Political Significance in Gulliver's Tales

Apart from being a fun journey story, a fairytale lookalike Gulliver’s

Tales by J. Swift is an example of perfect political satire, the degree of which he
deftly hides under the cloak of fantasy, both in the scenery as well as in the
characters and the plot itself.
Behind the mask of his narrative, Swift satirizes the general pettiness of
politicians in particular and people in general. As a marine surgeon, Gulliver
himself is a fairly simple and morally unassuming person, but in this story, he
meets people far above and far below him - literally and figuratively. And they
are Lilliputians and giants. The former is the British Whig Party with whom the
author has a personal grudge, wittily disguised as fairy tale creatures. The latter
represent the idea of a higher-than-human morality. Gulliver, on the other hand,
is, physically as well as philosophically, something in between. He is neither a
power-hungry cartoon midget nor a wise giant.
Being completely incapable of understanding the idiocy of the Lilliputian
politicians, he serves as constant contrast for Lilliput. We are constantly
conscious of the distinction between Gulliver's flawed moral life and the petty,
foolish political lives of emperors, prime ministers, and informers. And driven
out of the lands of Lilliput by a court intrigue, Gulliver admits not approving of
politics at all, being merely the author’s mouthpiece in the story.
And as Gulliver was a giant in the land of Lilliput yet he is a sort of
Lilliput himself in Brobdingnag, among the giants. Swift uses this distinction to
convey a moral disparity. In comparison to the immoral political midgets in
Lilliput, Gulliver was a normal man, but not wise enough as the giants.
This leads us to the conclusion that by including these mocking
characters, Swift was aiming at criticizing his present-day politics, disguising it
as something we know as classics for children. Lust for power has always been
a sign of people “below” moral, which is severely mocked at in Gulliver’s
Tales. While on the other hand there are always those, who tend to keep their
primal and lustful desires to themselves, restraining them and living a righteous
moral life.