Examples Of Satire In Gulliver's Travels

Fundamentally, the main two characters in these books Voltaire’s “Candide” and Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels” (Candide and Gulliver) respectively have been used as units or vehicles for satire throughout the works. It is therefore of paramount importance to note that, Gulliver and Candide serve as ironies in these books. The books uses simple language but is characterized by irony as shown by the actions, practices, and behaviors of the characters. Also of importance to note is that, although the author exposes the two main characters to positions that do not best fit them in terms of their actions, the reader must be made to understand that the characters remain oblivious and naïve to their circumstances. According to the nature of the two literature works, I think the reader must be made to understand that, the two books are used to criticize human weakness by using some names such as Yahoos and Horse to describe human and the society.

     Jonathan Swift is one of the best known satirists in the history of literature. When one reads his works, especially something like Gulliver’s Travels, it is easy for one to spot the misanthropic themes, which emerge within his characterization. Lamuel Gulliver is an excellent protagonist: a keen observer, and a good representative of his native England, but one who loses faith in mankind as his story progresses. He ends up in remote areas of the world all by accidents in his voyages. In each trip, he is shipwrecked and mysteriously arrives to lands never before seen by men. This forms an interesting rhythm in the novel: as Gulliver is given more and more responsibility, he tends to be less

Satire is defined as “the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues” (Oxford). Another term that people would be more familiar with to describe this would be sarcasm. Language can be utilized in a nasty way, especially when wanting to demoralize another. Sarcasm is evil in and of itself and is a very Odyssean way of attacking someone. This is a powerful weapon used in Chaucer’s, Canterbury Tales. “The Canterbury Tales is the major work by Geoffrey Chaucer, medieval England's leading

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines satire as: “literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn.” Besides this definition satire can also be seen as the particular literary way of making possible the improvement of humanity and its institutions. In the three works: Moliere’s “Tartuffe,” Voltaire’s “Candide,” and Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” the authors indirectly criticize and ridicule human behavior and characteristics but with the goal for improving these faults rather than just demolishing them.

Two novels use satire to criticize human weakness. In ‘Gulliver’s Travel’, Swift makes up a horse society Houyhnhnm and a brutal animal Yahoo. Gulliver has to admit that human beings are yahoos after a series comparison between human and yahoo. Vices of human beings are exposed by the Swift’s satiric

The treatment of women in today’s culture has a lot of problems. Even though in the last century women have been treated better there are still problems. Women are and have always been sexualized in everything they do. Most of the time women are judged on their appearance alone. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift is a piece of literature that comes across as misogynistic. There are many times in the book when women are judged primarily on their looks and come across as unable to control themselves. However, Swift is using this kind of writing style to actually convey a point to society. By making these issues larger in the book and by reversing gender roles, it is easier to see all the problems that our society has with the treatment of women. Jonathan Swift is not misogynistic and is trying to prove a point so the treatment of women is improved in our society. The scene of the

The Lilliputians are supposed to symbolize the Whigs, and Swift thinks of them as stupid and power-hungry. He demonstrates this when they search Gulliver for weapons. In Swift’s time the Whigs searched the Tories for evidence of their connections with England. He also makes fun of the thinking at the time; the Lilliputians were discriminated against whether they wore either high heels or low heels, and the ones that tried to remain neutral worse one high heel and one low heel. At the end of the book Swift demonstrates his thought on humans, when all the humans were savage and stupid, while the animals were brilliant. I believe that Swift demonstrates all his points very well. The reader is transported to the story, yet unlike most books, Swift doesn’t tell the reader exactly what to think, he insinuates it but lets the reader come to his own conclusions.

Petty, vindictive, cruel, ill-informed, egotistical, these are just a few words that come to mind when describing the Lilliputians attitude in their “massive” world. At the beginning of the story the capturing of the “mountain man” is understandable due to his enormity and their incomprehension on the situation. However, their ridicule of Gulliver and “enslavement” of him, forcing him to do what they want in order for him to get his freedom, is completely inhumane despite his benefits to their society. The irony of the situation is that he can leave and overpower their whole community at any time, but Gulliver is a good person and is abiding to the rules imposed upon him by the people of Lilliput. Swift chooses to portray Lilliputians in an extremely negative light and at the end of the story they have not changed for the better, but have become even more petty, vindictive, and cruel.

In Gulliver's first travel where he visited Lilliput, Gulliver was faced with the minute people called Lilliputians. Now while this was the premise for a fantasy story, Swift used the events within to make severe criticisms of England between reigns of Queen Anne and George І. The people of Lilliput were about six inches tall and their size signified that their motives, acts, and humanity were the same dwarfish. The political parties of the British government were represented by the conservative High Heels who depicted the Tories and the progressive Low Heels, or Whigs. As their names, the distinguishing mark of the parties was the height of their heels. Within these two parties, Swift criticized the English political parties, and the Prince of Wales. Swift also mocked the religion war that was going on in England through the use of war between Lilliput and its nearest neighbor, Blefuscu. Swift also used terms High Heels and Low Heels to compare the meaningless battles of the Whigs and Tories, such as the height of heels.

These people take all of his possessions for inspection, for they are in awe and fear of his great size. They feed him, and soon untie him but still keep him in confinement. While in his confinement, he is visited by the emperor who likes Gulliver. Gulliver learns there language and the customs of the people of Lilliput. In this book Swift, by describing the ludicrous system that Lilliput's government fashions in, is satirizing the English system of governing. He uses parallels that seem absurd at first glance but make more senses when looked at carefully.

A single narrator is used by Jonathan Swift in to highlight the decline of one man. If multiple narrators were used in this novel then his satire would be weaker since we would get many perspectives on the same event and the reader would not align themselves with a single narrator’s perspective. This single mindedness strengthens the satire. The telling of Gulliver’s Travels through a first person narrative allows enhances the satire of the European society and

By the end of the book, it is clear to Gulliver that the people of England are exactly like the yahoos. He is disgusted by this idea and when he returns home, he can hardly be around his family. He also despises the thought that he brought more humans into the world. Gulliver had so much pride in who he thought he was that when he realizes he is completely wrong, he has a strong desire to become more like the horses because he views them as the ideal being. Gulliver goes from the idea that England could do nothing wrong to the idea that the horses could do nothing wrong. Jonathan Swift is criticizing human pride through the way Gulliver’s pride causes him to be blind to reality.

But we see that Swift is infamous for being pessimist. He was subjected to this allegation during his lifetime because the critics, identifying Gulliver with Swift, attributed Gulliver’s blunders to Swift. That Gulliver, in the last voyage, becomes a misanthrope is undeniable and indisputable. Prima facie, it appears that by developing a negative view of

In1726, Jonathan Swift, one of the best-known realistic writers in 18th century, published his book Gulliver’s Travels which on the surface is a collection of travel journals of a surgeon called Lemuel Gulliver but actually is a work of satire on politics and human nature. In the four incredible adventures, Gulliver’s perceptions are tied closely with Swift’s shame and disgust against British government and even against the whole of the human condition as Richard Rodino says in his book that Gulliver is neither a fully developed character nor even an altogether distinguishable persona; rather, he is a satiric device enabling Swift to score satirical points. (Rodino 124) Indeed,

Swift is able to create many different islands in the book that represent something going on within the European society. The first island that Gulliver travels to in the book is the island of Lilliput. The people of this island are very tiny, and represent the small ideas that Swift does not agree with. Gulliver is fascinated by them. He attempts to fit in and abide by their rules, but even though he tries to do this, they still keep putting him down. The Lilliputians are supposed to represent the church and how they go against the rational ideas of all the different scientists at the time. Scientists were beginning to think more rationally, and beginning to believe that there was more to stuff than what was originally thought. Swift tries to show that the church isn’t the center of everything, and that it shouldn’t be. The people of Lilliput stay at