Combination of Fantasy and Exaggeration The main characteristic of Gullivers Travels is the use of combination of fantasy and exaggeration describing the life with the way of satire and revealing the typical character of system of life of times that Swift lives in. Fantasy and exagger

26、ation are the basic satire arts in this novel. The figure and plot are perfectly fictional. The Lilliput, Brobdingnag,Laputa, Houyhnhms are the fantasy world.In the fantasy world there exist countless odds and uncanny things. By these fantasies, Swift transplants the character of common people aroun

27、d him to the fictional unreal things that the people cannot touch and feel. Then he generalizes it, and make it seems more typically to reflects cruelty and shameless of governor of Great Britain. The form of fantasy is the beautiful fairy tale so it has the attractive charm.The fictional pictures o

28、f life suddenly get into readers sight, the behavior of figure and plot are filled with arts. Numerous Lilliputians like ants fasten Gulliver on the ground, later on, the king of Lilliput develops friendship with Gulliver. The king inspects his army under Gulliver; the queen dances in Gullivers hand

29、; Lilliputians play games in Gullivers hair. But the Brobdingag is different. Gulliver is taken up by the middle and thrown into a large silver bowl of cream by a wicked dwarf. He is under the attack of mouse of the size a large mastiff.He meets the greatest danger that he is held by a monkey. Gulli

30、ver nearly loses his life. These interesting descriptions would easily draw readers attention. However, Gullivers Travels is not simply a fairy tale. In this fairy tale, we are familiar with the deep sense of satire. When you see the king of Lilliput inspect his armies, which are like ants, under Gu

31、lliver to show his power. Isnt it the paper tiger? Drums beating and color flying obviously show the kings conceit and silliness.The rich ideology are tactfully into the form of fairy tale.The chic form of arts mix with profound theme of satire. They foil with each other to form a colorful picture.

32、In this fantasy society, some sovereigns play important roles. The small king only has the size of six inches, but he calls himself the dominator of universe. That king of Laputa persecutes his civilians as his wish. Though these figures, without names, have the same ways of rule: arrogance, atrocit

33、y, selfishness, and abjection. These figures in fact are the figures of noble of Britain. They maybe have different form but have the same spirit: the wicked spirit. There is no difficulty in imagining a dark world dominated by tyrant. Some elements of exaggeration are added to the fantasy. Jonathan

34、 Swift always combines the fantasy and exaggeration. The usage of exaggeration makes the fancied novel filled with the characteristic of arts. Swift knows the real arts allow the exaggeration. Whats more, the arts of irony have the rights of exaggeration. Swift, by means of exaggeration, laughs at t

35、he abnormality. He dwindles, enlarges, even uglifies to analyze and satirize their spirit.The apparent talk and behavior have certain degree of exaggeration. By means of exaggeration, Swift describes these figures typical character exactly. It enhances the power of irony in Gullivers Travels to a la

36、rge extent. What deeply impress readers are the figures of Lilliputians and Brobdingnagians, who are exaggerated in the novel. Swift thought that he was living in a nasty world, but this condition made Swift in idealized position to observe his motherland and compatriots more clearly. Thus, we can s

37、ee that even if rulers become animals, their despicable nature does not change a bit, they boast themselves to bluff. Sometimes Swift exaggerates common people to make their shortcoming come to light. Swift not only exaggerates the build of person, but also personates some animals. For example, hors

38、e is described as a kind of animal who can think and love.The ape(yahoo) own the bad habit the same as human being. The way of exaggeration has sense of myth.The island can fly in the air, and the dead people can talk. These techniques of writing show Swifts rich imagination and superior expression.

39、 Swift is good at combining some things and phenomenon without any relationship, which violates the common sense to reflect logic of thought and behavior, but he gets the effect of making someone laugh. These techniques form the characteristic of humor in Gullivers Travels. For example, Swift descri

40、bes that a scientist studies a project to extract sun-beans out of cucumbers. One wants to reduce human excrement to its original food. One wants to caline ice into gun power. The above is very ridiculous. By these irrelevant things, the readers have realized that the studies of scientists are out o

41、f fact. When this way of exaggeration is used to satirize the democracy and freedom of bourgeoisie, it seems more remarkable. For another example, when Gullliver gets the permission to visit the grand academy of Lagado and see a professors masterpiece about how to discover plots and conspiracies aga

42、inst the government, the professor advises the statesmen to examine into the diet of all suspected person including times of eating,“which side they lay in bed and take a strict view of their excrement, then gets the conclusion whether suspected person want to murder the king. Eating, Sleeping, Excr

43、eting have relation to conspiracy,”5 but Swift adopts a funny way to connect these things. The result of connecting these things has new meaning: readers can easily see that these so-called democracy and freedom are fabled to civilians. The ruler of bourgeoisie has no difference from that of feudali

44、ty. Maybe there is one difference that bourgeoisie is more deceptive.Swift adds crazy and fantasy to exaggeration. No doubt, His way of satire is unique.3.2 Satire in Gullivers Comments In the novel, Gulliver always makes comments on some strange things. Gullivers mind plays a key role in generalizi

45、ng the plots of the novel. Some simple comments in the novel do not weaken the figure of arts but strengthen the effect of arts and the theme. Satire in comments, this superior technique directly affects LuXuns creation of satire. Satire in comments, just like his political essay, can beat the foe w

46、ith accuracy. The means of comments is various. Abuse, sarcasm, laugh, criticism appear in his comments. The case of the comments of unique character is perfectly different from the moral novel popular in Great Britain in that era. Swift aims at the upper class of Britain, the politician, the army,

47、the law, the culture and scientist, which have the same fate, and cannot escape Swifts attack by satire. Though the contents are varied, Swift treats different things with different comments. When he criticizes the ugliness in society, he laughs at it and satirizes. When he sees the humans standard

48、of moral going down and suffering unfair treat, his satire is so incisive that people cant breathe. When Gullliver visits the grand academy of Lagado, he points out the theory of scientist is out of fact and not at the service of mankind. His satire nearly becomes a kind of mock, so his comment seem

49、s naked without any sympathy. Because he thinks these so-called scientists have no qualification to be eligible scientists. In Swifts comments, we can directly catch his meaning. From Swifts heart, He looks down upon those scientists and considers them as the rulers tool. Sometimes we can find the m

50、ost sparking in his discussion. When Gulliver visits a doctor, the doctor tells Gulliver he wants to find out remedies for all diseases and corruptions. Gulliver expresses his approval, he thinks the result of study of that doctor has important mean, and expresses comment“beget unanimity, shorten De

51、bate, open a few mouths which are now closed, and close many more which now open, curb the petulancy of the young, and correct the positiveness of the old, rouze the stupid and damp the pert”4.Here.Swift connects the politics with health, and gives us the penetrating comment. On one hand he points o

52、ut the numerous disadvantages. Each of the councilor is like a patient and its impossible for them to recover from disease. There is no one among them willing to stand for civilian to keep righteousness. On the other hand, he criticizes confusion and corruption of Great Britain and endless quarrel.

53、When it comes to the lawyer, in his comment, he criticizes that the lawyers have been learning how to play the game of words. From the view of a writer, their behavior is always against the truth and righteousness until they die. In this case, Swift concludes that the poor are ended up with losing a

54、ll family property, but they get unfair judgment. Then Swift adds a question: why does thefair law bring about this result. The purpose of the question is very clearly and causes the peoples echo. The people will think why the systems of law in Britain become so dark. The technique of satire leads t

55、he way of the readers think into the condition, which Swift designs in advance. The superior technique of satire in Swifts comments lets the readers think and criticize together with him. Strong power of satire in Swifts comments we can feel, even if Gullivers Travels is a fictional travel.So satire

56、 in discussion is the second characteristic of satire in Gullivers Travels.3.3 The Use of IronyIrony is a point in satire novel. Irony has enough reason to be the third characteristic.The irony in Gullivers travel is very special when describing the new things and odd figures. In his humorous statem

57、ents and penetrating comments, Swift always uses the words with compliment to depict the bad things, which is different from other satire novels. Swift states Gullivers story in ordinary writing ways: apparently if he feels sympathy for them and respects them, in fact he hates them. He is at daggers

58、 drawn with them.In most cases, Swift doesnt add exaggeration to his irony. When he uses irony he nearly does not give readers any implication, especially in Lilliput and brobdingnag. So if we dont have good knowledge of the background of Great Britain and motivation of Swifts creating this novel, w

59、ell misunderstand this novel. The adult will think this novel is a stimulative adventure novel, while the children consider it a fairy story. Maybe that is the reason why Gullivers Travels has not been considered a satire work when people read it for over hundreds of years.His irony style is indeed

60、different. Swift may believe readers have capacity to distinguish what is wrong or right. So lets see the description of king of Lilliput:“his features are strong and masculine, his complexion olive, his countenance erect, his body and limbs well proportioned all his motions graceful and his deportm

61、ent majestic”1 Swift praises the kings good face and culture.The praise words of magnificence seem to violate seriously the traditional way of describing a vicious men even with Irony, but Swift has done so. The irony way of Swifts breaks the common rules but he is not after distinction on purpose.

62、The sense of his irony technique strengthens effect of contrast: The contrast of the good appearance and malicious spirit. Another purpose of usage of irony is to remind the kind people not to be confused by the insincerity of governor. The third purpose of his irony is that he knows the higher a pe

63、rsons position is, the more serious hurt he suffers when he falls down. So Swift is willing to place the wicked person on the highest position.The irony serves three purposes at one time. So we have to admire the remarkable technique of irony. Irony itself has no beauty, but through decoration of Sw

64、ift, he irony is filled with the elements of art. We enjoy this technique as if we enjoy a piece of artwork.So using irony is Swifts speciality.When we continue to read his novel, we will find not only the common people want to make critical remarks about the ruler, but also the ruler will give hims

65、elf a slap in the face with his own dirty hand. That is very interesting. We can read a passage about Lilliput. The law regulate:“whoever makes ill returns to his benefactor, needs be a common enemy to rest of mankind; therefore such a man is not fit to live.”3Anyone who sees that above will praise the wise emperor. It seems that this emperor cannot tolerate ingratitude.He gives Gulliver the example: he kills a servant to show their laws are divine ones, which cannot be infringed on and seriously executed. Afterwards, t