Jonathan Swift

was the most celebrated prose satirist of the period.

Swift was born in 1667.

Although he was a great literary figure even in his age, we know very little about his private life.
For example, we are not even sure if he married. We do know that Swift was into politics, in
fact he became an influential member of the British government but he never
achieved the position in the Church of England that he felt he deserved.
Swift died in a mental institution, finally struck down by an illness which had probably been
with him for a long time.

His masterpiece is Gulliver's Travels (published in 1726), a brilliant satire on politics and society,
and a parody of travel literature.
The novel can be read at various levels:
+ a travel book + an allegorical story + a satirical essay + a tale for children.
——-> It has the merit of appealing both to adults and children.

GULLIVER (1726)

INTRO
Gulliver’s Travels, original title Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World,
is a keystone of English literature, it was one of the books that gave birth to the novel form.
A parody of the then popular travel narrative, Gulliver’s Travels combines adventure with savage
satire, mocking English customs and the politics of the day.
The book was published anonymously and was an overnight success.
Swift’s publisher claimed that it had been dropped at the door of his house, but the truth eventually
gradually it leaked out.

SUMMARY
Gulliver's Travels is an adventure story (in reality, a misadventure story) involving several voyages
of Lemuel Gulliver, a surgeon, whose name comes from “seagull” but also means “foolish, naive”.
The book is written in the first person from the point of view of the protagonist, who, because of a
series of mishaps, always ends up on several unknown islands discovering people and animals of
unusual sizes, behaviors, and philosophies, but after each adventure, he is somehow able to return
to his home in England where he recovers from these unusual experiences and then sets out again
on a new voyage.

in particular the book describes 4 adventures.

—-> bonkers

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Part I: A Voyage to Lilliput
When the ship Gulliver is traveling on is destroyed in a storm, he arrives on the island of Lilliput,
where he wakes up to find himself a giant, held prisoner by tiny men, called Lilliputians .
They call him the “Man Mountain” and are initially afraid of him, but once he is taken to the capital
city and gives assurances of his good behavior he is eventually released and he gradually wins their
trust.
afterwards he is given a residence in Lilliput and becomes a favourite of the Lilliput Royal Court.
He is also given permission by the King of Lilliput to go around the city on condition that he must
not hurt their subjects, in fact they are threatened by his size.

The Lilliputians reveal themselves to be people who have fun in displays of authority and
performances of power.
Also who put great emphasis on trivial (banal) matters.
For example, they’ve initiated a whole war versus the empire across of Blefuscu over which end of
an egg a person should crack.

eventually Gulliver helps them solve their conflict with their enemy capturing Blefuscu’s naval fleet,
thus preventing an invasion, but declines to assist the emperor of Lilliput in conquering Blefuscu.
which, combined with urinating in the capital though he was putting out a fire, makes him fall out
of favor and charged with treason and sentenced to be blinded and starved.

With the assistance of a kind friend, "a considerable person at court", he escapes to Blefuscu.
where he finds and retrieves an abandoned boat and sails out to be rescued by a passing ship,
which safely takes him back home with some Lilliputian animals he carries with him.

Part II: A Voyage to Brobdingnag

Gulliver soon sets out again, but when the sailing ship “Adventure” is blown off course by storms
he and a small crew are sent to find fresh water on an island. Instead they encounter a land of
giants, called Brobdingnag, this time he finds himself to be the tiny person.
As the companions flee, Gulliver is left behind and captured by a giant farmer, who takes him home
and charges his daughter Glumdalclitch, to be Gulliver's keeper.
Gulliver is treated kindly and with compassion, but of course with curiousity, and the farmer begins
exhibiting Gulliver as a freak in a side-show for money.

After a while the constant display makes Gulliver sick, and the farmer sells him to the Queen of the
realm. Between small adventures such as fighting giant wasps and being carried to the roof by a
monkey, Gulliver becomes a favourite at court, where he meets the King, and the two spend many
sessions discussing the customs and behaviors of Gulliver's country.
In many cases, the King is shocked and chagrined by the selfishness and pettiness that
he hears Gulliver describe. The King is not happy with Gulliver's accounts of Europe,
especially upon learning of the use of guns and cannon : The king, horrified,
responds to Gulliver’s description of the government and history of England by
concluding that the English must be a race of “odious vermin.”

in the mean time, since Gulliver is too small to use their huge chairs, beds, knives and forks, the
Queen commissions a small house to be built for him so that he can be carried around in it; this is
referred to as his "travelling box".

Eventually his happy stay ends when one day, on a trip to the seaside, Gulliver’s traveling box is
picked up by a huge eagle, that lift him high in the air and then drops him into the sea, where
luckily he is rescued by some sailors who return him to england and his family.

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Part III: A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Glubbdubdrib, Luggnagg and Japan

On Gulliver’s third voyage he is set adrift by pirates and he is rescued by the flying island of Laputa,
a kingdom devoted to the arts of music, mathematics and astronomy but unable to use
its learning for practical applications.
what is more concerning is that the people of Laputa are so lost in thought that they must be
reminded to pay attention to the world around them.

Gulliver then tours Balnibarbi, the continent below which is ruled from Laputa.
In particular he visits the capital city of the kingdom, Lagado, where he sees the ruin brought
about by the blind pursuit of science without practical results, (in a satire on
bureaucracy and on the Royal Society and its experiments) : He finds the farm fields in ruin and
the people living in apparent squalor.
Discovering that once again it’s because great resources and manpower are employed on
researching impractical projects as extracting sunbeams from cucumbers, or uncovering political
conspiracies by examining the excrement of suspicious persons, or learning how to mix paint by
smell, or softening marble for use in pillows.

Gulliver is then taken to Maldonada, the main port of Balnibarbi, to await a trader who can take
him on to Japan.

While waiting for a passage, Gulliver takes a short side-trip to the island of Glubbdubdrib, where
he visits a magician and has the opportunity to discuss history with the ghosts of great historical
figures, such as Julius Caesar, Homer, Aristotle, René Descartes, and learns from them the lies of
history.

Afterwards on the island of Luggnagg, he encounters the struldbrugs, people who are immortal.
Unluckily they do not have the gift of eternal youth, and suffer the infirmities of old age, so that
immortality is here described as a conviction rather than a fortune.

From Luggnagg he is able to sail to Japan where he meets the Japanese emperor and eventually
Gulliver returns back home determined to stay there for the rest of his days.

Part IV: A Voyage to the Land of the Houyhnhnms

Despite his earlier intention of remaining at home, Gulliver returns to sea as the captain of a
merchantman, as he is bored with his employment as a surgeon.
while traveling His crew then commits mutiny. after keeping him contained for some time, they
resolve to leave him on the first piece of land they come across, and continue as pirates.

Almost immediately, he is discovered by a herd of ugly, deformed, despicable human-like creatures

who are called Yahoos. They attack him by climbing trees and defecating on him.

Shortly afterwards, He is saved from this disgrace by the appearance of the Houyhnhnms, a race of
peaceable, intelligent, talking horses, who have created a perfect society, which they rule, and who
are definitely more rational, communal, and benevolent than the brutish, filthy, greedy, and
degenerate humanoid race of the Yahoos.

The Houyhnhnms are very curious about Gulliver, who seems to be both a Yahoo and civilized,
From this point on, Gulliver and his master (the grey) begin a series of discussions about topics,
concepts, and behaviors related to the Yahoo society, which Gulliver ends up representing: bc after
Gulliver describes his country and its history to the master Houyhnhnm, the Houyhnhnm
concludes that the people of England are not more reasonable than the Yahoos.

At last the kingdom's Assembly determines that Gulliver is a Yahoo and a danger to their
civilization. Therefore he must either live with the uncivilized Yahoos or return to his own world.

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THE END

With great sadness, Gulliver builds a canoe and leaves.

After another disastrous voyage, he is rescued against his will by a Portuguese ship.
Eventually Gulliver returns to England, but he is so repelled and disgusted by the sight and
smell of those "civilized Yahoos" that he can't stand to be around them.
Thus he becomes a recluse: he buys two horses and spends most of his days conversing
with the horses in the stable in order to be as far away from his Yahoo family as
possible.

MORAL OF THE STORY

Gulliver’s Travels is not written for children although it has been enjoyed by countless generations.
It is essentially an allegory of English politics in the early eighteenth century , which
made fun of the political scene and certain prominent people in England. In a wider sense, it is an
allegory of human society in any age.
With his voyages Gulliver learns that
- people can fight and kill over the most ridiculous things.
He sees that clearly in Lilliput but is struck by it even more forcefully in Brobdingnag where there
is no war and people help each other instead of fighting.
- sees humans for what they really are, dirty, cruel and unable to learn.
In the final land This bleak view of humanity is somewhat alleviated by the vision of a perfect
society which could be created if only we could all be more like the horses.

the consequences of what he has lived led him to prefer the company of peaceful horses to
the company of men, whom he now sees as bestial Yahoos.

REPRINTS AND ADAPTATIONS

Though there has been debate and controversy as to the objects of Swift’s satire and the allegorical
meaning of the book, the popularity of the work has never been in doubt.
several reprints, were published within a few months
+The story of Lemuel Gulliver has inspired many Film adaptations like an animated film (1939)
produced by the Fleischer brothers, a 1977 partially animated musical version starring Richard
Harris as Gulliver, and a two-part television movie (1996) starring Ted Danson.

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