Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels initially appears as a fantasy/adventure story, but it is actually a satirical commentary on society. The novel serves as both a satire on human nature and a parody of the literary sub genre known as the “traveler’s tale.” While each phase of the tale may seem easily understood, the overall subject matter is incredibly intricate. Swift effectively parodies colonialism and challenges conventional knowledge by presenting a reversal of scales and undermining various ideas associated with colonialism.
The author skillfully employs sarcasm and humor to subvert the ideas of colonial discourse, turning them against those in power. The use of wit is particularly notable, whether it be Gulliver urinating to put out a fire or the experiments conducted at the Grand Academy of Lagado. Gulliver’s Travels gained popularity due to its appeal to contemporary readers who were avid consumers of travel compilations and accounts of journeys and voyages. In fact, Swift himself possessed multiple works by renowned travel writers such as Richard Hakluyt, Samuel Purchas, and William Dampier from the sixteenth century.
The style of Captain Samuel Sturmy’s seventeenth-century narrative, Mariners Magazine, is closely imitated in Gulliver’s Travels during the description of the storm in Book II. Swift also places his fictitious voyages in regions that were visited by William Dampier, a famous pirate, explorer, and author of the time. Dampier wrote about his 1699 expedition to Australia, then known as New Holland, in a two-part account titled A Voyage to New Holland published in 1702, and A Continuation of a Voyage to New Holland published in 1709.
Lilliput is located between Van Dieman’s land (Tasmania) and the northern coast of Australia. The land of the Houyhnhnms in Book 4 is situated southwest of Australia. Gulliver’s Travels also capitalizes on the potential for absurdity found in travel accounts. In contemporary travelogues, authors would use woodcuts to depict islands as they would appear through a telescope, emphasizing authenticity. These woodcuts show the islands without any visible sea, giving them the illusion of flying through the air.
Laputa’s flight over Balnibarbi in Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift showcases the humorous aspects of the travel narrative and its accompanying illustrations. The novel employs a first-person narrator, Gulliver, who finds himself in bizarre and absurd situations during his four journeys to unfamiliar places worldwide. Despite Gulliver’s eloquent storytelling and evident intellect, his observations are naive and easily swayed.
As an example, Gulliver is a round character who encounters conflict and is changed by it. He is a naive consumer of the Lilliputians’ grandiose imaginings, as he is cowed by their threats of punishment. Their formally worded condemnation of Gulliver on grounds of treason effectively works on the naive Gulliver, even though he forgets that they have no real physical power over him. Gulliver’s transformations occur in relation to the places he visits and the events that befall him during his voyages.
In Gulliver’s Travels, the protagonist faces contrasting situations. In Lilliput, he fears causing harm to the small Lilliputians, while in Brobdingnag, he is treated as a miniature being. In his final voyage, Gulliver develops a strong attachment to the Houyhnhnms society and no longer wishes to return to humanity. As the story progresses, he becomes more closed-minded. Overall, Gulliver displays resilience by surviving shipwrecks and encounters with foreign cultures. The novel’s setting explores the concepts of utopia and dystopia.
Utopia is an ideal community that only exists in the imagination. The Houyhnhnms, in the context of this utopia, are rational beings who embody virtues such as friendship and benevolence, which humans strive to achieve. One notable aspect of their language is the absence of negative words like lie, deceit, war, and evil. Their society is characterized by simple houses and a deep understanding of medical herbs and poetry. They prioritize the well-being of the community over personal gain, instilling cleanliness and civility in their youth while training them for speed and strength. However, the Houyhnhnms are also objects of satire, highlighting inconsistencies in their character and behavior that reflect paradoxes and flaws found in human nature. Despite the apparent perfection of the Houyhnhnms’ society, it may ultimately devolve into a dystopia since they lack an understanding of evil and seem to lead lives devoid of vigor, challenge, and excitement. Thus, while this society may be ideal for the Houyhnhnms, it holds no hope for humans.
Dystopia is the creation of a nightmare world characterized by extremely poor conditions and quality of life. This concept is exemplified by the Yahoos, a group of beings who are more primitive than humans. The behavior of the Yahoos mirrors that of civilized humans, displaying decadence and irrationality. For instance, the Yahoos engage in senseless fighting within their own groups and with others. Additionally, their desire for worthless shiny stones can be likened to contemporary societies’ pursuit of material possessions like jewelry. Through the portrayal of the Yahoos, Swift highlights the human tendencies of greed and selfishness.
The Yahoos are completely beastly and Gulliver is greatly disgusted by his first encounter with them: “Upon the whole, I never behold in all my travels so disagreeable an animal, nor one against which I naturally conceived so strong an antipathy.” The satirical element of character is exemplified through flat character, a type of character that remains unchanged throughout the story, serving as a moral touchstone and embodying grotesque traits. Swift portrays the king of Lilliput as a flat character, depicting him as a powerful and greedy man who takes great pride in himself.
The government of the king employs spectacles such as performing high jumps on a tightrope to secure the open position within the administration. This exemplifies the king’s prioritization of personal amusement over the welfare of the kingdom. Moreover, the king’s order for Lilliputians to crack their eggs at the smaller end showcases an act of arrogance, as he desires to exert control over everyone. Additionally, the character element in the novel encompasses both greed and tyranny through the depiction of avaricious and despotic individuals. For instance, the farmer in
Brobdingnag entails the portrayal of greediness, wherein Gulliver is exploited for profit through his extraordinary performances. Additionally, the farmer deliberately starves Gulliver to maximize monetary gains before ultimately selling him to the queen. In the form of tyranny, Swift depicts the king of Laputa. This ruler utilizes a method wherein he punishes certain regions by withholding sunlight and rain, keeping the floating island above them. Moreover, the king remains ignorant of the genuine issues faced by the people below as he has never experienced life beneath the skies.
The satirical novel incorporates moral touchstones through its characters. A moral touchstone is a benchmark for testing the superiority or authenticity of others. In this particular novel, the characters Glumdalclitch and Don Pedro serve as moral touchstones. Glumdalclitch assumes the role of caregiver for Gulliver, establishing a friendship and serving as his nursemaid. She creates multiple outfits for Gulliver, joyfully dresses him, arranges for his sleep in her closet, and instructs him in the language of the Brobdingnagians.
Don Pedro treats Gulliver with patience, hospitality, and tenderness by allowing him to travel on his ship and providing him with food, drink, and clothes. Additionally, Don Pedro gives Gulliver twenty pounds for his journey to England, along with a flat, type, and moral touchstone. Grotesque is another satirical element in the character. It refers to the strangely or fantastically distorted aspects of the magnified world of Brobdingnag. In this magnified world, everything becomes more complex and imperfect, showcasing how our perspective heavily influences the truth about objects.
Even the most attractive women have imperfections that become noticeable when closely examined, as Gulliver observed in the “coarse and uneven” and “variously coloured” skin of the appealing ladies (108). This suggests that what appears perfect to us is not truly flawless, but rather lacks noticeable imperfections for our limited senses to detect. Additionally, the plot of Journey and Return serves as a vehicle for satire.
The Lilliputians represent humankind’s excessive pride in its own small existence. Despite their small size, they ignore the fact that Gulliver is gigantic in comparison and could easily harm them. Gulliver has discovered that their society shares the same flaws as English society, such as rebellion over minor matters, but it is more utopian than English society. In contrast, the people of Brobdingnag are peaceful and just, contrasting with the violent and cruel nature of Europeans.
The King of Brobdingnag concludes that the majority of European society is “the most pernicious Race of little odious Vermin” (121). Throughout his fourth voyage, Gulliver encounters extraordinary societies. The Yahoos symbolize human follies, greed, and selfishness, while the Houyhnhnms embody a humanity that is devoid of conflict and hardship. The Houyhnhnms are portrayed as exemplary citizens, and Gulliver’s profound sorrow upon being forced to leave them suggests that he has been profoundly impacted by them, more so than any other society he has encountered.
However, the Travels also serve as a parody, with Gulliver cleverly pretending to provide authentic experiences. Swift uses the language of truth to challenge the credibility of contemporary prose and fiction. The irony lies in the fact that Gulliver’s Travels implicitly suggests that this fictional realm can indeed reveal truths about the actual world of English society and politics, as the narrative functions as an allegory.
Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels is influenced by a tradition that includes Thomas More’s Utopia, as well as the satirical narratives of Rabelais and Cyrano de Bergerac. This tradition involves describing imaginary countries that satirize figures such as clerics, politicians, and academics. These allegorical tales aim to convey the true state of things by presenting falsehoods or what the Hounynyms call ‘telling the thing that is not’. In other words, Gulliver’s Travels is a work of fiction pretending to be a true story. However, the fictional nature of the account allows Swift to disclose truths that would otherwise be impossible to convey through a genuine portrayal of a nation.
