Gullivers Travels :: Literary Analysis, Jonathan Swift

The author of Gulliver’s Travels os Jonathan Swift. He was born on November 30, 1667 in Dublin, Ireland (Cody, 1). At an early age his father past away and because of this sudden death Swift’s mother soon moved back to England. Swift, in the care of his relatives, was sent to school at Kilkenny Grammar School. He then attended Trinity College but did not finish his schooling because the school was closed because of a revolution occurring in the government (Cody, 2). Swift then moved to England where he became the secretary for Sir William Temple. Shortly after this employment Swift returned to Ireland upon request of his doctors because he was suffering for Miner’s Disease, a disturbance of the inner ear. Shortly after returning to Ireland Swift left Ireland for England once again. In England he published his first work which he did not get high praise for. Swift left England and returned to Ireland in 1694 to pursue his dreams of becoming a priest in the Church of Ireland and in 1695 accomplished this dream and was ordained (Cody, 3). After about a year, however, Swift returned to England. In England between 1696 and 1699 Swift created a majority of A Tale of a Tub, one of his most notable works (Cody, 4). Also in this time Swift created The Battle of the Books. Shortly after the completion of his work a friend of his past which lead to him traveling back to Ireland with the Earl of Berkeley as his secretary. Then in 1700 Swift was promoted within the church and was instituted Vicar of Laracor and was forced to travel back to Ireland (Cody, 5). The following year Swift was awarded a D.D. Form Dublin University and a couple years following his first works were published under anonymous. In 1707 Swift was asked to travel to England where he would ask for remission of tax on Irish clerical income but his requests were denied (Cody, 6). His trip, however, was not a total loss for he got the opportunity to meet Esther Vanhomrigh. She allowed Swift to step into the highest levels of political circles and this allowed swift to spend a lot of the next few years traveling between England and Ireland. Swift, now a figure in the government, became even more involved when he became the editor of a Tory newspaper (Cody, 9). Also in 1710 he began writing a group of letters to Esther Johnson later to be named The Journal to Stella.