Introduction
The Gulliver’s travel written by
Jonathan Swift. He was born in Dublin, Ireland, on November 30, 1667. His
father, who was also known as Jonathan Swift died before he was born. His
mother, Abigail, was supported on a slender pittance by his father’s brother.
He was grandson of Thomas Swift, the Royalist vicar of Goodrich.
He was a cousin of poet Dryden. He was
educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and all though his early life was
dependant on the generosity of other. His College career was not highly
creditable, either from the point of view of manners, morals or learning. Then
after completing it, he travelled through England on foot. Thus his life is
like this. His works are as under,
But the Gulliver’s Travel is the one
of the famous work of Swift. It is published in 1726. The full title of his
novel is…
“Travels into several remote of the
world in four parts by Lamuel Gulliver, first a surgeon and then a captain of several
ships.”
The novel Gulliver’s Travel was begun
in 1720 and finally published in 1726. It is at once a delightful fantastic
story of adventure for children, a political allegory and a serious satire on
human nature, on contemporary politics, social institutions, and religious
controversies and on the manners and morals of the age.
The book is written in the form of a
travelogue. The hero and narrator of the story is Lamuel Gulliver’s, an English
Physician who opts to travels as a ship’s surgeon where he is unable to take
care of his family on his major income. The book is made up four parts, each
decline with the person’s experience in a different fantasy land.
~ Four parts of the novel
~ Four Voyages in brief
1) The Voyage to Lilliput in part one
In this first part Gulliver started his
voyage. It is his first voyage. In this part Swift describe that Gulliver has
power in Lilliput. In this part, religious and political divisions are
humorously mingled. The foolish is exposed with the help of quarrels between
the high heels and the low heels and between the big-endian and the little ending.
Where the blood of thousand people has been shed. When the emperors’ heels are
described as lower than those of anybody else at the court, the reference is to
the preference shown by king George-1 to the Whigs. Many other illusions may
also be traced. In addition to all this some of Gulliver’s remarks on the
institution of Lilliput serve as useful comments upon the legal policy of his
own country, England ,for instance when he mention that the Lilliputians
throated found as a great crime then stealing
and alludes to their policy in rewarding merits as well as punishing
vice.
2) The Voyage to Brobdingnag in part
two
In this part of the novel, Swift shows
us the people of immense stature. These people are gifted with a sound and cool
judgment, look at the principles and politics of Europe. Here, satire has
general nature. Some particular references to political events: and no
circumstances are mentioned. Which are not applicable to all places, while
Lilliput was a land inhabited by Pigmies or dwarfs, Brobdingnag is the land of
giants or persons of an immense stature.
3) The voyage to Laputa in part three
In this part, the abuses of science
are the aim of satire. Swift’s target here is the projects who learning their
common sense behind them, wander into the vast religions of speculative
philosophy. It is noticeable here that the satire is not seemed at the science
but its hazards.
4) The Voyage to the land of the
Houyhnms and the Yahoos in part four
In this part the satire is intense.
This voyage represents mankind in a satire is too exaggerated. The author
succeeded in portraying the disgusting yahoos. The Houyhnms are devoid of all
these tender passions and affections without which life become a burden. The
Houyhnms do not appeal to us model of perfection.
Thus these four voyages are travel by
Gulliver but we can find lot of satires in the novels of Jonathan so let’s know
about it.
~ Jonathan Swift- a master of Satire:
Jonathan swift is a master of
satire. He wrote the Gulliver’s travels satire on political, Religion, culture
etc. he uses irony in double way. In Gulliver’s travels Jonathan swift wrote
the reality of individual’s communities, or all mankind by employing irony,
mockery, ridicule, sarcasm, and even invective as the weapon’s attack. He is
master or corrosive as well as comic satire, his comic satire makes us laugh.
Corrosive satire is serious and creates hatred. This corrosive type of satire
is fully developed in book-iv of Gulliver’s travels. The first part is rich in
comic fictional illusion. Jonathan swift was a great satirist.
~ Satire
used for moral purpose:
Every satirist is a reformer, as satire always aims at correcting humans
follies and human vices. Swift in his book had pinpointed the follies and vices
which he had witnessed in the English society of his time. In fact swift had
focused attention upon the follies and vices of all mankind and not merdy the
English society of his time.
Satire of all
types always aims to reform. Swift aims at amending a correcting his readers
but he is doubtful whether he would reach his goal or not. Swift in his ‘letter
to Alexander pope’ wrote that his purpose in writing, the book was to vox the
world rather than divert it! Actually he desired to shock his readers into a
realization of their faults and feelings. According to swift “man is certainly
capable animal” though man is certainly capable of becoming rational.” In this
way one can say that the book is to make people realize their irrationality and
to encourage them to develop their rational faculty and guide by it. Thus, it
can be said that Swift as a moral or ethical aim in writing this fiction.
~ The Satire full of Allegories
In an allegory a person or institution
is not affected directly but they are affected indirectly. ‘Animal farm’ of
George Orwell is one of the best examples of satire writing. In this book in
part-1 the character of Flimep. The treasurer in Lilliput is a satirical
portrayal of sir Robert Walpole who was the prime minister of England from 1115
to 1116 again from 1721 to 1742. Dancing on a tightly tied rope allegorized
Walpole’s skill in parliamentary facts and political intrigue. Same way,
Radresal represents Lord cartret who was appointed by Walpole to the office of
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Further one of the King’s cousins takes about of
King George’s mistresses. Why helped to restore Walpole to farer after his full
in 1717.
The conflict between High-Heels and
Law-Heels and Law-Heels represents the conflict between the two main parties of
England i.e. Whig and Tory. The quarrel
between big Endians and the Little-Endianns.
And the quarrel between the Roman Catholics and the Protestants. The
incidents of extinguishing a fire in queen’s apartment and the queen’s reaction
is an example of Queen Anne’s description of annoyance with Swift for writing
‘A Tale of Tube’ another book which attacked religious but the queen
misinterpreted it as an attack on Religion. The pigmies of Lilliput and the
giants of Brobdingnag depict human beings. First reduced to a small scale, as
if seen through a magnifying glass. Symbols of animals are given in part-4. In
this part Yahoos symbolize mankind without any good qualities while the
Houyhnams ( the horses) show human beings with their good qualities. They were
perfect and had no bad qualities at all. And from this situation he try to say
the behavior of human beings. In Gujarati we have one proverb like ‘ Manaso
karata Gadheda sara’. And this proverb we can see in this novel that how Swift
differentiate waste difference between man and animals.
~ Conclusion
Gulliver’s Travel has been an
outstanding novel by the author. This novel interweaves many aspects. It is
political allegory as it deals with many political allegories. It is the
adventurous novel. The novel deals with travel, from beginning to end so we
called it are travelogue. The novel depicts funny or comic elements and so we
called comic novel. The novel satirized on human vices so it can be called
satirical work of art. In short the novel is quite successful in presenting
what the author wanted. A reader can enjoy the novel heading even from any one
angle.
So after all from this novel I can
learn many things like, how to develop any artistic work? How can we understand
the deeper meaning of the novel? How can we say something indirectly to
society? Etc. Over view we can see it is childish not but it is not only that
we get many things from this novel.
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