Assignment for mid-term

Submitted by,
Tarequr Rahman
Roll: 170080400147
Batch: 8th
Programme: B.A Honor’s English
Course title: The Restoration and the 18th Century Literature: prose

Definition of satire
Satire is a literary genre that uses irony, wit, and sometimes sarcasm to expose humanity’s vices and
foibles, giving impetus, or momentum, to change or reform through ridicule.

It is a manner of writing that mixes a critical attitude with wit and humor in an effort to improve
mankind and human institutions.

Satire in Gulliver’s travels

We know Satire is about making fun at social, political problems and human weaknesses, often using
irony, wit, and sometimes sarcasm. Gulliver's Travels, Swift stabs fun at the human tendency to compare
physical beauty with moral beauty and physical ugliness with being a morally bad person. The tiny,
dainty, pretty 6 inches which is very funny called Lilliputians seem good at first but turn out to be petty,
nasty, cruel, and cruel people who focus on trivial things. The huge and therefore ugly people of
Brobdingnag are actually kinder and more compassionate (though not excessively so). The king, for
instance, is quite shocked as the naive Gulliver sincerely describes the way war is waged in Europe with
bombs and guns. Gulliver’s trip to the Grand Academy at Lagado, where he witnesses vast resources
spent on useless experiments, such as making marble soft so it can be used in pillows and trying to
extract sunlight from cucumbers, satirizes the experiments going on in the British Royal Society. The
rational society of the Houyhnhnms, who are horses, and the barbaric, savage society of the human
Yahoos that the Houyhnhnms despise satires human pretensions of being civilized and better than other
animals. The Houyhnhnms actually behave with much greater rationality than either Yahoos or
European humans and are shocked by the behavior Gulliver describes in Europeans. However, Swift also
satirizes the extreme rationalism and lack of human emotion in the Houyhnhnms. Finally, Swift pokes
fun at Gulliver's behavior in going overboard in his extreme reaction to being back in England, such as
his wanting to sleep in a stable and talk to horses. These are just a few examples of satire in Gulliver's
Travels: the work is many layered and satirizes both the broader human condition and specific political
events of his time.

Critical analysis

  In the beginning of the story, Gulliver explains to the reader a bit about his background, why he was on
these journeys to begin with, and where he finds himself at the beginning of his tale. The story begins
with Gulliver recounting how he was shipwrecked the land of Lilliput. He awakens to find himself tied
down and held captive by a tiny race of people. To the inhabitants of Lilliput, Gulliver is something of a
giant. He could not move, because he was tied down, but he notices a a race of tiny people moving
about him. These people take all of his possessions for inspection, for they are in awe and fear of his
great size. They feed him, and soon untie him but still keep him in confinement. While in his
confinement, he is visited by the emperor who likes Gulliver. Gulliver learns their language and the
customs of the people of Lilliput. In this book Swift, by describing the ludicrous system that Lilliput's
government fashions in, is satirizing the English system of governing. He uses parallels that seem absurd
at first glance but make more senses when looked at carefully.

   When Gulliver reaches the land of Brobdinag, he finds himself in the exact opposite situation that he
was in when in Lilliput. In Brobdinag, it is Gulliver who is the tiny person, and the inhabitants of that land
who appear to be giants. Gulliver expects these "giants to be monsters", but soon finds that they are a
peaceful race of people, who live in a sort of peace-loving land. Swift was playing on all people's fear of
being frightened by those who appear different looking or more powerful.

   In recounting third journey, Gulliver visits the land of Laputa. The stories that are contained within are
a satire on specific figures and policies of the British government of the period in which Swift lived. This
is probably, out of all of the parts of this story that are commonly read today, the least widely read. This
is because most people today do not know of whom Swift is referring to.

   When Gulliver reaches the land of the Houyhnhnms, we read a very fine story that we can still relate
to today. There is a distinction made between the two type of people Gulliver encounters in this land.
The Yahoos, who are considered to be uncivilized Neanderthals, and the Houyhnhnms, who Gulliver's
considers to be civilized. Gulliver contends that the Houyhnhnms are civilized because they are similar to
him, the people remind him of English people, and they have the most complex language he has run
across in his travels. We also read in this part of his travels of a war between the Big-Endians and the
Little-Endians, who are at war with one another over which end of a hardboiled egg should be cracked
on. Swift is satirizing the futility of wars over things like religion.

   Gulliver soon returns home in wonder over his journeys to these lands. Swift did a excellent job of
hiding a biting criticism of the government and society in which he lived. He did this by making the
characters in the story so fantastic and foreign to the reader that the story could only be a fairy tale,
written for children. The actions of the people he runs across are so absurd, and Gulliver seems so
innocent, that at first read many people didn't even get what Swift was trying to say. There were,
however, people who knew Swift's intentions from the start, and got all of the symbols in the story.

Recent incident of our society

We all know that covid-19 is a very frightening issue for the world now. But it seems our Bangladeshi
society and the people they don’t really care about it. It was first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan,
China, and has since spread globally, resulting in an ongoing pandemic. As of 19 May 2020, more than
4.86 million cases have been reported across 188 countries and territories, resulting in more than
321,000 deaths. People are too much worried about their life and couldn’t find way out and in America,
Italy much more died in spite of having well developed health care and medical equipment whereas our
dashi people are chilling and doing whatever they liked and our parliament member obaidul kader
states that corona virus can't affect Bangladeshi people because our prime minister sheikh Hasina has
prayed for the people. This dude is awesome. At last Bangladesh got affected by the virus and it is
increasing day by day then what happened people whom are tested positive they are escaping form the
quarantine and those legends are still hiding under the bushes and policeman are still searching them
with light.

In most of the country there is shortage of PPE and many company takes much time to make PPE But in
our country even a rickshaw puller can make PPE by using polythene which they use to coverup their
rickshaw in rainy season. So, this our Bangladesh and we are legends.

Submitted to: Nowrin Ahmed (lecturer of CBIU)