Gulliver's Travels || Why Is It More Than an Adventure Story? || Satire, Politics and Other Layers of Meaning
Two perspectives must be considered in this respect. Gulliver's Travels has earned the status of classic for the younger generation of readers. The reason why this literary work is so popular among the younger generation is that it can be viewed, at first sight, as an adventure story or as a fictional narrative describing some amazing and fantastic lands. Indeed, this novel on the first level can be treated as a novel of adventure and story of wonders. The imagination of young boys and girls is much more inspired by adventures and stories of wonders like Arabian Nights entertainment. But this description of the novel cannot satisfy us; because Gulliver's Travels is much more profound and important literary work. On deeper consideration, this novel turns out to be a great satirical story exposing the vices of mankind in general and politics and politicians of Swift's age in particular. Therefore, we must consider the novel as an adventure story and as a satirical work.
Several Adventures Experienced by Gulliver while Traveling to Different Countries
Gulliver's Travels describes numerous journeys experienced by Lemuel Gulliver to different parts of the world. During his first journey Gulliver is shipwrecked and had to swim to save his life. When Gulliver woke up from his sleep, he suddenly found himself in chains.. During the second journey Gulliver's ship encounters a terrible storm. After the storm, when Gulliver goes ashore, he becomes a prisoner of a giant.
Prisoner of a Giant. In the course of the third voyage Gulliver's ship is robbed by some pirates. During the fourth voyage, Gulliver becomes an enemy of his fellow passengers and his feet and hands are bound. All such experiences of Gulliver are sure to inspire young readers. They will be interested in the adventures of our hero.
Lilliput, a Wonder Country
Experiences of Gulliver in different countries are so fantastic and surprising that they cannot help fascinating the young generation of readers. Everywhere where Gulliver travels, everything is unusual, interesting and amusing. Lilliput is a strange land where people have the height of not more than six inches. It is commonly known that people are the smallest. The method, whereby numerous stairs are built up to the body of Gulliver so that the Lilliputs can ascend to him to supply food, is very interesting. In the town of Lilliput Gulliver becomes a subject of interest and admiration; therefore, he receives the nickname of Main Mountain. Our hero contributes to the victory of the King of Lilliput over the armies of the country of Belifosco. The manner in which Gulliver cripples the enemies' ship is both amusing and entertaining. Further, it must be noted that the customs of Lilliputs are quite amusing too.
A Strange and Fantastic Country of Broken Snake
In a strange and fantastic country of Broken Snake the inhabitants are monsters who are twelve times larger than Gulliver. Here Gulliver is again the subject of curiosity, although from a different perspective. All the animals and insects are very big and huge. For example, here cats are three times bigger than the bulls in England, rats are as big as dogs in England, and insects are equally huge. There are giant su apples and hail stones. In this country Gulliver meets many nashaps and they will interest young readers.
Fantastic Experiences in Laputa and Lagado
Laputa is another country described in the novel. It is a floating island situated two miles above the Earth. The method whereby these creatures attract their masters' attention to anything which interests them is very amusing. At Laputa, mutton, beef, pudding and other ketables assume geometric shape and form the heavers of various musical instruments. The experiments being carried out at the Academy of Projectors and the plans of the School of Political Projects are quite interesting too.
Gulliver's encounter with the Spirits of the Great Dead on the island of Globedabdrib is another notable experience. His experience of communicating with Immortals is also worth noting.
Elements of Fantasy and Fantasies in Gulliver's Last Journey
During Gulliver's final journey to the Land of the Yahoos and Houyhnhnms our hero enters a country of perfection where horses are capable of communicating with each other. Moreover, they manage to learn their language to Gulliver. He learns to understand their language and is able to enter into conversation with his master who, in fact, is a horse. The Houyhnhnms have perfect social and governmental organizations. The Houyhnhnms who governed their lives by reason stand for perfectness while Yahoos, the Houyhnhnms are imperfect creatures.
The Serious Aim of This Book: Upset the World!
But as mentioned above, this book is not a simple adventure story. It is a great satire whose main purpose was to "wax" the whole world exposing its vices and follies. Criticism of the world or any direct and explicit condemnation of its sins and foolishness would be unacceptable. Because satire always implies veiled and indirect criticism of the subject. Gulliver's Travels is one of the sharpest satires in English literature. Though this book is written in the form of a fairy tale, it hides the serious intentions of its author. To tell the truth, Swift wanted not only to entertain his readers but to shock and awe them.
Swift's Attack Against the Politicians and Their Policies
In Part I of this book Swift makes harsh attacks against the political institutions and politicians of his epoch. Flameknapp who is a treasurer in Lilliput symbolizes Sir Robert Walpole who was highly criticized by Swift. Walking on a tightrope represents Walpole's skillful maneuver in the field of parliamentarian tricks and intrigues. Crawl under wire means the cleverness of the king's favorites. Raildressel stands for Lord Carteret who was appointed to the post of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland by Walpole. By "One of the king's cushions," Swift means one of King George's mistress who was responsible for restoring Walpole after his disgrace in 1717.
Perhaps, Gulliver's search for the Lilliputs means the committee organized by Whigs in order to investigate the activities of the former government as well as Oxford and Bolingbroke who were accused of treacherous connections with France and the Old Pretender. Three fine silk threads mean the various distinctions presented to the winners as prizes for winning various competitions. Organized by the King of England. Swift's satire acquires a humorous character when Gulliver describes a conflict between the Big Endians and the Little Endians representing Catholics and Protestants. Swift ridicules people who quarrel about insignificant things. The conflict between High-Heels and Low-Heels is a satirical allusion to a conflict between two English parties. It is remarkable that in some places of the book Swift refers to English politics of his epoch. However, the satire still remains very amusing.
Sharpness and Bitterness of Swift's Satire in Part - II
In Part II of the novel, Swift's satire is a little bit bitterer and sharper. This satire becomes sarcastic, caustic, and somewhat invective. When Gulliver provides King of Broodingdon with information concerning political institutions of his country, King draws a horrible picture of history saying that it consists of conspiracies, rebellions, massacres, exiles and revolutions resulting from greed, hypocrisy, treachery, cruelty, fury, madness, hatred, envy, lechery, malice and ambition of people. The king concludes that the majority of people from Gulliver's land prefer to crawl on the ground. We can be assured that Swift shared this opinion.
King's Displeasure with Certain Aspects of English Life
But this is not all about satire in this part. There are further examples of satire as the King is greatly offended with Gulliver's descriptions of the destructive force of gunpowder. The attitude of King Broodingdon towards books written in England on the art of governing is also very interesting. In the king's opinion, all that is needed for governing people is good reason and justice, not books.
Satire in Part - III Against Unnecessary Intellectuals
Satire in Part III of Gulliver's Travels is not so bitter as in Part II. Satire in Part III is rather playful. First of all, Swift mocks men interested solely in geometry and music. Besides, Swift ridicules people who are so preoccupied with their speculations that they have no time even to pay attention to their wives. In addition, we are highly entertained with experiments and investigations conducted by academicians at the academy of Projectors. The Projectors of Lagado are busy with such unimportant matters as extracting the sunshine from cucumbers, transforming human feces back to food, constructing houses from top to bottom, extracting silk from cobwebs, and so forth. All this is a ridicule of projects made by the Royal Society of England. In fact, Swift ridicules all philosophers, scholars, educators and planners, all those people who think theoretically without applying their thoughts into practice.
The Most Provocative Satire in Part IV of Gulliver's Travels
The fourth part of Gulliver's Travels is characterized by the most provocative and scandalous satire about mankind. Here the Yahoo represents humans in all their ugliness and vileness. Gulliver is horrified by the fact that Yahoo looks very similar to him. Unlike Yahoos, horses which are called Houyhnhnms are humane and benevolent animals. Houyhnhnms are governed exclusively by reason and lead a barbaric life. Swift degrades humans, depicting them as vicious creatures while depicting Houyhnhnms as morally good beings. In addition, by praising Houyhnhnms, Swift makes Gulliver to ridicule people of his own land. Gulliver expresses indignation about exploitation of the poor by the rich, devastations caused by wars, mercenary marriages, miserable and humiliating means of making money, deceit of lawyers, judges, physicians and politicians.