Rousseau, Richardson, Defoe, and Swift: Key Works & Themes

Rousseau

Rousseau's work focuses on three thematic groups: music and performances, morality and politics, and individuality (autobiography).

In Emile, Rousseau describes the formation of an individual outside of any social contract. He suggests a natural educational system, divided into phases, where education should enable the individual to secure happiness and collaborate to achieve it with others.

In The Social Contract, he proposes a system of government based on transferring personal freedoms for the common good through a covenant or contract.

In The New Heloise (an epistolary novel), Rousseau begins to explore the romance and passion of love.

Later, he publishes his Confessions, in which he intimately exposes his autobiographical experiences.

Finally, in Dialogues: Rousseau Judge of Jean-Jacques (also known as Rousseau's Dreams of a Solitary Walker), he neglects the reader to delve into his own self.

Samuel Richardson

In Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded, Richardson introduces Pamela, a young and virtuous servant of a family who is pursued by the son. Eventually, they marry. His intention is clearly moralizing. Later, Richardson issued Clarissa; or, the History of a Young Lady, in which the woman, after being harassed and raped, loses her virginity and, being unable to marry, eventually dies.

Daniel Defoe

Defoe is a self-made author of humble origins and with little formal education who sought to find his place in society.

A central theme in his work is the human capacity to shape nature through labor and reason, and the idea of civilization.

In Robinson Crusoe, Defoe recounts Crusoe's first trips (presentation of the main character, his concerns with adventures and riches, and the shipwreck), his life on the island (the domination of nature and education of Friday), and his return to civilization.

In Moll Flanders, Defoe shows us a woman who tries to thrive through her beauty but without success.

Jonathan Swift

Swift's Gulliver's Travels consists of four voyages:

1. Gulliver arrives in Lilliput, a land of tiny beings that parodies the English Parliament.
2. He travels to Brobdingnag, a land of giants who are sound but physically repulsive.
3. He visits a floating island with a king who threatens the world below, criticizing scientists and philosophers.
4. He arrives on an island inhabited by rational horses (Houyhnhnms) who have enslaved humans (Yahoos) that are less evolved. This experience fills Gulliver with shame for being human.

Swift's work often reveals the harsh realities of human nature and social structures.