JONATHAN SWIFT AND THOMAS MORE CURRICULUM UNIT © CTMS Contents I. II. III. IV. V.
Jonathan Swift on Thomas More Similarities between the Utopia and Gulliver's Travels Essay Topics for Comparing Utopia and Gulliver's Travels Topics for Other Essays on Gulliver's Travels Lecture on Gulliver's Travels
I. Jonathan Swift on Thomas More In book three, chapter 7 of Gulliver’s Travels, Swift includes More among the six most virtuous leaders up to that time, along with Socrates, Cato, and Brutus. In another essay, Swift writes that More “was the person of the greatest virtue these islands ever produced” (Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, v. 13, Oxford UP, 1959, p. 123). II. Similarities between the Utopia and Gulliver's Travels Narrator In Gulliver’s Travels, it is important to realize (but not to reveal too soon to students) that the tales are being told by an unreliable narrator – in fact, a narrator who in the end has gone mad. This technique is similar to the one Thomas More utilizes in Utopia. Careful readers – noticing the many internal contradictions in Raphael’s account in book 2, together with the many indications given in book 1 – come to realize that Raphael cannot be completely trusted, and they must weigh judiciously all that he says. Ending Both books end with a denunciation of pride by the main character, a main character who has proved himself to be extremely proud.