Jonathan Swift

In "Predictions for the year 1708" and "The Accomplishment of the First of Mr. Bickerstaff's Predictions," Jonathan Swift lashed out at Partridge, the Almanac-Maker, and astrology in general. By using a variety of satirical techniques, such as incongruity, sarcasm and exaggeration, Swift captured the deception of almanac-makers who pretended to make accurate predictions of the forthcoming year in their annual publications. The satire works even more successfully because of its realism: Swift imitated the writing style of a rival maker of Partridge (Mayhew 278). Furthermore, Swift literally stabbed at the heart of astrology by predicting the death of Partridge and then consolidated his "death" in the subsequent piece, "Accomplishment," in a deliberate attempt to play a joke on him (Mayhew 276-278).

A versatile satirist, Swift considered it his duty to attack signs of "sin and folly" (qtd. in Mayhew 271). In "Predictions," under the guise of his creation, Mr. Bickerstaff, Swift pinpointed the vagueness and ambivalence of the almanac-makers' predictions that could be interpreted as accurate in any circumstance. For example, according to Bickerstaff, a prediction such as "This Month a certain great Person will be threatened with Death, or Sickness," did not require any astrological skills since there were many old distinguished people who were bound to die during the "sickliest Season of the Year" (Swift 427). Furthermore, it is also likely that Swift targeted the almanac-maker

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dividuals, but also highlighted the haphazard quality of almanacs that included deaths of anybody, including an anonymous "Goldsmith in Lombard Street" (Swift 430). Sometimes genial, sometimes scathing, sarcasm also abounds in "Predictions". For example, Bickerstaff deliberately qualified his praise of Socrates by wittily undercutting the latter's greatness at the same time: "Socrates� whom I look upon as undoubtedly the wisest of uninspired Mortals" (my italics)(Swift 427). In a more scathing criticism, Bickerstaff noted how "ignorant those sottish Pretenders to Astrology are" by predicting Partridge's death. With this prediction, Bickerstaff sought to demonstrate that these almanac-makers did not even have skills to predict their own death (Swift 430). Furthermore, he accused them of being unable to write "intelligible English" (Swift 427). While this statement can be construed as a criticism of a rival, Swift cemented this criticism in his subsequent essay, "Accomplishment." Here, in his deathbed confession, Partridge revealed the fact that most of the almanac-Makers "can hardly write or read" (Swift 435). In another instance, by using Bickerstaff, Swift poked fun at the presumption of almanac-makers who claimed to be able t

Category: Literature - J