Aristophanic Echoes in Swift in Twisted Laughter and Thoughts: Reading Clouds and Gulliver’s Travels

Abstract

This article aims at juxtaposing Aristophanes’ comedy Clouds and Jonathan Swift’s travelogue Gulliver’s Travels to find out similarities in the ways the authors present characters, scenes, and activities whereby they create satirical effects that make the reader or audience laugh and think wryly. The comparison shows that both the works share some common techniques of presentation of argumentation, misguided and misdirected pursuits of science, witty styles of naming, peculiar modes of education, amusing ways of breaking the taboo around human physical processes, and the gullibility of the protagonists. In the unavailability of any other comparison between these two works of this type and the absence of documentation on whether Swift received inspiration from Aristophanes, it is suggested that these two satirical minds thought alike in styles, techniques, and content.