Gulliver's Travels
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Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathan Swift, was first published in 1726. It is concerned with the English surgeon Lemuel Gulliver and his fantastic journeys around the globe. In four books, Swift tells of Gulliver's adventures among little people, giants, irrational scientists, and a society of horses. Obviously, Gulliver's Travels was written with the intention of creating an entertaining work of fiction. However, Swift's vision in this novel also has a satiric purpose to it. In this regard, the events which occur during Gulliver's adventures take place on a symbolic as well as a literal level. One of the things that Gulliver's Travels is meant to satirize is the genre of "travel literature" which was popular during Swift's time. Examples of this genre include the traveler's tales of William Dampier in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, and the novel Robinson Crusoe which was completed by Daniel Defoe in 1719 (Jeffares 24). However, in addition to making fun of the travel literature genre, Swift wrote Gulliver's Travels with the satiric purpose of pointing out the hypocrisies and errors of human life. Thus, the entertaining fantasy of the novel serves as a vehicle for Swift's "bitter criticism of human society" (Kratz 57). Many of the satiric elements in Gulliver's Travels are directed toward the people and institutions of Swift's own time. However, Swift also attacks faults which are inherent in human beings of all times and places. Thus, in additi
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large end of a broken egg (Swift 246). Many scholars agree that the big-enders are meant to designate the Catholics of Swift's time, whereas the small-enders represent the Protestants of England. Those who are caught breaking their eggs on the large side in Lilliput are banished to Blefuscu, just as the Catholics of England were banished to France (jeffares 25). These ridiculous laws and political practices show the small-minded nature of the Lilliputians. This small-mindedness is further enhanced when Gulliver saves the Lilliputians from a Blefuscu attack and also saves the royal palace from a fire by urinating on it. Rather than thanking Gulliver for these deeds, the Lilliputians decide to put the giant to death because he is a financial burden to them.
In Part II, Gulliver acquires a startling new point of view when he is abandoned on the Island of Brobdingnag. In Lilliput, Gulliver was referred to as a "man-mountain." By contrast, in Brobdingnag, he is treated like an unusual insect. One of the first Brobdingnagians that Gulliver meets is the farmer's wife who "screamed and ran back, as women do at the sight of a toad or a spider" (Swift 291). Human nature is again satirized in the way in which the Brobdingnagians t
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Approximate Word count = 1973
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)
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