In the early eighteenth-century, Irish writer Jonathan Swift produced one of the most printed novels known to date. The novel, Gulliver’s Travels, not only received recognition for being reprinted an immense amount of time, but also for the satire found within the novel. Swift intended his novel to be used as a scapegoat in which he would reveal his opinion on the English society. Swift was able to demonstrate this satire through the four part plot of Gulliver’s Travels. Each part of the novel told the journey of the protagonist and focal character, Lemuel Gulliver, to an unknown island. Lemuel Gulliver spent a majority of his life bouncing around from place to place until settling in London as a practicing doctor. Once Gulliver’s business in London failed due to the death of his partner, he made the decision to travel at sea for the following six years. Gulliver’s restlessness caused his crave for adventure, leading him on a journey to various islands. Gulliver tells the story of these journeys to the islands as the narrator. Swift uses Gulliver’s journey to three islands Lilliput, Brobdingnag, and Laputa to scrutinize and satirize humanity, often referring to England, and with Gulliver’s encounters with the habitants of these islands, Swift is able to construct Englishness. Swift wrote Gulliver’s Travels at a time when England was embarking on a journey it had not been on before. During the five years Swift wrote Gulliver’s Travels, he was able to observe the changes England was encountering and connect his story to the story England was creating for itself. England’s fleet gave the small country dominance over the rest of Europe, giving rise too not only military power, but economic as well. This rise in power gave England a ch... ... middle of paper ... ... backbone for his satirical novel. Through the adventures of the main character, Lemuel Gulliver, Swift was able to comment on the English society through the use of satire. As the novel progressed, the audience learned that Gulliver journeyed to several islands encountering unfamiliar groups of people and cultures. Swift would connect the experiences Gulliver encountered to different aspects of the English society. The unfamiliar societies Gulliver became acquainted with represent the new countries and their communities that England colonized. The way the communities of Lilliput, Brobdingnag, and Laputia treated Gulliver imitates the way the English treated an unfamiliar face, and it was only through each island’s society and Gulliver’s experiences that Jonathan Swift could create a parallel to England constructing satire in his famous novel Gulliver’s Travels.
Swift, Jonathon. "Gulliver's Travels." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. Vol. 1. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. 2489-632. Print.
Jonathan Swift wrote his book Gulliver’s Travels in the first half of the 1720’s. At the time he was writing much more of the “new world” had been explored and colonized, giving Swift with the ability to create a traveller to poke fun at and critique the men who had previously made themselves out to be heroes by creating a fiction often more believable than the supposed truths. Gulliver’s admiration for other societies resembles that of Hythloday and his experience in Utopia. Both of these book show how writers back in Europe wished the explorers would have been more earnest in their descriptions of societies in the new world. Swift especially used his book to comment on the current state of Europe and its politics in the new world.
...lity for what it is but also gives me motivation to either make the world a better place. Through his writings he gives us a choice that I feel is vital and has the abilities to distinguishes his readers from good and evil, the just and unjust. This is a form of writing in relation to all societies that I have never seen before and I feel that it is vital for all to read Gulliver's Travels so that they can look within themselves and see who they are as individuals. Overall, it is my opinion that Jonathan Swifts works on Gulliver's Travels exemplifies a true literary masterpiece. It gives us a true description of society and how we as individuals interact with on another. It tells us of our "corrupt lawyers, politicians, avaricious doctors, mass slaughters in wars over trivial pretexts-aspects of our experience as well as of Gulliver's and reminders that this narrative Gulliver's and his experiences implicates the reader in the moral problem of how to judge-and perhaps how to change-society. In all there is a lot to learn from these writing and tell us a lot about society and how we as individuals need to gain a better understanding our ourselves as well as society as a whole.
The first voyage of Gulliver takes him to the isle of Lilliput. There, he must play to a petty and ineffectual government. Swift uses several devices to highlight the Lilliputian stupidity. First, they are physically agile and graceful in comparison to Gulliver, who is portrayed as cumbersome and brutish.
What Swift has accomplished by making Gulliver the embodiment of common English values and beliefs and then having him visit far away lands that are really the mirrors of English society is an interesting satirical device. He forces the English reader to unknowingly judge English society, not according to some higher law or pristine observer, but through the lens of their own cherished values. This effectively turns English beliefs and values in on themselves as a test of their merit. Swift echoes this structure by first having Gulliver visit a land of little people, which causes one to observe them with scrutiny. Then Gulliver immediately travels to a land of giants which causes scrutiny of Gulliver, who is now the little one.
Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver’s Travels. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol C. 9th ed. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012. 2492-2633. Print.
Lemuel Gulliver recounts his findings over four of his most impactful voyages in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. In Gulliver’s Travels, Gulliver gives his own candid account of all significant characters encountered and manages to fall into almost every influential person’s favor. Swift tactically shapes Gulliver’s encounters with characters from varying backgrounds to compare the behavior of the esteemed nobility with the behavior of commoners. Swift has Gulliver alter his demeanor based on his present surroundings to appeal to those around him and maintain his pride. By doing so, Swift intended to didactically explain his contempt for nobility, his misanthropy, and the dangers of pride.
In Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, Gulliver learns that experiencing different lifestyles he thought were better than his own actually makes him appreciate his own life with a more meaningful disposition through his journeys to Lilliput, Brobdingnag, and the Country of the Houyhnhnms. Gulliver’s journey to Lilliput effectuated forlorn feelings of his home. Likewise, Gulliver’s trek to Brobdingnag assists in his realization that changing perspectives also alter his attitude towards his homeland. Finally, Gulliver’s expedition to the Country of Houyhnhnms, where horses act civilized on and people act like wild animals. Gulliver soon learns that through his mystical journeys that changing the perspective in which he views the world reverses feelings of gratefulness towards his home. Gulliver’s first journey set sail to the Lilliputians on May 4th, 1699.
Hart, Vaughan. "Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift (Book Review)." Utopian Studies 9.2 (1998): 250. Advanced Placement Source. Web. 22 Feb. 2012.
Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels presents a narrator, Lemuel Gulliver, who recounts his various sea voyages to fantastical lands. During each voyage, Gulliver encounters different societies and customs to which Gulliver must adjust to. in order to be accepted into their society The entire novel serves as a commentary on how people everywhere have a tendency to abuse the power given to them.
Many people contemplate telling the truth due to the consequences, but Johnathan Swift has found an original idea and expressed it by writing Gulliver 's Travels. It was a story based on satire and was meant to ridicule the way his country operated. Each part was an original installment meant to criticize the way his country operated in the form of education, politics, science, etc. Swift shamed his government and the politicians involved in the process of running the country, which they did in the most beneficial way for themselves rather than their own people. He uses the conflicts in the countries he visited to discuss the number of problems with England. This book was meant to educate the people of all of the dishonesty their leaders have shown and will continue to show unless there is an intervention. Swift 's comments on the British society are accurate and most definitely helped lift the ignorance of the world to this day.
Gulliver’s Travels is a satirical novel about a sailor’s adventures through strange lands; the author of Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift, uses these adventures to satirize the English society. The most prevalent satire is used as Gulliver travels through the lands of Lilliput, Brombdinag, and the Houyhnhnms.
Gulliver's Travels was written during an era of change known as the Reformation Period. The way this book is written suggests some of the political themes from that time period, including the well-known satire. These themes are displayed throughout Gulliver's Travels, and even sometimes reflect upon today's society.
As one can see, Gulliver’s Travel is a good example of Swift’s idea of the English government. The novel satires the way the English government was superficial through the Lilliputian society and the type of government England should had through Brobdingnagians society. Swift was able to make a social statement through his utopia to “push an ideal, ideology, or political demand to its logical extreme in order to make it serve as a warning for society.” (A Novel Approach to Politics pg.21) The utopia served as a satirical comedy to reach out to England to show the mistakes of government.
Gulliver's Travels is a great novel written by Jonthan Swift. It is about voyages of Gulliver-main character-to different countries. Gulliver's Travels is a political allegory of England at Swift's time. the word allegory means a simple that can be objects, characters, figures or colors used to represent an abstract idea or concepts. Swift uses this novel to criticize the political condition of England at the 18th century and to make a satire of the royal court of George 1 . Gulliver's Travels has established itself as a classic for young people. Its appeal to young minds is due to the fact that it is, on the surface, an adventure story of strange wonderful lands. As a matter of fact, it is taken by the mature reader as an allegory work of England at Swift's time.