Sandra Cruz
Jonathan Swift in Gulliver’s Travels, depicts a negative image of women. However, following Swift’s life from the beginning, it is easier to understand why he views women as he does. Life’s circumstances have brought him many deceptions with women thus creating an angry and bitter man. Jonathan Swift, the famous Irish writer was born in Dublin on November 30, 1667 to Abigail Swift. He had from the start a very pitiful life. His father, Jonathan Swift Sr., died before young Swift was born. Although there is no real evidence why, his mother gave Swift up as soon as he was born to a caretaker. Most of the biographies on Jonathan Swift agree that Abigail Swift never played a big role in his upbringing; therefore, young Swift lacked that mother-child bond. This may have been one of the reasons why he was uneasy around women and always created a shield around himself.
His caretaker was a nurse who taught Swift how to read and write by the age of three. According to John Middleton Murry in his critical biography, young Swift could read any Chapter of the Bible (14). These could be considered early indications of Swift’s brilliant abilities to write. At three, he was given to his Uncle, Godwin Swift with the result of Swift never felling truly comfortable with human relationships. Throughout his life Swift found himself in as many feuds with men as he did with women. Both genders provided Swift with keen disappointment. He was often bitter, rancorous and revengeful.
Sir William Temple was the first to hire Jonathan Swift on a professional basis as secretary and companion. Before Temple died, he entrusted Swift with “the task and the profit of editing and [publishing] his letters and memoirs.” (Swift, Jonathan, 504) This infuriated Lady Giffard, the Temple’s sister, for she had been with him ever since his wife and son had died. Lady Giffard considered herself his closest relative and confidant. Giffard’s disappointment at her brother generated everlasting hostility towards Swift. Unappreciative of her anger towards him, Swift’s days at Moor Park (Temple and Giffard’s home) had come to an end. Again, Swift was forced out of a home he had learned to love thru the unwelcoming actions and hatred of a woman, this time, Lady Giffard. Upon leaving, Swift quit tutoring Stella, whose real name was Hester Johnson, daughter of Lady Giffard’s waiting gentle-woman. Swift all through his whole life felt compelled to help women better their education. Education was important to Swift and it became his tool in approaching women.
Jonathan Swifts’ first documented love affair was with Miss Jane Waring, Swift referred to her as Varina in his letters and later writings. She was a woman of neither wealth or beauty. It is possible that Swift’s main attachment to Varina was more emotional that physical. Evidence shows that when Swift was into the second year of courtship, he proposed to Varina. Slow in her response, she rejected his offer. I believe this meant two things for Swift. One, he was not important enough to receive a prompt response and two, he had never been equally reciprocated. This was the boiling point for Swift with women as we can see in John Middleton Murry’s observation: he was generous, but he was fiercely proud. He had offered all himself, and he expected all of her. He did not get it, and he went his way. He said to himself: Never again! Never again would he expose himself to emotional humiliation at the hands of a woman. He never did. He inflicted a deliberate humiliation on Varina, in revenge. (61) This can explain Swift’s brutal behavior with women from 1699 until his death. John Macy explains in The New Republic that not only did this affect future relationships with women, but it also touched upon his feelings for children (354). Swift may not have wanted children for the sake of protecting any future child from having to bear all the pain and suffering he had had to endure. Swift is also quoted by Macy as saying after he broke up with Varina that he was “not fond of children.” Swift also labels children as a woman’s “litter” (354).
In 1701 he returned to Dingley where he met up with Stella and found her to be an astonishingly beautiful twenty-year-old. They had remained great friends and Swift did not hesitate to invite Stella to go live in Dublin where he resided most of the time. With little persuasion, she packed up and moved. She knew her attraction to Swift was more than friendship yet she dared not reveal this to him for this might jeopardize their friendship. Swift quickly came to the realization that Stella was no longer a pupil; she was his great friend and probably his closest and most trusted confidant.
She had all the qualities of a proper lady; old enough to court and young enough to help him in his later years, yet he dared not break his vow for his heart was to never belong to anyone and his emotions were never again to be revealed. He is believed to have kept a purely innocent relationship with Stella. There is strong rumor that Swift married Stella. Nevertheless “Scholars are unsure of Swift’s exact relationship with Stella. They may have been secretly married.” (Encarta ,2). Perhaps after the Varina experience, Swift forced himself to be colder towards all women. Victoria Glendinning, author of Clasping Rage but Keeping the Ladies at Arm’s Length states that Swift “always defended himself against emotional dependency and preached that gospel to others. Strategy for emotional survival was flight from all risk of grief and pain or disappointment – at the price of fleeing also from the pleasures of sweetness which might make life worth living for most people” (8). This must have been done with great difficulty because Swift’s nature was to be generous and kind. This is easily detected throughout Swifts entire life. Through his professional works, personal journals and letters, he struggles greatly with what he wants to do and what he should do. The women in Swift’s life must have sensed his struggles within his mind and his heart. Women were attracted to him not only for his looks but also for his style. His women most likely tried to break down the wall that separated them from him and spent their entire lives devoted to this cause.
One woman who committed her life to Jonathan Swift was Hester Vanhomrigh, the famous Vanessa. She had a solid financial status among her social class and came from a good family. However, it almost seems as if the Vanhomrigh family had been cursed to die at a young age. She lost her parents by the age of seventeen and both her brothers a year later. She was left alone with her sister, Molkin who died a few years after of tuberculosis. Vanessa would have the same fate two years later in 1723. Throughout the course of Swift’s and Vanessa’s relationship, he always saw her as a spoiled, rebellious rich girl. In her, he did not see the proper cordial manners he found in Stella. As with Stella, Swift felt the strong desire to teach and correct Vanessa. He had little success; she was very stubborn. He saw in her great abilities but felt she was lazy and lacked desire to grasp the opportunity he was offering her of making her a polished person. Her strong personality is what annoyed Swift the most but it was also the force that attracted him most about Vanessa. He tried to keep their relationship as private as possible by asking her not to write to him, a request she never honored. Vanessa became passionately enamored of Swift and Swift felt a strong attraction toward her, but never enough to break the barrier. At this time, it is uncertain if he was being faithful to his oath to never become emotionally dependent or if it was because of his possible secret marriage to Stella. Swift saw in Vanessa all the qualities that Stella did not have. She was independent, strong and very in love with him. Vanessa never refrained from demonstrating to Jonathan Swift her feelings toward him.
On the other hand, Stella was the opposite. Yet, he saw in her all the qualities that were ideal. Stella refrained for fear of pushing away the man she lived for. Swift might have liked it like this. He has the best of both worlds. He had never been as loved by anyone as these two women loved him. He was savoring every moment and he could not have gotten enough. It’s almost as if he were experiencing something for the first time and did not know when to let go. Unfortunately, Swift’s selfishness was doing no one any justice. Two women were ageing and dying next to a man who promised nothing and received all from them.
Vanessa was losing her battle with tuberculosis and needed a commitment from Swift. Swift refused to promise her anything and in view of her failing health, he retreated into his world and wrote more fiercely than ever; perhaps to elude reality. Vanessa, having no one, must have taken this as a sign of no love or insufficient love. Feeling alone, unloved and dying, she rewrote her will in the month of May and died exactly a month later. There was no mention of Jonathan Swift. She also left in her will that all her letters and correspondence between her and Swift were to be published. Swift, a man constantly disillusioned by women, had once more received an incredible blow. It must have crossed his mind that Vanessa only wrote to him and kept copies of all her letters with a second agenda in mind. Would she have black mailed him into marriage if she had not fallen ill? She also had professed her belief in God for she had always attended a parish during their time together, but “in the last minutes of her life, Dean Price, the Minister of her parish, offered her his services and she responded with ‘no price, no prayers’ and so she died” (Murry, 311).
Had she not only betrayed him in the end with the letters but also professed to believe in God for the sake of her relationship with he who was a devoted Anglican Clergyman? Tormenting thoughts Jonathan Swift must have had to deal with. This could have only added to his loneliness and mental anguish. Stella remained loyal to Swift until her death in 1728. She was the only woman who never failed him and Swift realized this. Her passing affected Swift greatly. Swift’s health, his writings and his love for life went into a downward spiral. “He suffered from increased attacks of vertigo, and a period of mental decay” (Encarta, 3).
Gulliver’s Travels was published in 1726 anonymously when Swift was at the peak of his powers. The Third part of the book, A Voyage to Laputa is not considered as great as the other parts, one, two and four, which he had written prior to Vanessa’s death. She saw the manuscript throughout its creation. However, she never read part three. Gulliver’s Travels is a book about Lamuel Gulliver, the man Jonathan Swift feels he is; always too big, too small, or too smart. The women throughout the book nevertheless are described as selfish, sex driven, man-hungry adulteresses. They only want the sex and have little interest in child rearing. In every instance, it’s like his life. The selfishness can be compared to his abandonment by his mother. The sexual intensity in women is like the strong desire woman had for Swift who was an ordained man of God. Vanessa is assumed to have been the one who pressured Swift the most. In Lilliput, the queen forces Gulliver out after Gulliver, who in his mind had been nothing but good to her, helps save her apartment in her kingdom from burning by urinating on it. Consequently, the Queen of Lilliput feels repulsion towards him and wants him dead. During Swift’s time as ordained minister, it was Queen Anne who could promote or demote Swift and due to her delay, he wrote the infamous, “A Tale Of A Tub” in which he indirectly talks about the Queen. Upon reading this book, the Queen was “offended, and therefore [Swift] lost his chances for ecclesiastical preferment in England” (Encarta, 1). Maybe Swift was remorseful after the Queen Anne acted for in the second part of the book, A Voyage to The Country of The Houyhnhnms, Gulliver is very kind in word and action towards the queen of that nation. We know Jonathan Swift used his writing abilities to vent his anger, here we see how it backfired on him.
Swift’s strong bond with Stella can be seen in second part of Gulliver’s Travels when he is cared for by a little girl, the farmer’s daughter, who becomes very attached to Gulliver. Glumdalclitch took care of Gulliver’s every need and protected him fiercely. He also talks in every chapter of how he frequently left his wife to pursue his dream of seeing the world. His thirst for knowledge of the world obliged him to venture into the sea voyages. Not too far from Swift’s own life, for numerous times he abandoned Stella and Vanessa for weeks and sometimes even months on end, in pursuit of his career. In the book, Gulliver’s Travels, there is strong evidence that Swift was as unstable and uncertain about women as Lamuel Gulliver was. He never stayed long enough to feel committed and never left long enough to be forgotten. Jonathan Swift became paralyzed in 1742 and suffered greatly of aphasia. Aphasia caused Swift to lose all verbal understanding and speech. In 1745 he was afflicted with labyrinthine vertigo, which eventually claimed his life later that same year. He was buried next to her. When Swift’s items were collected, and viewed it was discovered that this man who had left this earth in “hopes of escaping anger and injustice, had left behind him, written on an envelope, “Only a woman’s hair” (Swift, Jonathan, 506).
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Glendinning, Victoria. “Clasping Rage but Keeping the Ladies at Arm’s Lengh.” The New York Times. 29 June 1999: E8.
Swift, Jonathan. Gullivers Travels. New York: Dover,1726: Williams, Herald. Journal to Stella. New York: 1948
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