Free Gulliver's Travels Essays - Hypocrisy in Government Exposed
Corruption of political systems in one of the primary themes in Gulliver's Travels. This corruption is a result of selfishness as well as the inability to see things from any other perspective rather than one’s own.
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.
When I found myself on my Feet, I looked about me, and must confess I never beheld a more entertaining Prospect. The Country round appeared like a continued Garden, and the inclosed Fields, which were generally Forty Foot square, resembled so many Beds of flowers. These Fields were intermingled with Woods of half a Stang, and the tallest Trees, as I could judge, appeared to be seven Foot high. I viewed the Town on my left Hand, which looked like the painted Scene of a City in a Theatre.
This passage is quickly followed by one expressing Gulliver's needs to "disburdenth" himself:
I had been for some Hours extremely pressed by the Necessities of Nature; which was no Wonder, it being almost two Days since I had last disburthened myself. I was under great Difficulties between Urgency and Shame. The best Expedient I could think on, was to creep into my House, which I accordingly did; and shutting the Gate after me, I went as far as the Length of my Chain would suffer, and discharged my Body of that uneasy Load.
By setting up this contrast (it is interesting to point out that this is the only time that Swift makes any reference to Gulliver's "needs") the reader begins to expect the Lilliput to have a higher form of society. When, later in the book (that is the first book of four), the Lilliputians show their true selfish nature it is more of a surprise to the reader because of the great buildup.
The very fact that this book is put into an adventure format is to lull the reader into believing Gulliver... of course, because Gulliver is Gullible this takes the reader straight to insanity at the end. Swift challenges the reader to make their own decision by taking them from right to wrong and asking them to, at some point, begin disagreeing with Gulliver.
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...llivers Travels not only excite the attention of the reader but they also leave the reader with a very pessimistic impression of the modern world. If Gulliver had left a description of a pile of soil instead of his urination procedure, the reader would perhaps view his work as boring, but not as comedic or repulsive. The tales would have lost their derogatory tone, their satirical edge, and their comedic nature had Swift not used such images.
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.
"Gulliver is neither a fully developed character nor even an altogether distinguishable persona; rather, he is a satiric device enabling Swift to score satirical points" (Rodino 124). Swift, as well as Voltaire, uses satire to exhibit flaws of the political society and human society as a whole. Gulliver 's perceptions and adventures are components Swift uses in satire. He uses the Lilliputians as his main source of satire as an embodiment of England. The Lilliputians are controlling through means of threats; "...when in an instant I felt above a hundred arrows discharged into my left hand, which pricked my like so many needles; and besides they shot another flight into the air, as we do bombs in Europe" (Swift). Swift compares European political situations and satirizes them. Politics is a major theme throughout Gulliver’s Travels as there was a lot of turmoil with the European government at the time. In every journey of Gulliver, his satire continues to grow. The prime of Swift’s satire is in Gulliver’s fourth adventure; within the fourth journey, Swift speaks out against the government and human nature
Swift ties his satire closely with Gulliver's perceptions and adventures. In Gulliver's first adventure, he begins on a ship that runs aground on a submerged rock. He swims to land, and when he awakens, he finds himself tied down to the ground, and surrounded by tiny people, the Lilliputians. "Irony is present from the start in the simultaneous recreation of Gulliver as giant and prisoner" (Reilly 167). Gulliver is surprised "at the intrepidity of these diminutive mortals, who dare venture to mount and walk upon my body" (I.i.16), but he admires this quality in them. Gulliver eventually learns their language, and arranges a contract with them for his freedom. However, he is bound by this agreement to protect Lilliput from invasion by the people of Blefuscu.
The first voyage is to Lilliput, the people who reside here are called Lilliputans. Gulliver is seen as a giant here because the people of Lilliput are extremely tiny; not six inches high (3). The Lilliputians are a political satire of the England of Swift's time. For reference, England and France kept having constant wars as to Lilliput and Blesfuscu. (S45) This is shown especially when in the text of Gulliver's travels:
In this assignment, the reflection will be structured using the educational cycle (framework) of Graham Gibbs, as per the recommendations of Rolfe et al. (2001), in that it is often neither the subject nor the content of what we reflect on that is necessarily important, but rather its analysis in terms of what can be drawn out in understanding and learning.
The first book covers Gulliver’s encounters with the Lilliputians. The Lilliputians are a race of small and peculiar humanoids with oddly specific particularities. For example, rather than electing government officials based on merit and
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.
Right at the beginning of the novel, in the first voyage, corruption is rewarded. Gulliver buys into the Lilliputians' extravagant imaginings because he is frightened by their threats of punishment. Their issue of a formal conviction for sedition is surprisingly rewarded, given their lack of any significant physical prowess over him. As the novel advances, Gulliver changes through the events in his journeys: when he is a giant in Lilliput, he is concerned about stepping on the Lilliputians and crushing them. In the land of Brobdingnag, however, he is the one at risk of being crushed, and is treated more like a toy than a human being. To the end of the book Lemuel Gulliver is changing: on the last voyage he becomes so fond of the Houyhnhnms that his once great desire to return to humankind completely vanishes.
This passage is significant to the fact that while Gulliver is tremendously larger than the Lilliputians, he just lays where they have tied him up despite the fact that he could easily get out of his ‘constraints’. Lori Sue Goldstein says that, “In Gulliver's Travels, Swift enables us to see that we ...
Swift had the power to easily implement new ideas and insights into people with his writings. A great satirist has explicit convictions about right and wrong, but he must be able to make these convictions sound convincing in words. Swift had a sharp perception into the delusions and hopes of people's everyday lives, so he often filtered his ideas through characters and tales that were easy for common people to relate to. When we read Gulliver's Travels, it almost seems like a straightforward adventure story, filled with tales of new creatures and distant countries. On further inspection, it can be seen as a biting satire on s...
Gulliver’s Travels, by Jonathan Swift, is regarded as one of the greatest satires in modern history. The purpose of the book, although some of his contemporaries didn’t realize it, is to ridicule his government, his rulers, and human nature as a whole. His generalization of the human condition doesn’t manifest itself completely until Part IV of the book, where the main character, Lemuel Gulliver, finds himself on an island inhabited by two main species – the Houyhnhnms, horse-like animals, and the Yahoos, human-like animals. The difference between this island and reality as we know it is the fact that the Houyhnhnms are intelligent, noble creatures governed wholly by reason, and the Yahoos are naked, dirty humanoids that seem at best, barbaric creatures. The purpose of Part IV is to show the extremities of human nature, and to display both the good and bad qualities through two different examples. Swift makes the good quality of human nature seem more foreign to the reader by attributing that good quality, reason, to a horse. It also puts the period of Enlightenment in perspective for the reader. The main purpose of Book IV of Gulliver’s Travels is to exemplify the two extremes of human nature, as well as show what position on that spectrum we humans should strive to achieve.
In part one of the novel, Gulliver sets sail for the Pacific Ocean, and dramatically, a storm sinks his ship, washing him onto an island. On the island, the Lilliputians, who are one twelf...
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.