lecture 7

1.

Lecture 7
Creative Activities of Daniel
Defoe and Jonathan Swift
Sartbayeva E.K. Senior teacher., MA

2.

Lecture 7
1.Creative activities of Daniel Defoe:
- Analysis of novel “Robinson Crusoe”: plot, main character,
genre and stylistic peculiarities
2.Creative activities of Jonathan Swift:
- Analysis of the novel “Gulliver’s Travels”: plot, satirical
approach, genre and style
The main concepts: essay, Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver

3.

Daniel Defoe (1660-1731)
Daniel Defoe was a famous English writer of
the 18th century. He wrote his world famous
novel “The Life and Strange Surprising
Adventures of Robinson Crusoe” when he
was nearly 60 years old. He was the founder
of the early bourgeois realistic novel, was
first and foremost, a journalist, and in many
ways, the father of modern English
periodicals. “The Review”, which he founded
in 1704 and conducted until 1719 is regarded
as the first English newspaper.

4.

Defoe was born in London in a family of nonconformists.
His father, a butcher, was wealthy enough to give his son a
good education. Daniel was to become a priest in the
Nonconformist Church, but on completing his education he
decided to engage in business. He never was a success in it
and went bankrupt several times. The only branch of
business in which he proved successful was journalism and
literature.

5.

When Defoe was 24, he started writing pamphlets on
questions of the hour. He wrote on the topics of Higher
Education for women, the protection of seamen, the
construction of motorways, the opening of saving banks,
etc. Later he became editor of a magazine which supported
his former enemies, the Tories. Defoe, like many other
journalists of the day, served the Tories as well as the
Whigs. This should not be accepted as a change of
principle: though party strife was very bitter, there were no
serious contradictions between the two parties at that time.
When the Whigs came to power after the death of Queen
Anne, Defoe began to serve the Whigs again.

6.

Creative activity of Daniel Defoe
Novels — 1719-24
• The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe​ (London: W. Taylor, 1719)
• The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe​ (1719)
• Memoirs of a Cavalier​ (1720)
• Moll Flanders​ (1722)
• Captain Singleton​ (1722)
• The Journal of the Plague Year​ (1722)
• Colonel Jack​ (1722)
• Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress​ (1724).

7.

Non-fiction
• An essay upon projects (1697)
• The Storm (1704) — eyewitness accounts of the worst storm in recorded British history.
• The Consolidator or, Memoirs of Sundry Transactions from the World in the Moon (1705)
• Atlantis Major (1711)
• The Family Instructor (1715)
• Memoirs of the Church of Scotland (1717)
• Serious Reflections During the Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe: With his Vision of
the Angelick World (1720)
• The History of the Remarkable Life of John Sheppard (1724) — describing the criminal exploits of the
notorious prison-breaker.
• A Narrative of All The Robberies, Escapes, &c. of John Sheppard (1724) — ​written by or taken from
testimony by Sheppard himself in the condemned cell.
• A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, divided into circuits or journeys (1724–1727)
• The Political History of the Devil (1726)
• The Complete English Tradesman (1726)
• A treatise concerning the use and abuse of the marriage bed... (1727)
• A Plan of the English Commerce (1728)
• The Complete English Gentleman, incomplete manuscript (1890)
• Of Royall Education, incomplete manuscript (1895).

8.

Pamphlets or Essays in Prose
• The Poor Man's Plea (1698)
• The History of the Kentish Petition (1701)
• The Shortest Way with the Dissenters (1702)
• The Great Law of Subordination Consider'd (1704)
• Giving Alms No Charity, and Employing the Poor (1704)
• An Appeal to Honour and Justice, Tho' it be of his Worst Enemies, by Daniel
Defoe, Being a True Account of His Conduct in Publick Affairs (1715)
• Every-body's Business, Is No-body's Business (1725)
• The Protestant Monastery (1726)
• Parochial Tyranny (1727)
• Augusta Triumphans (1728)
• Second Thoughts are Best (1729)
• An Essay Upon Literature (1726)
• Mere Nature Delineated (1726)
• Conjugal Lewdness (1727)

9.

Pamphlets or Essays in Verse
• The True-Born Englishman: A Satyr (1701) — a defense of William III.
• Hymn to the Pillory (1703)
• An Essay on the Late Storm (1704)

10.

Robinson Crusoe
In 1719 he wrote the novel he is now best
known by, “The life and adventures of
Robinson Crusoe”. Books about voyages and
new discoveries were exceedingly popular in
the first quarter of the 18th century. A true story
of a Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk, which
was published in one of the magazines,
attracted Defoe’s attention. Selkirk had
quarreled with his captain and was put ashore
on a desert island near South America where
he lived quite alone for four years. (Defoe’s
Robinson Crusoe spent 26 years on an island).

11.

At the beginning of the story Robinson is an in inexperienced
youth, a rather light-minded boy, who develops into a strongwilled man, able to withstand all the dangers and difficulties of
his unusual fate. Robinson’s most characteristic trait is his
optimism. His motto in life is “never say die”. Another of
Crusoe’s good qualities which saved him from despair, is his
ability to put his whole heart in to everything he does. But at the
same time “Robinson Crusoe” seems to be an ode to
individualism: according to Defoe, a man can live by himself
comfortably without any help.

12.

Daniel Defoe wrote many other
books, but for “Robinson Crusoe” he
is called “the father of English
prose”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0O
EzLCdhr8

13.

Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift was born on 30
November 1667 in Dublin, Ireland
to an Irish father Jonathan Swift
and an English mother Abigail
Erick.

14.

Jonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish poet,
writer and cleric who gained reputation as a
great political writer and an essayist.
Jonathan, who became Dean of St. Patrick's in
Dublin, is also known for his excellence in
satire. His most remembered works include
Gulliver's Travels, A modest Proposal, An
Argument against Abolishing Christianity and
A Tale of a Tub.

15.

Jonathan Swift, famous for his sharp tongue and sharper pen, was
born in Dublin, of English parents aristocratic but poor. He received
education at Dublin University, worked as a private secretary, and
finally took religious orders in the Church of England and entered
politics as a writer. Swift soon gained great influence among the
Tories, and in 1713 he was appointed dean in Dublin.

16.

Swift was awarded Doctor of Divinity
from Trinity College, Dublin in 1702.
During this period he wrote A Tale of
Tub and his previous work A Battle of
Books was published.

17.

With the success of these two, he began to achieve excellence
as a writer and came into contact with Alexander Pope, Johan
Gay and John Arbuthnot. During year 1707-1709, Swift
remained politically active and again in 1710, he traveled to
London seeking the claims of Irish clergy to the First-Fruits
and Twentieths.

18.

In his collection of literary works
are the following:
– The battle between ancient and
modern books (1704).
– History of a barrel (1704).
– An argument against the abolition of
Christianity (1708).
– The Journal to Sabu (1710-1713).
– The behavior of the allies (1711).
– Art of political lies (1712).
– The tale of the barrel (1713).
– The Intelligencer (with Thomas
Sheridan).
– Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers.
– Three Sermons / Prayers.
– Cadenus and Vanessa.
– The benefit of Farting (1722).
– Letters from the draper (1724).
– The Grand Question Debated (1729).
– A modest proposition to prevent the children of
the poor in Ireland from being a burden to their
parents or to the country (1729).
– Verses on His Own Death (1731).
– Directions to Servants (1731).
– A Complete Collection of Genteel and
Ingenious Conversation (1731).
– The Lady’s Dressing Room (1732).
– On Poetry, a Rhapsody (1733).

19.

“Gulliver’s Travels”
In “Gulliver’s Travels” Jonathan Swift
satirized existing society in the form of
imaginary travels. The scenes and
nations described in the book are so
extraordinary and amusing, that the
novel is a great favourite both with
children and grown-ups.
It tells of the adventures of a ship’s
surgeon, as related by himself, and is
divided into four parts, or four voyages.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9UMGLVJu
S4

20.

Part 1. A Voyage to Liliput
After being ship-wrecked, Gulliver gets
safely ashore and finds himself in a strange
country inhabited by a race of people
about six inches high.
By making them so small Swift stresses
their insignificance and makes the reader
despise them.
It is easy to understand that Swift meant
this small country to symbolize England of
the 18th century; the government, the court
and religious controversy.

21.

Part 2. A Voyage to Brobdingnag
The ship meets with a terrible storm and
anchors near Brobdingnag, the land of
the giants. While on shore, Gulliver is
captured by the giants. On the whole,
they are good-natured creatures and
treat Gulliver kindly. Brobdingnag is
an expression of Swift’s desire to find
the ideal: an agricultural country ruled
by an ideal monarch.

22.

Part 3. A Voyage to Laputa
Describing Gulliver’s voyage to Laputa,
a flying island, Swift attacks
monarchs whose policy brings nothing
but suffering to their subjects.
Swift’s indignation and the bitterness of
his satire reach their climax when he
shows the academy of sciences in
Lagado, the city of the continent of
Balnibarbi.
Swift ridicules the scientists of his time,
who shut themselves in their
chambers, isolated from the world.

23.

Part 4. A Voyage to the Country of Houyhnhnms
The fourth voyage brings Gulliver to the
ideal country of Houyhnhnms, where
there is neither sickness, dishonesty,
nor any of the frivolities of human
society.
The human race occupies a position of
servility there and a noble race of
horses rules the country with reason
and justice. The horses possess virtues
which are superior to those of men.
Yahoos have much in common with
human beings in appearance, but they
are ugly, deceitful and vicious
creatures.

24.

The greatest merit of the novel lies in the satirical description al all
the faults and vices of the society of the time. Under the cloak of
what seems pure fantasy, Swift attacks the politics of the time,
religious prejudices, Wars of Ambition, and the absurdity of many
aspects of science. The author presents the most improbable
situations with the utmost gravity, and makes the reader believe
them.
Swift’s ideas expressed in “Gulliver’s Travels” had a great
influence on the writers who came after him. The work has become
popular in many languages . Like Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe”, it
has the merit both of amusing children and making grown ups
think.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-wXbyEQ5TM