This thesis provides a possible insight into Gulliver’s Travels by analyzing Jonathan Swift’s satires rather than reading it as a children’s book. Swiftian satires about humanity in the four books are to the fullest. The whole novel is like a mirror by which human flaws are reflected. It probably would long have been forgotten if the book did not carry critical thinking about humanity.As the greatest satirist in the English language, Jonathan Swift was both admired and feared in his own time for the power of his writing and hugely influential on writers who followed him. At the age of fourteen, Swift entered Trinity College in Dublin University, where he stayed for seven years. After graduation in 1688, he went to England to work as a secretary and personal assistance for Sir William Temple. In 1694, he was ordained as a priest in the church of Ireland (Anglican Church) and assigned as vicar (parish priest) of Kilroot, a chruch near Belfast (in Northern Ireland). In 1692, Swift received a M.A. from Oxford. He returned to working with Temple in1696.
Meanwhile, he continued working on satires which deal with political and religious corruptions surrounding him. A tale of a Tub and A Battle of the Books are two of them composed during this time. He also wrote lots of political pamphlets for the Whig party. When Temple died in 1699, he returned to Ireland, becoming Chaplain to lord Berkley. In 1702, he received a D.D. (Doctor of Divinity) from Dublin University. After a few conflicts with the Whig party, he joined the more conservative Tory party in 1710. Unfortunately for Swift, the Tory government fell out of power in 1714. Before the fall of Troy government, Swift hoped his services would be rewarded with a church appointment in England. However, the best position he was “rewarded” was the Deanery of St. Partrick’s, Dublin. Again, he returned to Ireland. During his stay in Dublin, some memorable works were composed: Proposal for Universal Use of Irish Manufacture (1720), Drapier’s Letters (1724), A Modest Proposal (1729). His works earned him status of a patriot.
Also during the same period, he began to write the masterpiece Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, better known as Gulliver’s Travels. Much of the material reflects his political experiences of the preceding decade. Fist published in November 1726, it was an immediate sensation. A total of four printings were arranged from Nov. 1726 to early 1727.
Gulliver’s Travels is regarded as Swift’s masterpiece. It is a novel in four parts recounting Gulliver’s four voyages to fictional exotic lands. His travels is first among diminutive people–the Lilliputians, then among enormous giants–people of Brobdingnag, then among idealists and dreamers and finally among horses. Each book has a different theme, but their common trait is to deflate human nature.
Gulliver had a shipwreck and boarded a rowboat with six other crewmen to escape. Soon the rowboat capsized. Gulliver managed to swim on shore. He fell into sleep. When he woke up he found himself bound by numerous tiny threads. Some diminutive people marched on his body. Some other people armed with bows and arrows stand by around him. They are ready to deal Gulliver with violence if he attacks. Overall, they are hospitable. Gulliver eats more than one thousand Lilliputians combine could and they feed him despite the risk of famine. He is presented to the emperor and is satisfied by the attention of the royalty. Eventually, Lilliputians take advantage of Gulliver’s strength and hugeness to fight against people of Blefuscu. The two factions oppose each other in that they have difference ways to crack eggs. But things change when Gulliver is convicted of treason for urinating on the palace to save the emperor’s wife from a fire. He is condemned to be shot in the eyes and starved to death. Gulliver escapes to Blefuscu, where he finds and repairs a broken boat and sets sail for England.
After staying in England with his family for two months, he sets sail again. The voyage takes him to a land of giants Brobdingnag. A field worker finds him and takes him home. Initially, the field worker treats him as a pet. Eventually, he sells Gulliver to the queen who makes him a courtly diversion and is entertained by his musical talents. Gulliver’s life at this point is easier but still is not enjoyable. He is often repulsed by the physicality of the Brobdingnagians, whose ordinary flaws are many times magnified by their huge size. He is disgusted by their skin pores. He is often frightened by the animals that endanger his life. There is once when he wakes up on the bed of the farmer’s wife and is attacked by two rats. Even Brobdingnagian insects leave slimy trails on his food that makes eating unpleasant. On a trip to the frontier, the cage Gulliver is in plucked up by an eagle and dropped into the sea. He successfully leaves Brobdingnag.
