Date of Award

1959

Document Type

Senior Scholars Paper (Colby Access Only)

Department

Colby College. English Dept.

Advisor(s)

John H. Sutherland

Second Advisor

Clifford K. Chapman

Abstract

For years scholars, critics, students of literature, teachers, and historians have made passing reference to the similarities of Swift's Gulliver's Travels and Voltaire's Candide. No one, however, up to the present date has ever completed a thorough investigation. In the following chapters, I hope to investigate the similarities of techniques used in Gulliver's Travels and Candide such as genre, satiric structure, proportion, balance and contrast, irony in point of view, irony in character, Socratic irony, dramatic irony, invective, understatement, and use of burlesque. It will soon become evident that the similarities and essential differences in no way detract from the individual genius of each author. No matter how striking the parallels are, each author has used techniques to suit his own individual end. Nothing will ever change the reputation that Swift and Voltaire have earned as individual masters of satire.

Keywords

Gulliver's Travels, Candide, Voltaire, Jonathan Swift

Comments

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