The Shifting Persona in Jonathan Swift's A Tale of a Tub

166 Pages·2011·6.18 MB·English

by  Harriette Wallace

THE SHIFTING PERSONA IN JONATHAN SWIFT'S
A TALE OF A TUB
THE SHIFI'ING PERSONA IN JONATHAN SWIFT'S
A TALE OF A TUB
By
HARRIETTE WALLACE, B.A.
I •
A Tqesis
Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies
in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements
for the Degree
Master of Arts
McMaster University
. May 1971
MASTER OF ARTS (1971) McMASTER UNIVERSITY
(English) Hamilton, Ontario
TITLE: The Shifting Persona in Jonathan Swift's A Tale of Tub
~
AUTHOR: Harriette Wallace, B.A. (The College of St. Catherine)
SUPERVISOR: Professor Gordon Vichert
NUMBER OF PAGES: 160
SCOPE AND CONTENTS: This thesis endeavors to investigate the shifting
rhetoric of A Tale of Tub with the object of determining the nature
~
of the speaker in both allegory and digressions. It concludes that a
single voice, Modern by Swift's standards, speaks throughout. This
voice adopts various Modern positions yet is not consistent in being
Modern, for it does·, on occasion, let through Swift's own point of
view.
ii
I wish to thank Dr. Gordon Vichert for his helpful suggestions
during the preparation of this thesis.
iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
I. INTRODUCTION 1
II. THE PERSONA TRADITION 13
III. THE ALLEGORY AND ITS PERSONA 38
IV. THE PERSONA AND THE REST OF THE TALE 69
V. THE HEART OF THE MATTER: "A DIGRESSION ON MADNESS" 105
VI. BIBLIOGRAPHY 155
iv
I
INTRODUCTION
This study began as a close reading of A Tale £!~~
with particular focus on its rhetoric. The Tale contains peculiar and
confusing shifts in style and point of view, and by examining these shifts
I have hoped to make my own judgment concerning the voice or voices
responsible for them. I have concluded that a single persona, who presents
and adopts a number of Modern views, narrates both allegory and digressions.
Extremely elusive in nature, this persona changes his vocabulary to match
his pose of the moment. Beginning as a Modern writer, he also at times
emerges as a critic (both biblical and secular); a Modern projector evinc-
ing mystical, Cabbalistic, Rosicrucian, or alchemical tendencies; a Modern
scientist of mechanical or experimental leanings; and a materialist
philosopher with Hobbesian or Neo-Epicurean vocabulary and beliefs.
Within this chameleon-like shifting between Modern positions, some
are obvious and some more concealed but yet important. The Neo-Epicurean
<-
positions, for instance, although less immediately apparent than the
amusing "dark writer" ones, are more central to the Tale. Furthermore, a
given attitude, such as that of explainer of the mysteries of the universe,
is common to both poses. The rapid change between Modern views and the
existence of attitudes common to more than one view make exact enumeration
of the persona's changes impractical. However, since certain poses domin-
ate related sections of the ~, a general pattern can be discerned. A
Modern writer guise controls the prefatory apparatus and Introduction as
Well as the Conclusion; a biblical critic most parts of the allegory; and
I
2
a Modern critic or enthusiast the early digressions. "Dark writer"
characteristics are more prominent in sections V, VIII~ and X, while a
Hobbesian vocabulary emphasizes the materialism of the tailor cult, the
opening of the Aeolist section, and portions of "A Digression on Madness".
Underlying Aeolism and controlling Madness is a Neo-Epicurean terminology
and philosophy which also appears strategically from title page to
Conclusion.
In his wide-ranging Modernism, the persona adopts not only general
ized positions, such as those of a Modern writer or critic, but also takes
on the style and opinions of known individuals. That the reader might not
miss this element of specific parody, comments on it appear in the margin
notes of the Tale's first edition and in the Apology and footnotes of the
fifth and subsequent editions. Although Swift hardly furnishes a complete
guide to the instances in which the persona resembles a given Modern, his
notes give sufficient clues for the reader to pursue the matter on his
own.
By the frequency with which the persona imitates or mentions them
in a manner calculated to do them no honour, certain individuals emerge
as prinCipal objects of Swift's satire. Chief among these are Richard
Bentley and William Wotton, opponents of Swift's mentor, Sir William Temple,
in the Ancients-Moderns controversy. In any part of the Tale directly
related to the controversy the persona mimics these two, while at other
times he gratuitously pulls them into the narrative, thereby implicating
them in a more obViously reprehensible Modernism. Thus, in Section III,
.. 11A Dig:r-.sss-iQn- Concs-:r-.n-ing Critics" ,the persona especially mimics BentleY...an
historical criticism, while in the next digression, "In the Modern Kind",
3
he mainly parodies William Wotton's enthusiasm for Modern endeavors.
In that same digression, furthermore, an alchemical recipe for knowledge
(an obvious target for satire) immediately precedes a Wotton-type cen~
suring of Homer's deficiencies. Of Modern literary figures those most
often implicated by the persona are John Dryden and Roger L'Estrange; of
"dark writers", Thomas Vaughan; of philosophers, Thomas Hobbes and
Lucretius. Although Lucretius was an ancient, his work, Rerum Natura,
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the Modern's bible of Epicureanism, had only recently been translated
into English. The persona's Modernism is broad enough to be both general
and very specific.
Structurally, this,Modern consciousness serves as the link between
sections labelled as allegory and as digression. In all sections the
persona focuses on what he finds most interesting at the moment, thereby
giving short shrift to consistent exposition. The undue intrusion into
his material, often in the form of digressions within a chapter, and a
penchant for congratulating himself upon his proficiency as a Modern writer
mar'k the persona's authorship of both allegory and digressions.
As the Modern author he is responsible for the alternation between
"tale" sections and digressions and for the relationship between each. As
MiriannStarkman and Jay Arnold Levine both point out, a definite connection
exists between the installments of the allegory and their accompanying
' , 1
dl.greSSl.ons. For example, in the allegory's opening section the persona
1Miriam Starkman, Swift's Satire.£!l Learning in "A Tale of!!. Tub",
(New York, 1968) and Jay Arnold Levine, "The Design of A Tale of a Tub
(With aDigression on a Mad Modern Critic)",!!d!" XXX (r9~T98-:217.
4
describes Peter's techniques of finding meanings in his father's will
h, -
solely to prove his own point. Then, in section III, himselfA.indulg!.6,,~
in similar tactics to prove the existence in ancient times of the true
critic. Again, in the second allegory installment he describes Peter's
activities as a projector, only, in the succeeding digression, to become
himself a kind of Modern projector. As the ~ progresses this relation- '
ship between allegory and digressive sections gradually breaks down, as
does the order of even-numbered sections continuing the allegory and odd-
numbered ones the digressions. Perhaps this is to be expected after
digressions praising digressions and madness. At any rate, the persona's
own whim eventually subverts any other ordering principle.
Another kind of connection, a thematic one, further demonstrates
that one voice narrates allegory and digressions. This connection by
subject appears in the description of the tailor cult in Section II and
in the subsequent reference to it in Section III. Furthermore, the tailor
cult and Aeolism, although they nominally belong to the allegory, in addi-
tion belong to the materialistic system more fully propounded in "A
.....
.'
Digression on Madness".
A prominent aspect of the Tale-Teller's Modern mentality is his
use of metaphor. Instead of metaphor illustrating his thought, it more
often controls it, partly because he persistently confuses the difference
between literal meanings and metaphors. For him, metaphor becomes literal
meaning, while a literal meaning evolves into metaphor. Thus the meta-
phorical "deep impressions" which words make upon us (Introduction) become
physical impressions and prove one of his theories. St. Paul's statement
that !!Learning puffeth Hen up!! (section VIII) in his mind accounts'for the
5
Aeolist practice of applying bellows to their neighbors' breeches. In
additi9n, his analogy between the face of nature and the mind of man
turns into a literal application of natural process, (that is, that.
vapours rise and produce disturbances) to mental activity_ On the
other hand, he likes to change literal sense into metaphor. In dis-
covering the antiquity of the "true critic", he finds that the ancients'
references to asses, weeds, and serpents are actually metaphors for
"true critics".
Throughout the the persona favors certain kinds of metaphors,
~
namely those of an inside-outside as well as those of an up-down nature.
Men, for example, become. suits of clothes animated by wind. Early in
the Tale it becomes established that these outsides rarely contain any-
thing of worth, and are indeed, vehicles of delusion. The Tale itself
is a major vehicle of delusion which, like the largest in a series of
Chinese boxes, contains others--the allegory, the oratorial machines, and
the systems of the tailor cult, Aeolism, and Madness. In its turn, the
Tale comes within the Introduction's theory of oratorial machines, speci-
fically the Stage Itinerant. Again, the Puritan pulpit, one of the
oratorial machines, is also a tub which reappears in Aeolism as the requisite
vessel for containing wind. In one of the Tale's more famous passages,
the Teller, after demonstrating that Modern outsides are often delusory,
notes that the "Grubbean Sages have always chosen to convey their Precepts
and their Arts, shut up within the Vehicles of Types and Fables".2 The
allegory, of course, does just this.
2Jonathan Swift, A Tale of a Tub,.ed. Guthkelch-Smith (Oxford, 1958),
to
66. All subsequent references the Tale are from this edition and will
be referred to within the text.