Jonathan Swift, in Gulliver's Travels (1735), portrays a succinct vision of humans throughout his text. Swift has crafted Gulliver's Travels in a way which offers a constant juxtaposition of symbolic metaphors which portray a vision of humans and humanity and in doing so, facilitates an understanding of his vision of the notions of utopian and dystopian societies. With this in mind, it can be said then that Swift, in Gulliver's Travels, through his portrayed vision of humans and humanity, facilitates an understanding of the complex interplay between the notions of utopia and dystopia in a way which further suggests that neither can be without the other, instead that a balance between the two must be present as they can only coexist. Swift employs various literary techniques in order to achieve this underlying goal. His fantastical settings and characters are his foremost means of portraying his fundamental vision of humanity as he has his main protagonist, Gulliver, travel to four distant lands and confront five different races. By doing so, Swift is able to draw metaphorical connections between each race and land to differing aspects of humanity which allows him to critique the way in which the human is able to impact the notions of utopia and dystopia. This further serves the purpose of ultimately presenting the fact that Gulliver's Travels displays neither vision of a utopian or dystopian society. Rather, the text simply contains images of and interactions with the ideas of both notions which ultimately suggest that the two must simply coexist and cannot be achieved individually (Houston, 2007).
Throughout Gulliver's voyages Swift endeavours to scrutinize, parody and satire several aspects of humanity with the overall effe...
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...iety. No society can be solely utopian; there must be aspects of a dystopia within it as they can only co-exist.
In summation, it becomes clear that Swift, in Gulliver's Travels, through his portrayed vision of humans and humanity, facilitates an understanding of the complex interplay between the notions of utopia and dystopia in a way which further suggests that neither can be without the other, instead that a balance between the two must be present as they can only coexist. His equalising contrast of the two books in each half of Gulliver's Travels serves as a symbolic reminder of the balance that must be acquired between utopia and dystopia. Furthermore, his metaphoric use of the five races in the text to symbolise humanity also facilitates an understanding of the ways in which humans contribute to this balance of utopian and dystopian aspects within a society.
In his travels, Gulliver found that other societies were better than European societies, especially that of the Houyhnhnm’s. Gulliver admires the Houyhnhnm’s, and believes their virtuous society is better than that of Europe, especially their lack of vices (Swift, 224). This admiration, of other societies has not been seen in the writings of real European explorers but the mythic Hythloday in More’s Utopia expressed it in More’s Utopia. Utopia and the Houyhnhnm’s societies had are similar in that they both express the writers idea of how a better society could be ran and are critiquing European society at the time. Both of these writings focus heavily on the virtues in foreign societies and the abundance of vices in European society. The lack of illness in the Houyhnhnm’s society is another way Swift uses his writings to discuss his frustration with the world (Swift, 231). In multiple societies Gulliver visited he saw cases where doctors were either working to fix illnesses or where there was no illness at all (Swift, 173) (Swift, 231). If Gulliver were to have come across Utopia in his travels he would have described it in a similar way to the way he described the Houyhnhnm’s, with respect and
...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.
Jonathan Swift is one of the best known satirists in the history of literature. When one reads his works, especially something like Gulliver’s Travels, it is easy for one to spot the misanthropic themes, which emerge within his characterization. Lamuel Gulliver is an excellent protagonist: a keen observer, and a good representative of his native England, but one who loses faith in mankind as his story progresses. He ends up in remote areas of the world all by accidents in his voyages. In each trip, he is shipwrecked and mysteriously arrives to lands never before seen by men. This forms an interesting rhythm in the novel: as Gulliver is given more and more responsibility, he tends to be less and less in control.
...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.
Swifts Gulliver’s Travels enables us to critically and harshly analyse our world and encourages us to evaluate the customs of early 18th century English society in relation to an ideal humanity. In order to address the injustices prevalent in human constructs and behavior, Swift uses literary techniques to induce a state of extreme self-doubt. The satire's assessment of humanity's positive and negative traits is developed through Gulliver's awkward process of identifying with the loathsome Yahoos and idolising the rational Houyhnhnms. The allegory of a domestic animal portraying more "humanity" than humans exemplifies the flaws of human nature and the tumultuous, uncertain philosophical, ethical, and scientific thought, of Swifts period. The portrayal of the Houyhnhnms involves a direct attack on human nature. Although Gulliver's Travels Book IV makes a satirical attack on human nature in general, it does have specific targets in mind: namely, war and its associated destruction, the verminous, lying, criminal activities of lawyers, and the cruel shallowness of consumerism and wealth disparity. In intellectual terms the text leaves the reader feeling quite disturbed despite the use of humor and adventure telling. This essay will analyse Gulliver’s Travels Part 4 in terms of genre and will explore how the satire uses rhetorical means to provide commentary on rational humanity. In addition the essay will examine how Swift promoted change to early 18th century England by constructing an intricate attack on the philosophical position of his political adversaries.
Rodino, Richard H. "The Study of Gulliver's Travels, Past and Present." Critical Approaches to Teaching Swift. New York: AMS Press, 1992.
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.
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.
Past the political satire and laughable motifs in the book Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, the purpose of this story is to show everything ignoble and tactless of the human species in general and that humans are truly disgusting. Also exploring the idea of a utopia. Swift uses the literary device of political satire to show how childish and ignorant human acts were. This is because during Swift's time in the eighteenth century, Britain was modernizing at this time. The reader follows the four narrative travels of the main character, Lemuel Gulliver. Each of the four voyages Gulliver has traveled to, is a different society that portrays one of the main ideals of the eighteenth century in Britain. The four places Gulliver has traveled to were Lilliput; being Gulliver's first voyage, Brobdingnag; his second voyage, Laputa; the third voyage, and lastly to the land of the Houyhnhms; being his last voyage and afterwards traveling back home to England. The experience from being exposed to these four societies has had a huge impact on how Gulliver now sees humans.
ground. The king hears of the news and sends the army to stop the giant
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.
Lilliput, Brombdinag, and the land of Houyhnhnms are the most relevant satire in Gulliver’s travels. Jonathan Swift uses these places to “roast” the European society. Swift desires for Europeans to realize their flaws and develop them. Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels is a marvelous adaption of English society flawed.
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.
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.
In Gulliver’s Travel, a novel written by Jonathan Swift, there are many political themes and satirical descriptions of the English government. During Swift’s time, the early 1700s, the Tory government and the Whig government opposed each other. Hoping that they would appoint him to the Church of England, Swift joined the Tories, but he was not appointed to the position by the Queen. When Tory government was in trouble for treason with the French, the Whig government took over, and Swift left politics to publish Gulliver’s Travel to show the disagreements between the two parties and between the Protestant English and the Catholic French, who did not agree on religious values. Swift wrote Gulliver’s Travel also to show his idealized vision for the English society. In the novel, Swift criticizes the government as he narrates the adventures which Gulliver experiences at different islands with foreign and unique groups of people. In a way, Swift creates utopian societies at the Lillitupian Island and the Brobdingnag Island to exhibit the imperfection of government that existed in England. As Gulliver, Swift’s main character, interacts with these societies, he criticizes some of their customs and laws. He notices that these societies are not utopian from his perspective. Although there are many themes throughout Gulliver’s Travels, this paper will focus on part one and two examining the utopian societies Swift creates for Gulliver to experience through his interactions with the Lilliputians and Brobdingnagian people system of government.