Reflects on the Society in Gulliver's Travels

     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

In Gullivers' Travel, Gulliver constantly lives in a state of fear from the immense size of all objects surrounding him yet he eventually overcomes this fear as the story progress. At the beginning of this excerpt, Gulliver is saved from shipwreck by a 72ft. farmer and his daughter Glumdalclitch. As the story progresses Gulliver and Glumdalclitch develop a liking for one another and build a very special relationship.

    During the eighteenth century there was an incredible upheaval of commercialization in London, England.  As a result, English society underwent significant, "changes in attitude and thought", in an attempt to obtain the dignity and splendor of royalty and the upper class (McKendrick,2).  As a result, English society held themselves in very high regards, feeling that they were the elite society of mankind.  In his novel, Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift satirizes this English society in many ways.  In the novel, Swift uses metaphors to reveal his disapproval of English society.  Through graphic representations of the body and it's functions, Swift reveals to the reader that grandeur is

In detail, Gulliver gives descriptions of European manners, customs, philosophy, and religion that relies in England. Also, describes to the King the political positions of the Whigs and the Tories. Yet, the King mocks Gulliver’s praise of England, by asking him “if he is a Whig or a Tory?” This angered Gulliver because he felt the King was using the English customs, as a proof of human vanity. As seen in the line, “We all think our own politics and religion are so important, but from a wide perspective they really aren’t.” Yet, Gulliver’s praise of England in the conversation shows his feelings of devotion and respect of the society and hierarchy versus the Kings disagreements. Nonetheless, King Brobdingnag continues to insult him by saying, Europeans are “the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the Earth.” In short, Gulliver begins to see the King’s point of England and of himself as just being tiny and funny looking (Shmoop Editorial

Gulliver’s Travel became Swift’s most known works. Gulliver’s Travels works setting, characters, and plot is split up into four separate journeys, which are all made by a sea loving physician named Gulliver(“Gulliver’s Travels” 76) . As said in the article “Gulliver’s Travels.” In the first and most famous journey, Gulliver signed up to be a ship doctor. But the ship gets swept into a whirlpool. When Gulliver wakes up he is on a foreign shore surrounded and tied up by tiny people (76). In Gulliver's second trip a terrible storm sends Gulliver and his crew onto an unfamiliar shore where they find out giants live there. Gulliver asks the king of the land, questions about the giants politics and the religion of the land, but the king eventually gets annoyed and kicks Gulliver off the land and into the ocean (76). On the third journey Gulliver’s ship is captured by pirates which then leave him on an abandoned island where Gulliver looks up and sees a floating island. Gulliver then learns that the inhabitants on the island live only the laws of science and math. When Gulliver learns a lot about these people he sets sail for home to tell about his findings (77). In Gulliver’s last voyage he lands on an island with two types of “people,” talking horses who have established society based on reason rather than emotion. Also hairy humanoids that are slaves to the horses. Gulliver lives with the horses until the horses can’t tell Gulliver apart from the hairy humanoids. So Gulliver is then exiled for lying (77). This was the plot of Swift's best and most criticised

little people and it is this which Swift uses as a base for his views

Swift doesn’t care too much of humankind and speaks more negative about the ways of life than positive. He uses satire to express the insane nature of this story. In real life horses do not talk nor have civilizations, but Gulliver rather live with these horses than his own people and family. Swift shows similar characteristics that Gulliver has to the yahoos and houyhnhnms. Swift talks about England and how men kill each other for want and need and the acts of war his people adventure on for money and greed. Gulliver describes his people as intelligent but almost not worthy of this intelligence. Their work is used for bad and not to always improve society but bring it down sometimes. This is offensive to Gulliver and the most ironic aspect is that Gulliver is just like the people that he describes. In the beginning he leaves his pregnant wife and child to set out on the sea, once he is back he tends to his horses and holds conversations with the horses, he shows no interest in conversing with his family. He rejects them and this makes him to be cruel and unlike the houyhnhnms. In Gulliver’s mind he is just like the houyhnhnms and holds himself to a higher standard than others and this makes him more irrational. No one is superior to anyone and this quality is what begins wars and violence. The houyhnhnms seem more irrational that they believe themselves to be superior to everyone, they act more

In the writing's of the Jonathan Swift we can clearly see issues and concepts with regard to morality, ethics and relations come into play in our society and in Gulliver's Travels, Swift brings those issues to the for front for everyone to see and analyze. The very concepts and beliefs that man holds dear Swift attacks and strongly justifies his literary aggression thought the construct of the society of the Houyhnahnms who truly leads a just and humane society that we as humans (Yahoos) have the faintest concept of. As I will later point out, Swift also deals with human ignorance and the overall belief that nothing in this earth can be more civilized and exert more reason then us. He uses the characters of the

A single narrator is used by Jonathan Swift in to highlight the decline of one man. If multiple narrators were used in this novel then his satire would be weaker since we would get many perspectives on the same event and the reader would not align themselves with a single narrator’s perspective. This single mindedness strengthens the satire. The telling of Gulliver’s Travels through a first person narrative allows enhances the satire of the European society and

In the last voyage in Jonathan Swift's book Gulliver's Travels, "A voyage to the country of the Houyhnhnms," Swift describes his idea of an ideal society. There are many examples provided in this part of the book to convince the reader that Swift is indeed illustrating his idea of a utopia. By using horses as the most reasonable creature, Swift not only defaces human society by making a beast a more powerful creature, but also shows that humans are unable to attain this perfectly reasonable society.

Even in today’s society, jokes about the repercussions of educating women find their way into the popular culture, though they are generally very tongue-in-cheek. For example, in Pitch Perfect 2, a recent film, a comedic-relief, narrating character says of the girls’ acapella performance, “This is what happens when you send girls to college” (Pitch Perfect 2). The character implies that when girls are given education and freedom, they will default to partaking in foolish behavior. This was a common idea in the eighteenth century as people legitimately denied women schooling based on such a concept. In the last paragraph on page 55 of Gulliver’s Travels (1726), Swift comments on the education and roles of women in Lilliputian society using specific word choice and juxtaposition of male and female schooling. With this, he asserts that, while the Lilliputians regarded women with similar gender-based expectations as the English, they did offer women some form of equality through the basis of education. This, of course, contrasts the treatment of women in European society which feared that female education would empower women to leave behind their traditional roles. Through his addressal of the fact that women can be educated and still “succeed” as mothers and wives, Swift presents that society could benefit from teaching girls basic information while still keeping them in their customary places.

Gulliver’s Travels is a travel book written by Johnathan Swift. Gulliver’s Travel was published in 1726. Johnathan Swift is a satirist. A satirist is a writer who uses humor, irony, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity. Swift goes on a journey throughout the boo. During the journey, Johnathan exploits human flaws in his travel book. Gulliver travels into four imaginary lands. Each of the four books provide social and political commentary. Swift created this book to get a buzz. Swift swaps the roles of animals and humans. Horses, or the Houyhnhnms, have the ability to reason, but lack the ability to show emotion. These animals are organized and intelligent. They live freely and are not confined. On the other hand, the Yahoos have the outer appearance of humans, but are ignorant. The Yahoos have a confined living space and lack their ability to reason. Swift chose to twist the roles of these figures to show the evident flaws of humans.

When people ever think of the famous novel Gulliver’s Travels written by Jonathan Swift, the first picture that would come to their mind is Gulliver’s dramatic comparison with the smalls or the giants in body size. The story of Lilliput (The land of Smalls) and the story of Brobdingnag (The land of Giants) are so widespread because of their both comic and humorous effect. They are favored by later literature carriers, like films and children’s books, generally in abridged and adopted editions. As a result, a considerable number of people mistakenly believe the book only consists of two parts. In fact, the book contains four parts, each dealing with one particular voyage during which Gulliver meets with extraordinary adventures on some remote island after he has met with shipwreck or piracy of some other misfortune. The interpretation of the meaning of the novel has always been disputable. The story has been depicted along an extensive spectrum ranging from children’s story to a discovery of human nature.

The novel, Gulliver’s Travels, is just that, a novel about the main character, Gulliver who goes on many journeys. The part of this book that brings out the reader’s interest is Gulliver’s character and the ways his character changes as the story progresses. He begins as a naïve Englishman and by the end of the book he has a strong hatred for the human race. Gulliver shows that his adventures have taught him that a simple life, one without the complexities and weaknesses of human society, may be best, but the simple life he longed for should not have been the route he took.

Jonathan Swift, son of the English lawyer Jonathan Swift the elder, was born in Dublin, Ireland, on November 30, 1667. He grew up there in the care of his uncle before attending Trinity College at the age of fourteen, where he stayed for seven years, graduating in 1688. In that year, he became the secretary of Sir William Temple, an English politician and member of the Whig party. In 1694, he took religious orders in the Church of Ireland and then spent a year as a country parson. He then spent further time in the service of Temple before