Satire in Swift

Satire seems to have begun as a magical abuse purporting, like a curse, to wreck effective harm on the victim. Such attacking literature using invective as its main weapon would now be styled ‘Lampoon’ rather than satire. On the other hand when, as in the case of Swift, methods of stylistic caricature ad farcical content to predominate that malice and morality tend to melt away in the mockery. Swift started working on the book Gulliver’s travels apparently around the 1720 when the idea was advanced in Scriblerus Club of which he was a member. It was to have been incorporated in “Memoirs of Scriblerus”. It has the advantage of being a book interest to adults because of its satire on man and his institutions and to children because of its fantasy.............

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