Diction，Narration, Symbolism: A Study Of Jonathan Swift’s Plain Style As The Carrier Of His Irony

Plain style is the pillar style for English prose, and is also where its charm lies.The style established itself during the late17thcentury and the early18th, the “centuryof prose” in English literature history, and Jonathan Swift the satirist is the pivotfigure, epitomizing those before him and setting forth the road for those after him.This thesis, on the basis of the plain style’s features, would like to do some researchon why he deliberately chose the plain style as his artistic means and how the styleserved to enhance the ironic effect and deepen the ironic meaning of his works.The research is carried out on three levels. The first is a discussion of Swift’smeans and the function of the plain style on a diction level. Contrast and redefinitionare his handy devices, and the function of the plain style is to make the contrastsharper by a clearer expression and the redefinition stealthier by a plain guise on thesurface. The second level is about Swift’s layout for the whole passage. One of hisextraordinary devices is to pick up a fallible narrator, who by his own limitation suchas ignorance would give his own specious, scanty or even ridiculous explanation,while both the readers and the author know the truth——the conflict is the source ofirony. The function of the plain style is to make a perfect homely disguise out of itssimilarity to oral language and the fast speed it moves at, so that the readers wouldfollow the narrator’s steps while the author has already turned to a different direction.The third level is about the author’s symbolic intention, Gulliver’s Travels being anexample, and represents the author’s highest achievement. The author has designed avertical two-level structure, the upper level being a plain extension of description withthe fallible narrator’s specious explanation while the deeper level being a combinationof the author’s symbolic and ironic meanings. The conflicts and contrasts betweenthese two levels are the source of irony. The plain style makes the existence of thisstructure possible, and it also make the clash of the two levels more powerful andenlightening when they reach their climax.