Gulliver’s Travels: Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels was released in 1726 and is possibly his most well-known book. It was an instant hit, selling out in less than a week, and has never gone out of print, despite being altered numerous times.

On the Antelope, Lemuel Gulliver, an English surgeon, is shipwrecked and washed up on the island of Lilliput, where the people are all under six inches tall. The Lilliputians focus on the details of life, most notably the schism that has grown over which end of a cooked egg gets opened at breakfast—the big end or the little end—in this section of the novel, which is a thinly veiled satire on the political classes of the time. He’s been abandoned on a giants’ island, where he’s sold as a novelty at local markets and fairs. On his third voyage, he is stranded by pirates and rescued by residents of a floating island dedicated to music, mathematics, and astronomy. He meets the Houyhnhnms, a race of talking horses that have defeated the Yahoos, human-like beings, on his final journey. Gulliver returns to England with a new vision on life and a new perspective on humanity.

The main idea of Gulliver’s Travels

Gulliver’s Travels’ main idea is the inherent amusement of human tradition and habit, as well as the relative nature of ethics and society dependent on historical precedent. Gulliver’s Travels, like so many of Jonathan Swift’s works, is primarily a satire of British monarchy and Imperialism.

Swift’s main purpose in Gulliver’s Travels was to illustrate how the English government and society needed a reformation. As an Irish patriot and a former admirer of the English government and life, Swift now sees England and all its glory in a very different way.

Gulliver’s Travels characters

Gulliver:  Lemuel Gulliver is a ship’s surgeon. His most recent journeys are the craziest he has ever experienced. A race of small men known as the Lilliputians kidnaps him. The giants of Brobdingnag adopt him as a pet. Later, he travels to Laputa, a metropolis on a floating island in the sky, and to the odd academies of Balnibarbi, Laputa’s sister island below. On Glubbdubdrib, he converses with the dead, while on Luggnagg, he meets immortals. His final voyage sees him living with horses known as Houyhnhnms and learning about the human race’s defects, or Yahoos, primitive humanlike beings. Gulliver regretfully returns home after learning about the atrocities of his own species.

Emperor of Lilliput : Gulliver is treated favorably by the Emperor of Lilliput as long as he feels Gulliver is giving him respect and loyalty. In reality, everyone in the emperor’s court is expected to obey him. The treason charges made against Gulliver—the outcome of Gulliver’s civility toward visitors from a neighboring kingdom during peace talks—and the danger Gulliver’s buddy suffers in telling him about the allegations show that disobedience is punishable by death.

Glumdalclitch : Gulliver gives the farm girl who becomes his caregiver the name Glumdalclitch, which means “little nurse.” Gulliver’s daughter is dedicated to him, keeping him comfortable while her father works him to death by forcing him to act for money. Despite the social benefits of her acceptability at court, Glumdalclitch makes the presumably tough decision to leave her family behind in order to safeguard Gulliver after the queen purchases him. Gulliver has a pleasant and secure existence in Brobdingnag because to her care and devotion.

King of Laputa : Like his subjects, the monarch of Laputa is absorbed in abstract meanderings of science, mathematics, and astronomy. At the same time, he is a monarch, vulnerable to the abuse of power that all rulers do in Gulliver’s Travels to some extent. Despite the fact that his ministers limit his power, he is not above intimidating the kingdoms he controls below with the prospect of using the floating island of Laputa against them.

Houyhnhnm Master : In keeping with Houyhnhnm values of charity and hospitality, the Houyhnhnm Master regards Gulliver with compassion and equips him with a home and food. Gulliver, he thinks, is an inferior creature, not as basic as the island Yahoos, but also not as advanced. Gulliver’s portrayals of life in Europe are heavily criticized, and his assessment eventually reminds Gulliver of his own inadequacy.

Governor of Glubbdubdrib : The governor is a mystery man who is dreaded by those who are familiar with him. He is a vampire, which means he has the ability to raise the corpses to serve him. He also extends total hospitality to Gulliver, going above and beyond the customary offerings of food and shelter by promising to use his magical abilities to provide Gulliver with an incredible and reality opportunity to speak with dead leaders and academics from across history.

Blefuscudians : They live on a nearby island and are sworn adversaries of the Lilliputians. When the Lilliputians accuse Gulliver of treason, he escapes to their island.

Flimnap : At Lilliput, Gulliver’s foe accuses him of flirting with his wife. At Lilliput, Gulliver’s foe accuses him of flirting with his wife.

Houyhnhnms :Horses with a great deal of goodness and virtue. Gulliver spends several years with them and is adamant about returning to England.

Munodi : Gulliver is shown about the island by the Balnibarbi Lord, who explains why it is so desolate.

Gulliver’s Travels critical analysis

Gulliver’s Travels is considered Swift’s masterwork, and it is both the most brilliant and the most harsh and problematic of his satires. The work defeats oversimplified explanations by writing in a matter-of-fact format with an aura of serious reality. Swift appears to parody many of the faults, foibles, and frailties that humans are prone to through the numerous cultures and societies Gulliver meets on his travels. The warlike, disputatious, but fundamentally inconsequential Lilliputians in the first section, as well as the insane unrealistic pedants and scholars in the third, are shown as unbalanced beings devoid of common sense and even decency. The Houyhnhnms, on the other hand, are the ideal of logic and virtue. However, Gulliver’s pride in these horses and later contempt for his fellowmen suggest that he, too, has become imbalanced, and that humans are just incapable of achieving the moral reason that Gulliver has seen.

Conclusion 

The author’s novel Gulliver’s Travel is a masterpiece. Many aspects of this novel are intertwined. As it deals with various political allegories, it is a political allegory. It is a thrilling story. The novel is a travelogue because it deals with travel from beginning to conclusion. The novel is referred to as a comic novel because it contains humorous or comedic themes. The novel is a sarcastic work of art since it mocks human vices. In short, the novel succeeds in conveying what the author intended. From whatever aspect, a reader can appreciate the novel heading.

So, after all, we hope that you were able to learn a lot from this novel, such as how to build any artistic work? How can we decipher the novel’s deeper meaning? How can we indirectly communicate with society? Etc. We can see from the outside that it is not childish, but we also learn a lot from it.