Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Gulliver’s travel is a satirical work written by Jonathan Swift that was first published in the year 1726. The subtitle of the book is “Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships.” It is a Menippean satire that doesn’t satirize any individual or group in particular, rather, it satirizes the mental attitudes, behavior, or ideologies. A Minnepian satire includes 'extraordinary situations for the provoking, criticizing, and testing of a philosophical idea.' Jonathan Swift most probably started writing it after establishing the Marcus Scriblerus club along with John Gay, Alexander Pope, Dr. Arbuthnot, and other friends. Scriblerus club was established to criticize and satirize contemporary popular literary works and genres. Swift satirizes the traveler’s tales literary genre in this book which was published 7 years after Daniel Defoe’s ‘Robinson Crusoe’. Glliver’s Traves are ideologically opposite to Robinson Crusoe in which Defoe celebrated human capability and suggested the idea that the Individual comes first and then the society. Swift opposed this radical political philosophy in Gulliver’s Travels and unlike Robinson Crusoe, who reached a desolate island and made it a home, Gulliver continuously encounters established societies during his sea travels. Swift opposed the radical idea of individuals above society. The name of the ship captain that Gulliver chose to work with as a surgeon is Robinson.
The book is a satire against the Whigs party. Jonathan Swift satirizes various aspects of political philosophy, science, colonialism, religion, and humanity in general in four parts of Gulliver’s Travels that he wrote in form of a traveler’s guide while satirizing the genre. Swift satirizes the political view of the European government and petty differences over religion and questions if people are inherently corrupt or if they become corrupt. Swift also included an allegory to the issue of Drapier’s Letter and continued the debate of Ancients versus Moderns in Gulliver’s Travels and sided with the Ancients. In addition, in Part 3 of Gulliver’s Travels in which Gulliver encounters the ghosts of Julius Caesar, Brutus, Homer, Aristotle, René Descartes, and Pierre Gassendi. Overall, Gulliver’s Travels satirizes all humankind in general and that is why Jonathan Swift became infamous as a misanthrope and especially a misogynist after the publication of Gulliver's Travels. Part three satirizes science and the Royal Society too. While the book contains an ample amount of black humor, it got popular as a children’s story because of the popularity of the Lilliput section in Part 1 of Gulliver’s Travels. John Gay mentioned that Gulliver’s Travels “is universally read, from the cabinet council to the nursery."
Characters of Gulliver’s Travels:
Lemuel Gulliver is a common man of Britain with a basic education and training as a surgeon. He faces losses at his business and decides to join a ship to travel long distances while making money. He has a natural talent to learn foreign languages easily. He is a naive and gullible person with no emotional life. Mrs. Mary Burton Gulliver is the wife of Lemuel Gulliver. Robinson is the captain of the ship that Gulliver joins as a surgeon. Lilliputians are the inhabitants of Lilliput, an island that Gulliver reaches after a shipwreck. They are about five to six inches tall. They are the sworn enemies of the Blefuscudians of a neighboring island. Relderesal is a Lilliputian who becomes a friend of Gulliver and helps him settle in that strange land. The Emperor is the ruler of Lilliput who uses Gulliver against Blefuscu’s army. However, as Gulliver decides to stay away from the war and puts a fire off to save Lilliputians from a fire in the Empress’s chamber, the Emperor turns against him and sentences him to be blinded by arrows. Flimnap is the sour-tempered treasurer of Lilliput who becomes an enemy of Gulliver and accuses Gulliver of sleeping with his wife. The Blefuscan King helps Gulliver escape and return to his nation. The Brobdingnagian Farmer is a resident of Brobdingnag who keeps Gulliver as a pet and Gulliver calls him his Master. Eventually, the Farmer sells him to the Queen of Brobdingnagi. Glumdalclitch is the daughter of the Farmer. Her name means ‘little nurse’ and she takes good care of Gulliver. The King of Brobdingnag takes a special interest in Gulliver and spends dozens of hours discussing politics and comparing their two cultures. At last, he shows disgust towards humans, especially towards the governance of Britain. Laputans are the inhabitants of a floating island who wear mathematical and astronomical symbols and have trouble paying attention. Lagadans are the people who live in the land of Lagado, which stands beneath the floating island where the Laputians live. Munodi is an outcast of Lagado who makes a separate island with his followers. Houyhnhnms are a species of horses who are endowed with great kindness and virtue. Gulliver lives among them for several years and afterward is extremely reluctant to return to England. They call humans Yahoos.
Summary of Gulliver’s Travels:
Gulliver’s Travels is a deadpan first narrative fictional account of the adventures or misadventures of Lemuel Gulliver, a practicing surgeon. The story is divided into four parts.
The first part contains a general introduction to Gulliver and his past life. He is married to Mrs. Mary Burton Gulliver and he wishes to go on long sea travels. As his business fails, he joins the ship of Captain Robinson as a surgeon. In the first part, Swift describes the first sea travel of Gulliver that begins on 4 May 1699 and ends on 13 April 1702. His ship faces a storm and Gulliver ends up alone on a strange island after a shipwreck. As he gains consciousness, he finds himself tied with innumerable tiny threads, surrounded by a crowd of minuscule people who drags him to their ruler, the Emperor. Gulliver learns that these minuscule people are Lilliputians. All Lilliputians are astonished by the huge size of this Giant but gradually, they start treating him well, feeding him, while he is bound to an abandoned temple. The emperor decides to use this mighty Giant and asks Gulliver to surrender all his weapons and sign the papers of allegiance to Lilliput. Gulliver agrees and he is freed. Reldersal makes a friendship with Gulliver while a politically powerful treasurer named Flimnap becomes his enemy. At first, Gulliver helps Lilliputians against their enemy Blefuscan’s army and destroys their warships but soon he realizes that the fight is not worthy and the two nations of minuscule people are fighting just for the ego of the Emperor of Lilliput. He decides to stay away from the war. This angers the Emperor and Flimapgets a chance to conspire against him. He accuses Gulliver of sleeping with his wife, who is also a minuscule lady and it is physically impossible for the two to have any physical relationship. Meanwhile, Gulliver learns that the Emperor’s palace has caught fire and the Empresse’s chamber is in danger. To save the lives of people and the Empress, Gulliver decides to put an end to the fire by urinating on the palace. The fire ends but this act is considered a huge disrespect against the Empress and the Emperor decides to punish him. The Lilliputian court plans to accuse him of treason and put out his eyes. When Gulliver learns this, he decides to run away and the Belfuscan King helps him by helping him in making a canopy that Gulliver uses to float back to England.
Part two mentions the recount of Gulliver from 20 June 1702 to 3 June 1706.
After his return, Gulliver stays with his wife and children for two months and then sets off on a new sea adventure, and this time, he ends up on a further strange island of Giants called Brobdingnag. As he ventures around a farm, a Farmer discovers him and keeps him as a pet while considering he is an interesting insect. Gulliver is horrified as now he finds himself as one of the Lilliputians who have been caught in the nation of Giants. However, his keeper, the Farmer, his wife, and his little daughter Glumdalclitch are very kind and take good care of him. One day, the Farmer decides to sell his pet to the Queen of Borbdingnag who is too interested in the little insect. Glumdalclitch accompanies Gulliver to the king’s palace. Gulliver is ridiculed for his physical mishaps. The King is unsure that Gulliver is a living being but soon he discovered that Gulliver is not only living but can have an intellectual discourse. The King takes a special interest in Gulliver and he introduces him to the rule and management of Borbdingnag. At the same time, Gulliver informs him about the culture of humans and the socio-political and legal practices of Europe and England. Gulliver realizes that even the king is naive and doesn’t know anything about politics while the king feels disgusted after knowing the ways of human society. Despite being treated well, Gulliver finds his life in Borbdingnag pretty difficult because even the insects of this land appear to be lethal to him. While the Queen and the court ladies are kind to him, they are so enormous that their little flaws appear to be disgusting to Gulliver. Oten some courtly girls would play with him by keeping him on their naked bodies to whom he is not at all attracted as their enormous skin pores and the sound of their torrential urination are frightening to him. One day, he sees a woman’s naked breasts as she feeds a giant kid but he finds it too disgusting.
The Queen keeps him in an enclosed box. One day, a bird snatches the box and drops it in the sea and this paves way for Gulliver’s return to England again.
Part 3 of Gulliver Travels tells the story from 5 August 1706 to 16 April 1710
Gulliver returns to the sea for the third time and while the sea remains silent this time, his ship is attacked by sea pirates. When he gains consciousness back, he finds himself on a floating island that is inhabited by people similar to him in the physical sense. However, Gulliver finds these people even stranger than Lilliputians or the giants of Barbdingnag. They call themselves Laputans. All of them keep their heads a little slanted to the left or right, and their clothes have pictures of either musical instruments or astronomical signs. All of them are theoreticians and academics. Gulliver observes that none of them live in a good house and all the houses are built very poorly and with no right angles. This is very odd as all Laputians are mathematicians, but soon Gulliver learns that they are unable to keep focus for long. Gulliver meets the Laputian king and realizes that all Laputians are obsessed with abstract mathematical, musical, and astronomical theory while they are utterly incompetent with practical matters. Since they cannot keep focus for long, they can hardly have any meaningful discussions. Gulliver finds that these Laputians oppress the land below, called Balnibarbi. During his days at Laputa, Gulliver undertakes a side trip to the island of Glubbdubdrib where he meets ancient ghosts of history including Julius Caesar, Aristotle, Homer, Francis Bacon, René Descartes, and Pierre Gassendi. From Glubdudrib, Gulliver travels to Luggnagg and meets the power-crazed despot of Luggnagg. From there, he reaches Japan and then back to England.
Part 4 discusses the story from 7 September 1710 to 5 December 1715.
As Gulliver sets off on his fourth voyage, he is the captain of the ship but his own crewmembers stage a mutiny and imprison him in a cabin. They discuss if they should kill Gulliver or let him be stranded on some strange island. At last, he is left alone on an island and soon Gulliver learns that it is the most strange of all his travels. It is the land of Houyhnhmns who are the noble and reasonable horses. When Gulliver tries to venture to the island, he is attacked by strange-looking species called Yahoos who are naked and appear like humans walking on their four limbs. As these strange human-like beings attack Gulliver, he is saved by the sound of the horse-like creatures that Gulliver learns are Houyhnhmns. Houyhnhmns take him to the master horse who teaches him the language and culture of Houyhnhmns. Gulliver tries his best not to look like humans or Yahoos and finds that Houhyhnhmns are a very likable and great society. One day, some Houyhnhmns observe him naked and realize that he is no different than the Yahoos. All the Houyhnhmns dislike Yahoos and thus Gulliver is forced away from there. As he tries to remain away from human society as now he dislikes Yahoos while he is in love with Houyhnhmns, he is forcibly picked up by Don Pedro, a Dutch sailor who eventually takes him back to England. This time, Gulliver is not happy after his return as he finds himself surrounded by Yahoos whom he has learned to dislike.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the History of English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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