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Great Ideas #7: A Tale of a Tub by Jonathan Swift

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Jonathan Swift | Satirist, Poet & Clergyman

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Jonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish author, who was the foremost prose satirist in the English language. Besides the celebrated novel Gulliver’s Travels (1726), he wrote such shorter works as A Tale of a Tub (1704) and “A Modest Proposal” (1729). Swift’s father, Jonathan Swift the elder, was an

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See Plot Diagram

Summary

A Symbolic Gift

The main plot of A Tale of a Tub concerns three sons who inherit coats from their father with a command never to alter them. In youth, the brothers are committed to obeying their father's dying wish, but fashions change and they begin to feel left behind by polite society. They begin scrutinizing their father's will to see if there can be any justification for altering the coats after all. By twisting his words, they manage to rationalize the addition of decorative knots, then of gold lace, and eventually of numerous other decorations. Each time, they depart further and further from the obvious intent of their father's will, until eventually they are not even pretending to consult it.

Two Schisms

Eventually, the brothers move into a fine house together. The oldest, named Peter, becomes a tyrant who attempts to impose various absurd restrictions on the other two. He styles himself as an emperor and undertakes such extravagant projects as buying a continent and selling patent medicines. Tired of his bizarre and belligerent behavior, the two younger brothers obtain a copy of their father's will and are about to leave Peter but are instead kicked out of the house.

Martin, the middle brother, and Jack, the youngest, find lodging together and proceed to look over their father's will again. They are horrified to find how far they have strayed from their father's command regarding their coats. Both try to remove the various unlawful decorations from their coats-Martin patiently and methodically, Jack by ripping and tearing. Where the embroidery is so "close" that undoing it might damage the underlying material, Martin reluctantly leaves it in place. Jack, who is more motivated by his hatred of Peter than by respect for his late father, strips out every piece of fringe and embroidery, leaving the original coat in rags. A series of disagreements leads to a wider breach between the two brothers, and Jack goes off to seek his own lodgings.

Jack's Madness

Soon, rumors begin to spread that Jack has gone mad. He has founded a cult known as the Æolists, or wind worshippers, whose rituals involve filling themselves with air and then grotesquely disgorging it by belching. He has become not only reliant upon, but obsessed with his copy of his father's will, which he uses as an umbrella, a nightcap, a bandage, and so forth. A braggart and a hypocrite, Jack picks fights and then claims that he has been persecuted for defending the Christian faith. Despite all this, and much to his own annoyance, Jack continues to resemble Peter so much that the two are often mistaken for one another. In the middle of a long catalog of Jack's odd behaviors, the story ends abruptly with " Desunt nonnulla" ("Some things are missing").

The Digressions

Interspersed among the narrative chapters are several long "Digressions" in which Swift takes satirical aim at a variety of contemporary issues. Chapter 3, for example, is "A Digression Concerning Critics" in which Swift chides the younger generation of literary critics for forgetting their origins and presuming beyond their station. "A Digression in the Modern Kind" ( Chapter 5) and "A Digression in Praise of Digressions" ( Chapter 7) follow. Perhaps the most famous is "A Digression Concerning ... Madness" ( Chapter 9), in which Swift mockingly proposes rescuing madmen from prisons and asylums and giving them positions in government. Together, the "Digression" chapters constitute approximately one-third of the book's entire running text.

A Tale of a Tub Plot Diagram

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A Tale of a Tub Plot Summary | Course Hero

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See Plot Diagram The main plot of A Tale of a Tub concerns three sons who inherit coats from their father with a command never to alter them. In youth, the brothers are committed to obeying their father's dying wish, but fashions change and they begin to feel left behind by polite society.

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Description

A Tale of a Tub was first published by the Irish clergyman and novelist Jonathan Swift in 1704; it is the first and perhaps most difficult of all his satires. The title is thought to refer to a dissenting priest's pulpit, and the work is a biting parody on the religious extravagances that Swift perceived among the clergy at the start of the 18th century. The narrative is written using a complex though playful technique of interlinking stories concerning the lives of three brothers.

The story digresses into separate parodies throughout, and is arranged in a fragmentary style, with each section dealing with a unique but pertinent topic. These include Catholicism, Anglicanism and dissenting religious sects, and the work of contemporary literary figures such as John Dryden. Perhaps most importantly the Tale engages directly with the debates concerning the 'Ancients and Moderns' that raged during the early 1700s. Swift (a natural conservative by persuasion) savages the perceived progress of science and philosophy as part of the early Enlightenment: he considered these movements to be inconsequential when compared with the older and established wisdom of Greek and Roman writers.

Experimentation

A Tale of Tub is particularly noteworthy for its experimentation with, and departure from, the literary conventions of the period (a characteristic that is also evident in Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy). Narrators' voices and literary genres switch from section to section as a way of taking the work in radically new directions. Swift also concentrates his satirical fire on the new literary and publishing experiments that emerged in the early 18th century, particularly the apparent obsession of printers with producing endless numbers of novels and short pamphlets. By peppering A Tale of the Tub with excessive punctuation and typographical marks (asterisks, pointing hands and dashes, for example), Swift (like Sterne) parodies the enthusiasm for the publications that characterised the print market. Likewise, the work sets out to lampoon the uncritical consumption of contemporary literary prose, which Swift believed too easily led readers to an over-interpretation of meaning.

Illustrations

This issue of A Tale of a Tub is particularly noteworthy for the woodcut illustrations that punctuate the text. For example, there is a striking image of a priest reprimanding the congregation down below, with a gallows and theatre shown in the background. The frontispiece also illustrates a whale distracted by a barrel thrown overboard by sailors: an allegory, perhaps, of how the text was designed to draw the attention of political and religious dissenters away from the affairs of the 'ship' of state.

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A Tale of a Tub was first published by the Irish clergyman and novelist Jonathan Swift in 1704; it is the first and perhaps most difficult of all his satires. The title is thought to refer to a dissenting priest's pulpit, and the work is a biting parody on the religious extravagances that Swift perceived among the clergy at the start of the 18th century.

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Table of Contents

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A Tale of a Tub, prose satire by Jonathan Swift, written between 1696 and 1699, published anonymously in 1704, and expanded in 1710. Regarded as Swift's first major work, it has three parts: "A Tale of a Tub," an energetic defense of literature and religion against zealous pedantry; "The Battle of the Books," a witty addition to the scholarly debate about the relative merits of ancient versus modern literature and culture; and "A Discourse Concerning the Mechanical Operation of the Spirit," a satire of religious fanaticism.

In the preface to A Tale of a Tub, Swift explains the title that is shared by the book and its first part: sailors toss a tub overboard to distract a whale that might attack their ship; in the same way, Swift suggests, his work may act as a decoy to deflect destructive criticism from the state and established religion.

"A Tale of a Tub" is the most impressive of the three compositions in A Tale of a Tub for its imaginative wit and command of stylistic effects, notably parody. The 11 sections that make up "A Tale of a Tub" alternate between the main allegory about Christian history and ironic digressions on modern scholarship.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica J.E. Luebering.

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A Tale of a Tub by Swift | Summary & Facts

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A Tale of a Tub, prose satire by Jonathan Swift, written between 1696 and 1699, published anonymously in 1704, and expanded in 1710.

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A Tale of a Tub was the first major work written by Jonathan Swift, arguably his most difficult satire and perhaps his most masterly. The Tale is a prose parody divided into sections each delving into the morals and ethics of the English. Composed between 1694 and 1697, it was eventually published in 1704.

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Published on

A Tale of Tub by Johnathan Swift

1. 1. A TALE OF A TUB By Jonathan Swift Manshi (A50610318010) Chestha (A50610318012) Shruti Pandey (A50610318008) M.A (H) ENGLISH

2. 2. Jonathan Swift: 1667-1745 * Born in Dublin, Ireland. * At 19, he was employed by Sir William Temple, a powerful English statesman. * Tutored 8-year-old Esther "Stella" Johnson. * Developed Ménière's Syndrome, a disturbance of the inner ear.; aphasia * 1694: Became Deacon and later Priest in Dublin * 1696: Returned to Temple's service. Temple died in1699. Swift held series of clerical jobs in Ireland. * 1704: Wrote Tale of the Tub: satire on corruptions in religion and learning. Also Battle of the Books, a mock- epic on the debate between Ancients and Moderns. * 1696: Returned to Temple's service. Temple died in1699. Swift held series of clerical jobs in Ireland. * 1704: Wrote Tale of the Tub: satire on corruptions in religion and learning. Also Battle of the Books, a mock-epic on the debate between Ancients and Moderns. * 1707: Involved with The Tatler. Uses pseudonym Issac Bickerstaff. * 1720: Involved with Irish causes. * 1729: Wrote "A Modest Proposal." * 1726: Wrote Gulliver's Travels. * 1742: Established site for insane asylum (St. Patrick's Hospital). * Never married, despite lifelong affair w/ 'Stella'.

3. 3. Literary Style * Was considered Britain's greatest satirist * Famous as Irish poet, pamphleteer, satirist and wit * Educated at Trinity College * Achieved literary fame and high standing in the Church * Wanted a political career but never achieved it * Was Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin for 30yrs * Considered master of Horatian & Juvenalian satire * Favorite literary weapon was IRONY * Considered a master of clear and simple writing * Buried in Ireland as an Irish patriot St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin

4. 4. Other Traits * He's also * highly scatological * misogynist * which I think is less a hatred of women and more his general dislike of stupidity and grossness, though he probably had some sexual hang-ups, as we'd say today * Representative of his works. * Scatological * Poking fun at people * Sees the darker side * He's certainly not a cheerful writer

5. 5. A Tale of a Tub * First major work written by Jonathan Swift. * Swift's least classifiable work and most difficult satire. * Published anonymously. * It drives readers a little mad. * And it's a perfect example of Swift's devastating intellect at work. * By its end, little seems worth believing in.

6. 6. From 1710, the cover of the 5th edition of Tale of a Tub. This is a very typical pamphlet cover page.

7. 7. Significance of the title * Jonathan Swift explained that it derived from a maritime tradition in which sailors, when threaten by a whale, would throw an empty tub to divert it from attacking their ship. * Symbolically, the whale was Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan. * Swift's tub is intended to distract Hobbes and other critics of the church and government from picking holes in their weak points.

8. 8. Seamen meet a whale to throw out an empty tub to divert it from attacking their ship.

9. 9. Introduction * The Tale is a prose parody, which is divided up into sections of "digression" and "tale." * The sections of the "Tale" alternate between the main allegory about Christian history and ironic "Digressions" on modern scholarship. * "Tale" - satirizes religious excess. * "Digressions" - series of parodies of contemporary writing in literature, politics, theology, Biblical exegesis, and medicine. * The overarching parody is of enthusiasm, pride, and credulity."

10. 10. Tale's Allegory * Concerns three brothers. * Each represents one of the primary branches of Christianity in the west. * Peter (oldest) represents for the Roman Catholic Church. * Martyn (middle born) represent the Church of England and Lutherans. * Jack (youngest) represents Protestant churches or Dissenters.

11. 11. More Symbols * The brothers have inherited three coats * representing religious practice * From their father * representing God * They have his will to guide them. * representing the Bible

12. 12. Lack of Unity * Although the will says that the brothers are forbidden from making any changes to their coats, they do nearly nothing but alter their coats from the start. * Peter upgrades his garments with gold lace, shoulder knots, and such trappings. Martin removes the false ornamentation from his without tearing the cloth. Jack zealously rips his garment to shreds to get rid of all ornament. * The allegory of the narrative is supposed to be an apology for the British church's (MARTYN) refusal to alter its practice in accordance with Puritan (JACK) demands and its continued resistance to alliance with the Roman church (PETER).

13. 13. Satire * Swift was annoyed by people who were so eager to possess the newest knowledge that they failed to pose skeptical questions. * If he was not a particular fan of the aristocracy, he was a sincere opponent of democracy * which was often viewed then as the sort of "mob rule" that led to the worst abuses of the Interregnum. * "A Tale" - more obvious satire is that on abuses in religion. * Religious satire works through the allegory of the three brothers: Martin, Peter, and Jack. * 'Digressions' -a satire on modern learning and print culture * Tub is most consistent in attacking misreading of all sorts. * Both in the narrative sections and the digressions, the single human flaw that underlies all the follies Swift attacks is over-figurative and over-literal reading, both of the Bible and of poetry and political prose. * One of the attacks in the tale was on those who believe that being readers of works makes them the equals of the creators of works.

14. 14. Novel Work (But Not a Novel!) * Swift more or less invents prose parody. * the definition he offers is arguably a parody of John Dryden (a cousin) defining "parody" in the "Preface to the Satires." * Prior to Swift, parodies were imitations designed to bring mirth, but not primarily in the form of mockery. * The satire is relatively unique in that he offers no resolutions. While he ridicules any number of foolish habits, he never offers the reader a positive set of values to embrace.

15. 15. THANK YOU

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Published on A Tale of Tub by Johnathan Swift 1. A TALE OF A TUB By Jonathan Swift Manshi (A50610318010) Chestha (A50610318012) Shruti Pandey (A50610318008) M.A (H) ENGLISH 2. Jonathan Swift: 1667-1745 * Born in Dublin, Ireland. * At 19, he was employed by Sir William Temple, a powerful English statesman.