Age+of+Reason

The Age of Reason By: Kevin K., Artem, Brett, Beth, Tyler, and Kevin H.

__ The Age of Reason background __ __ Main Ideas __ • __ Satire __
 * Occurred approximately between 1660-1780
 * “Why” to “How” = Religion to Science
 * Increase in literacy of the common man (Printing Press)
 * Also known as the “Augustan Age,” “Neoclassical Age,” and “The Enlightenment period”
 * 1) Satire- used to show the weaknesses and wrongs of society
 * 2) Rationalism- using logic and reason over superstition
 * 3) Religion to Science- tension was there
 * 4) Revolution- Irish rebellion, American Revolution, French Revolution…
 * This was taken from the Roman writers and playwrights
 * Tried to cause change politically or socially
 * Major pieces at the time were “Gulliver’s Travels,” “Rape of the Lock,” A Modest Proposal,” and “An Essay on Man”
 * Two of the most famous authors were Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope

Modern Example of Satire:

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__ Rationalism __ __ • __ __ Religion to Science __ __ Revolution __ With satire pointing out the flaws in the government, people wanted change and believed in it enough to demand rights
 * The idea of logical thought
 * The use of the 5 senses to understand the world
 * Went against superstition and the Church
 * With the use of logic and science many followers started to doubt religion
 * Church and state were starting to separate
 * Church could not persecute the scientists any longer because a large amount started to follow the scientists
 * Newtonian Science brought forward scientific methods to make science easier to comprehend and a system of steps. This would be universal a to any branch of science.

Popular Examples of Age of Reason Literature:

__ A Modest Proposal __ (Written By: Jonathan Swift) (information gathered by Kevin K)

Key Facts:

author • Jonathan Swift type of work • Satiric essay time and place written • Approximately 1712–1726, London and Dublin narrator • Jonathan Swift tone • casual and that this is a serious idea, he is making an actual proposal. tense • present major conflict • The lower class is treated terribly so Jonathan Swift tries to show that since the rich upper class treats them like animals, why don’t they just eat them too symbols • Americans (Barbarians), money (The controller of life and the world) Sarcasum examples • the title “A Modest Proposal” and the proposal he gives (eat Babies for food,)

The Satirical essay, "A Modest Proposal" is by Jonathan Swift. It was designed to show the bad conditions of the poor. It starts by talking about the poor and that it takes a mere 2 shillings (Verry little) to raise a kid thill they are 1 years old and then sell them for 10 shillings (A lot) and eat them. It would raise money in the lower class and help the hunger crisus that was orruring at the time period. Swift supposidly got this "Modest Proposal" from a barbarian (American) and thought he could make a commerical idea. he continued going on about the logistics of this proposal and in the end, he says that his idea is easier than doing something like taxing the wealthy land owners that don't live in Ireland (English Landlords.) that is his actual proposal wail pointing out the flaws in the society which makes it satirical.

__ Gulliver’s Travels __ (Written By: Jonathan Swift) (information gathered by Kevin H, Tyler F, and Brett T)

Key Facts:

**//__author__//** · Jonathan Swift **//__type of work__//** · Satiric Novel **//__time and place written__//** · Approximately 1712–1726, London and Dublin **//__narrator__//** · Lemuel Gulliver **//__point of view__//** · Gulliver speaks in the first person. He describes other characters and actions as they appear to him. **//__tone__//** · Gulliver’s tone is gullible and naïve during the first three parts; in the fourth, it turns cynical and bitter. **//__tense__//** · Past **//__setting__//** · Early eighteenth century, Primarily England and the imaginary countries of Lilliput, Blefuscu, Brobdingnag, and Laputa **//__major conflict__//** · on the surface, Gulliver strives to understand the various societies with which he comes into contact and to have these societies understand his native England. Below the surface, Swift is engaged in a conflict with the English society he is satirizing. **//__rising action__//** · Gulliver’s encounters with other societies eventually lead up to his rejection of human society in the fourth voyage **//__climax__//** · Gulliver rejects human society in part four, specifically when he shuns the generous Don Pedro as a vulgar Yahoo **//__falling action__//** · Gulliver’s unhappy return to England accentuates his alienation and compels him to buy horses, which remind him of Houyhnhnms, to keep him company **//__themes__//** · Might versus right; the individual versus society; the limits of human understanding **//__motifs__//** · foreign languages; clothing **//__symbols__//** · Lilliputians; Brobdingnagians; Laputans; Houyhnhnms; England **//__foreshadowing__//** · Gulliver’s experiences with various flawed societies foreshadow his ultimate rejection of human society in part 4

Gulliver’s Travels recounts the story of Lemuel Gulliver, a practical-minded Englishman trained as a surgeon who takes to the seas when his business fails. Gulliver narrates the adventures that befall him on these travels.

Part 1 of 4:

Gulliver’s adventure in Lilliput begins when he wakes after his shipwreck to find himself bound by innumerable tiny threads and addressed by tiny captors who are in awe of him but fiercely protective of their kingdom. They are not afraid to use violence against Gulliver, though their arrows are little more than pinpricks. But overall, they are hospitable, risking starvation in their land by feeding Gulliver, who consumes more food than a thousand Lilliputians combined. Gulliver is taken into the capital city by a large wagon the Lilliputians have specially built. He is presented to the emperor, who is entertained by Gulliver, just as Gulliver is flattered by the attention of royalty. Eventually Gulliver becomes a national resource, used by the army in its war against the people of Blefuscu, whom the Lilliputians hate for there differences concerning the proper way to crack eggs. But things change when Gulliver is convicted of treason for putting out a fire in the royal palace with his urine and is condemned to be shot in the eyes and starved to death. Gulliver escapes to Blefuscu, where he is able to repair a boat he finds and set sail for England. Part 2 of 4:   After staying in England with his wife and family for two months, Gulliver undertakes his next sea voyage, which takes him to a land of giants called Brobdingnag. Here, a field worker discovers him. The farmer initially treats him as little more than an animal, keeping him for amusement. The farmer eventually sells Gulliver to the queen, who makes him a courtly diversion and is entertained by his musical talents. Social life is easy for Gulliver after his discovery by the court, but not particularly enjoyable. Gulliver is often repulsed by the physicality of the Brobdingnagians, whose ordinary flaws are many times magnified by their huge size. Thus, when a couple of courtly ladies let him play on their naked bodies, he is not attracted to them but rather disgusted by their enormous skin pores and the sound of their torrential urination. He is generally startled by the ignorance of the people here—even the king knows nothing about politics. More unsettling findings in Brobdingnag come in the form of various animals of the realm that endanger his life. Even Brobdingnagian insects leave slimy trails on his food that make eating difficult. On a trip to the frontier, accompanying the royal couple, Gulliver leaves Brobdingnag when his cage is plucked up by an eagle and dropped into the sea. Part 3 of 4:

Next, Gulliver sets sail again and, after an attack by pirates, ends up in Laputa, where a floating island inhabited by theoreticians and academics oppresses the land below, called Balnibarbi. The scientific research undertaken in Laputa and in Balnibarbi seems totally inane and impractical, and its residents too appear wholly out of touch with reality. Taking a short side trip to Glubbdubdrib, Gulliver is able to witness the conjuring up of figures from history, such as Julius Caesar and other military leaders, whom he finds much less impressive than in books. After visiting the Luggnaggians and the Struldbrugs, the latter of which are senile immortals who prove that age does not bring wisdom, he is able to sail to Japan and from there back to England.

Part 4 of 4:

In Chapter one of Part four Gulliver becomes captain of the sip The Adventure. There job is to trade with the islands like the Barbados and the West Indies. While on the trip some of his men die and he is forced to take new recruits from the Barbados. They corrupt his other men and they take him prisoner and set him in his cabin. After being there for a month they set him ashore on an island. There he meets the Yahoos who he describes as creatures but are actually human and he doesn’t even recognize them. He also meets the horses who he talks to and asks help from. He follows the horses into the village where he meets the Houyhnhnm. Finally, on his fourth journey, Gulliver sets out as captain of a ship, but after the mutiny of his crew and a long confinement in his cabin, he arrives in an unknown land. This land is populated by Houyhnhnms, rational-thinking horses who rule, and by Yahoos, brutish humanlike creatures who serve the Houyhnhnms. Gulliver sets about learning their language, and when he can speak he narrates his voyages to them and explains the constitution of England. He is treated with great courtesy and kindness by the horses and is enlightened by his many conversations with them and by his exposure to their noble culture. He wants to stay with the Houyhnhnms, but his bared body reveals to the horses that he is very much like a Yahoo, and he is banished. Gulliver is grief-stricken but agrees to leave. He fashions a canoe and makes his way to a nearby island, where he is picked up by a Portuguese ship captain who treats him well, though Gulliver cannot help now seeing the captain—and all humans—as shamefully Yahoolike. Gulliver then concludes his narrative with a claim that the lands he has visited belong by rights to England, as her colonies, even though he questions the whole idea of colonialism. __ How does Swift use language and style for the purpose of satire? How does his style change as the story progresses? __ There are brief passages in which Swift, by his style alone, ridicules the linguistic excesses of various specialists. A good example is at the beginning of Part II, Chapter I, where Gulliver uses complicated nautical jargon. The effect is so overdone that, instead of coming off as a demonstration of Gulliver’s in-depth knowledge of sailing, the passage works as a satire of sailing language and, more generally, of any kind of specialist jargon. A similar passage occurs in Part III, Chapter III, where Gulliver’s painstaking description of the geometry of Laputa serves as a satire of philosophical jargon. Over the course of the novel, there are several changes in Swift’s style. In the first two voyages, the style is constant: it is a relatively lighthearted but still biting satire of European culture and politics, framed as an adventure among dwarves and giants. In the third voyage, the tone shifts. Gulliver becomes less of a personality and more of an observer. His judgments of the societies he encounters become more direct, and the overall narrative becomes less of an adventure and more of a scattered satire on abstract thought. In the fourth voyage, the tone becomes, for the most part, much more serious than in the first three adventures. Gulliver too is more serious and more desperate, and his change in personality is reflected in a style that is darker. __ Does Gulliver change as the story progresses? Does he learn from his adventures? __ Gulliver is somewhat less restless at the end of the story than he is at the beginning. In desiring first to stay with the Houyhnhnms, then to find an island on which he can live in exile, Gulliver shows that his adventures have taught him that a simple life, one without the complexities and weaknesses of human society, may be best. At the same time, his tranquility is superficial. From our point of view, after we have looked at the world through Gulliver’s eyes for much of the novel, Gulliver undergoes several interesting transformations: from the naïve Englishman to the experienced but still open-minded world traveler of the first two voyages; then to the jaded island-hopper of the third voyage; and finally to the cynical, disillusioned, and somewhat insane being of the fourth voyage. __ Is Gulliver an everyman figure or does he have a distinctive personality of his own? __  In many ways, Gulliver’s role as a generic human is more important than any personal opinions or abilities he may have. Fate and circumstance lead him from place to place, while he never really asserts his own desires. By minimizing the importance of Gulliver as a specific person, Swift puts the focus on the social satire itself. At the same time, Gulliver himself becomes more and more a subject of satire as the story progresses. At the beginning, he is a standard issue European adventurer; by the end, he has become a being who totally rejects human society. It is in the fourth voyage that Gulliver becomes more than simply a pair of sunglasses through which we see a series of unusual societies. He is, instead, an adventurer who has seen human flaws at their most extreme, and as a result has descended into what looks like, and probably is, a kind of madness. Upcoming Movie Adaptation: media type="youtube" key="yhoktf7X0aQ?fs=1" height="385" width="640"

__• __ =**__Alexander Pope__**=
 * wrote "Rape of the Lock", "Essay on Man"
 * works are full of exaggeration and satire
 * his parents were Roman Catholics

Debate Prompt: Similar to “A Modest Proposal”

Present your argument for either side to the idea of holding Weekly Freshmen Fridays as stress relief for Upperclassmen.