42 pages 1 hour read

Jonathan Swift

A Tale Of A Tub

Fiction | Novella | Adult | Published in 1704

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Character Analysis

The Narrator (Jonathan Swift)

Although Swift didn’t want to admit that he wrote A Tale of a Tub because he didn’t want to hurt his career advancement as an Anglican clergyman, many knew that he was the author. Despite the guise of a narrator, Swift’s  voice is the one responsible for the arguments in the treatise, the many tangents, and the satiric tone. He uses the book to highlight differences between three Christian faiths: Catholicism, Protestantism (or Anglicanism), and Puritanism. He also uses allusion, metaphor, symbols, and allegory to explore the hypocrisy of these religions. He uses “digressions” to analyze the state of scholarship and critique, to compare ancient ideas to modern ones, as well as to discuss the meaning of digressions and the roles of writers. Swift employs his skills of observation and storytelling, nuanced by his specific satirical and unsparing sense of humor, to guide readers through a varied exploration of the religious, literary, and political worlds in England during the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

Related Titles

By Jonathan Swift

Study Guide

logo

A Description of a City Shower

Jonathan Swift

A Description of a City Shower

Jonathan Swift

Study Guide

logo

Gulliver's Travels

Jonathan Swift

Gulliver's Travels: Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.

Jonathan Swift