Guliver`s Travels Essay, Research Paper

Swift was dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin when his novel came out.

Since in this book he wrote about and often harpooned-prominent political

figures, he published the book anonymously. While most readers were trying like

mad to find out who the author was. Swift’s close friends had fun keeping the

secret. Londonwas stunned with thoughts about the author’s identity, as well as

those of some of his characters. Swift’s dying years were a torment. He suffered

awful bouts of dizziness, nausea, deafness, and mental incapacity. In fact,

Swift’s harshest critics tried to discredit the Travels on the grounds that the

author was mad when he wrote it. But he wasn’t. The Travels were published in

1726- and Part IV, which raised the most controversy, was written before Part

III- and Swift didn’t enter a mental institution until 1742. He died in 1745.

The Plot Gulliver’s Travels is the story about Lemuel Gulliver as he travels to

the strange lands of Lilliput, Brobdingnag, the kingdom of Laputa, and the land

of the Houyhnhnms. In Lilliput people are six inches high, and Gulliver, in

comparison, is a giant, or a "Man-Mountain," as the little people call

him. Gulliver becomes involved with the domestic problems of the Lilliputian

government. The government made to deal with Gulliver. The document outlines the

terms of his freedom. One of these terms is that Gulliver must help the

Lilliputians in their war against Blefuscu . Gulliver steels the enemy’s fleet

and takes it across the harbor back to Lilliput. For a short time he’s a hero.

But Gulliver intervenes in the peace talks, and gets a more profitable treaty

for the Blefuscudians than they would have had gotten. After that it’s downhill

for Gulliver. When he pee’s onto a fire at the palace and there by saves the

royal chambers, he is put on trial for disobeying a law prohibiting public

urination. This and some other charges against Gulliver result in a conviction

of high treason, punishable by blinding. Gulliver doesn’t feel like having that

done so he escapes to Blefuscu. Part II, which takes place in the land of

Brobdingnag. This time Gulliver is extremely small compared to the giant

Brobdingnagians. After a short time as a working freak. Gulliver is rescued by

the king and queen and lives a life of comfort. He spends much of his time

learning the language and talking with the king about life in England. The king

turns out to be as a fair, merciful ruler and a very sympathetic and humane man.

Gulliver, in comparison seems petty, vindictive, and cruel like the

Lilliputians. One day while on an walk with the king and queen, Gulliver’s

box/house is kidnapped by a bird with him inside and dropped in the sea, and is

then recovered by an English ship. Gulliver stays in England a while with his

family then goes back to sea. In Part III, where Gulliver goes to the flying

island of Laputa and some of its colonies nearby. His first stop is Laputa,

where the people have one eye turned inward and one eye turned up to the sky.

They’re thinking always of their own thoughts (inward) and of other issues like

mathematics, astronomy and music (upward). They’re so focused they need flappers

to hit them self’s on the ear to let them know someone is talking to them. The

Laputans are so distracted from everyday life that they’re barely aware of their

wives. Because the Laputans are bossy rulers of their colonies, and because they

pay little attention to Gulliver, he gets sick of them and goes on to the island

of Balnibarbi. There Gulliver becomes friendly with Count Munodi, who is the

only one on the island who lives in a nice well-built house and whose lands

yield crops. The other people engaged in scientific research and do everything

according to the most sophisticated way possible. Therefore their houses are in

ruins and their land are the same way. Gulliver visits the Academy of the

Projectors to learn more about them, and witnesses a series of totally useless,

wasteful experiments. In Luggnagg Gulliver meets the Struldbrugs, a race of

people who are immortal. They do not have eternal youth, instead they grow

constantly older more feeble, miserable, and useless. Gulliver returns to

England before again setting sail. In Part IV Gulliver ends up in the land of

the Houyhnhnms pronounced WHIN-nims I think. The Houyhnhnms are horses governed

totally by reason. They have created a society that is perfect, and perfectly

peaceful except for the Yahoos, and exempt from the topsy-turviness of passion.

The Yahoos are humans, but are so cruel that they are human only in appearance.

The Yahoos are kept in a kennel, and are prohibited from having anything to do

with the Houyhnhnms. The Yahoos came to the land by accident. Gulliver tries his

best to become a Houyhnhnm he talks like them, walks like them, tries to think

and act like them. He’s in the strange position of being neither a Yahoo nor a

Houyhnhnm he fits nowhere, and because of this he must leave. Gulliver goes mad

in Part IV, and can never adjust himself to other people, whom he considers

Yahoos. Neither can he come to terms with the Yahoo part of himself. Back in

England, he buys horses and spends most of his time in the stable. He can barely

tolerate the presence of his family, and has as little to do with them as

possible. He says that his aim in writing Gulliver’s Travels is to correct the

Yahoos. Having been exposed to the Houyhnhnms, he feels he is the man for the

job. CHARACTERS LEMUEL GULLIVER Gulliver is the most important character in this

novel. He’s the "author" of the Travels, he’s your tour guide. He’s

also one of the most provoking characters in English literature. Gulliver’s

frustrating to deal with for a number of reasons. 1. He’s not steady he changes

with relation to the place he is at. 2. He’s often a victim of Swift’s irony.

This means that we have to be on guard against what he says. 3. It’s impossible

to feel relaxed with Gulliver. 4. Gulliver directs a lot of his hostility toward

the reader which makes you feel hostile toward him. THE LILLIPUTIAN EMPEROR

Swift had no regard for this king, and uses Lilliputian court practices to

criticize the English government. On another level the tiny guy represents

dictatorship, cruelty, lust for power, and corruption. He is a symbol of bad

government. THE LILLIPUTIAN EMPRESS The empress represents Queen Anne, who

blocked Swift’s advancement in the Church of England because she was offended by

how he wrote. The empress bears early responsibility for Gulliver’s death in

Lilliput.