Literature as Folly

Paper Summary:

The paper shows that by providing readers with a realm based solely on the imagination, authors are able to manipulate reality through literature, creating unattainable expectations in society. The paper examines three examples illustrating this in the Augustan Age: "A Tale of a Tub" by Jonathan Swift, "The Vanity of Human Wishes", by Samuel Johnson, and "The English Malady" by George Cheyne. The paper describes how each work uses a different mode to express and effectively critique the inflated significance placed on intellect and the written word that both caused and resulted from the print explosion of the neo-classical period. It shows how all three writers voice a realization that the materialistic Empire was falling into a downward spiral from the spiritual and moral decay initiated by the overindulgence in the luxuries of excess.

From the Paper:

"In section two of this work, Swift uses the metaphor of three brothers who abandon the principles of their father's will at the whim of current fashion to convey the movement of literature from its classical roots to the image based "tailor deity." As the brothers deface the coats, that were the only legacy left to them by their father, they are metaphorically distorting classical literature which was their predecessors sole method of preserving their wisdom for posterity. Therefore, any reader coming into the sphere of this type of influence would be accepting knowledge with no basis in the accepted archetype or tradition of human understanding."

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• Book Review # 103432 : "The Follies of Falstaff"
• Comparison Essay # 4163 : "Characters on the Fringe: Are They More Intriguing?"

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