not bridge, for flesh has become uncleansable to him. With Swift being seen by Robert Ellis--quoted by Herbert Read-as having neurasthenia, anything that comes regularly and in routine is liable to become intolerable, it is easier to understand some of his writings. This idea gained him much ridicule from critics because thinkers of his day stressed the essential goodness and rationality of humans. Swift, certainly, shares this idealistic, deeply emotional devotion to Reason. Perhaps it would be safer to say that Reason is the faculty in man that enables God to reveal religion to him. In Swifts conception, then, this highest, purest aspect of Reason is really intuition; it is above and distinct from what is ordinarily regarded as intellectual process. For that reason, comparing Swift to Shakespeares Hamlet is conceivable. W.B.C Watkins says the extent of this extreme disillusion, this revulsion from anything physical while still being morbidly attracted to it is largely similar to Hamlet transferring his hatred of his mothers sin to Ophelia, with his unhappy faculty of generalizations, to all womankind (461). Scholars claimed that through scientific advancement and reason society could achieve a high degree of moral righteousness. Throughout his lifetime critics rejected and even attacked Swifts writing due to his treatment of women. Critics, including William Makepeace Mchackery, attacked the immorality of Swifts life, concentrating on what he perceived about his treatment of women to be detestable to the eras sentimental visions of love and virtue. Women in their dressing rooms were for Swift a symbol of humankinds vanity, hypocrisy, and imperfection. The Ladys Dressing-Room provides a good example of their typical structure. Here, Swift opens creating the image of Celia to be perfect and divine.Five Hours, (and who can do it less in?)By haughty Celia spent in Dressing;The Goddess from her chamber issues,Arrayd in Lace, Bro...
