Man's Weakness in Gulliver's Travels

Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels has been described by one critic as a Christian work emphasizing man's weakness. In the various journeys, this weakness is found in different human activities. In the voyage to Lilliput, human weakness is found primarily in the political realm, though other human activities as well are shown to bring out the weakness in the people involved. An examination of the voyage to Lilliput will illustrate how this is accomplished.

The world of politics in Lilliput mirrors much of the political world in Europe at the time of the writing of this work, but it is not necessary to know the specific correlations that can be demonstrated to see how foolish much of the political action taken by the Lilliputians really is or how foolish so many human actions are when examined in this way. The people of Lilliput are tiny but think of themselves as masters of the world, and they are indeed masters of the giant Gulliver who has now landed in their midst. Swift makes the machinations of government, the divisions of politics, and the prejudices of the people all the more foolish because the people are so small, their concerns are presumably miniscule when compared to the grandeur of Europe (as Gulliver believes), and because the reasons for the divisions in this society are so simplistic. The realm is divided between the High heels and the Low heels. There is also a religious dispute raging in Lilliputian society over which end of the egg one is to break

always fled for Refuge to that Empire. It is computed, that eleven Thousand Persons have, at several Times, suffered Death, rather than submit to break their Eggs at the smaller End (29). Gulliver develops a particular strategy by which he prevents an invasion--he is more than willing to prevent war but does not wish to participate in a war as the King of Lilliput wants him to do. The conspiracy against Gulliver results in several articles of impeachment being brought against him, with the further result that he is to be blinded and then allowed to starve to death. this sentence is considered to be lenient, as opposed to his being put to death immediately as the court wants. The people of Lilliput are shown to be as petty and small as their size. They are ungrateful for all that Gulliver does for them, and when he puts out the fire in the Queen's chamber by urinating on it, he becomes the target of he continuing wrath, leading directly to the impeachment. Gulliver encounters many examples of the moral weakness of these tiny humans, which only reflects the weakness of humans in the real world. Swift creates a number of correspondences between the world of Lilliput and the world of Europe. Lilliput and Blefuscu can be

Category: Literature - M