Prose Style of Guilliver

Prose Style of Guilliver’s Travels
Swift is undoubtedly, the greatest prose writer of his age

and one of the greatest writers of all times. Many critics
like Williams Deans, Howells, Dr. Johnson, Coleridge and
T.S Eliot called Jonathan Swift the greatest writer of the
prose. T.S Eliot goes so that as to call, Swift the greatest
writer of English prose, and the greatest man who has ever
written great English prose. Evidently there are some
reasons for his greatness

One of the causes of the popularity of “Gulliver Travel” is
the simple and direct narrative style of the book. The plain
description gives us the impression that the author is
describing which he has himself seen or experienced.
Here, for example is his description of , How Gulliver was
served good in Lilliput.
“ I had three hundred cooks to dress my victuals .Dr
Jonathan Style was pompous and bombastic, was the
first to appreciate the simplicity of Swift’s style. He said,
“The reader of Swift needs no previous knowledge.”
Coleridge, whose own prose was marked by
metaphysical subtlety, also paid a tribute to simplicity of
Swift style. He said, “ Swift style is in its line: the manner
is a complete expression of the matter."

When Swift started writing he did not adopt the prose style
of his predecessors. Swift style is lucid and terse. He seems
to have no difficulty in finding words to express exactly the
impression which he wishes to convey. His sentences come
home to the reader, like the words of great orator or
advocate with convincing force. He realizes so clearly what
he is describing that the reader is , of necessity and
impressed.
Swift defined style as “ proper words in proper places.”
This definition fits his own writing perfectly well. Swift’s
prose is an example of the right words in the right place.
His words are selected that they convey exactly the
impression he wishes to create. He selects the most
appropriate words to express his thoughts. The words suit
the subject perfectly. Sometimes he even ignores the rules
of grammar in order to express himself in a way which will
create the correct impression. There is a little ornament:
there is none of divine simplicity of Bunyan : there is none
of the majesty of Milton, but there is workman-tike
adaptation of means to end. Referring to his style, Dr.
Jonathan has said; His style was well suited to his
thoughts, which are never decorated by sparkling conceits,
elevated by ambitious sentences or variegated by far-
sought learning.”
According to Matthew Arnold, the qualities of good prose
are are ‘unfairly’, regularity, precision and balance.” These
are exactly the qualities of Swift’s prose. He always says
clearly and precisely what he means. As an example, we
can see the description of a minister of state given by
Gulliver to his Honyhnhnm master.
“ I told him that a first or chief minister of
state who was the person I intended to describe, was a
creature wholly exempt from over joy and grief, love and
hatred, pity and anger; at least make use of no other
passions but a violent desire of wealth, power and titles;
that he applies his words to all uses, except to the
indication of his mind; that he never tells a truth, but
with an intent that you should take it for a lie, nor a lie,
but with a design that you should take if for a truth."
These sentences are pointed and direct and the plain
statement of the minister’s character only heightens the
conformity of the hypocrisy and villainy. His style suits the
matter precisely.
As a story teller Swift is unsuppressed for his approach to
the art of fiction he combines the richness of adult
intelligence with the clarity and directness of a child’s
mind. As a result, his Gulliver’s Travel has a two-folded
appeal. For a child, it is simple narrative of the travels of
Gulliver to some strange lands, and his interesting
experiences there. For the intellectuals it is a satire on the
follies of his age as well as of human beings in general. His
style enables him to tell a story clearly with exactly the
right amount of detail and to describe equally clearly such
complicated processes as the capture of the Blesfuscu fleet,
or the schemes of projectors. The book is written with such
consummate ease that we are apt to overlook the skill with
with which Swift achieves this object.
It is often said that Swift’s prose style lacks imagination
and passion. A French critic says: “ Swift style lacks
eloquence of ideas and sentiments. Eloquence in his sense
is mind’s highest reach and widest conquest. It is the
creative energy of life itself, manifested on those frontiers
which we call variously religion, philosophy and poetry.”
But these views lack vitality and are deficient in truth.
The age of Swift is called “ The Age of Prose and Reason”.
Swift came under the influence of his age—an age when
imagination and emotions were subordinated to reason
and wit. People believed in the supremacy of reason ; and
their thoughts were determined by reason. Hence, Swift
describes both imagination and emotions. He tries to
convince his readers. He appeals to their minds not to
their heats. Moreover, he offers a “ criticism of life” ; and
criticism has no link, Whatsoever, with imagination and
emotions. There are no imaginative flights, nor soaring
into the infinite, no raptures of idealism, no fine frenzies of
passion; there is just charity.

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Prose Style of Guilliver’s Travels

Swift is undoubtedly, the greatest prose writer of his age

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