“Gulliver’s
Travels
as a satirical and Allegorical novel”
INTRODUCTION:
Gulliver’s travels a misanthropic satire of Humanity
was written in 1726 by an Anglo Irish satirist Jonathan swift who was the foremost
prose satirist in the English language and also known for being a master of two
style of satire; The horatian satire and The Juvenilia satire. Satire is the
powerful weapon of swift and he attacks the social institution of his times
directly in his works, such as A modest proposal (Juvenilia satirical Essay),
The battle of the book (short satire) and his most famous work Gulliver’s
travels which is satire and a political allegory. Swift uses the journey as the
backdrop for is satire by using second person narrative technique. Gulliver’s
travel is basically an allegorical satire on contemporary leaders swift’s foes
like Walpole, Anne, Charls2etc... The original title of swift’s novel is
“Travels into several remote of the
world in four parts by lemual Gulliver, first a surgeon, and then a captain of
several ships”
‘` Gulliver’s travel is all about lemual
Gulliver’s various adventures in several unknown lands from where he comes out
as complete common human being. Swift using Gulliver’s voyage’s to satirizing various
aspects of English society. Gulliver’s various conflicts in the lands he
visits. These prime four lands like Lilliput, Brobdingnang, Laputa and Houyhnhnms
in which swift has enunciated various human weakness and pride of the people,
praised rational animals like horses and made a mordant irony upon yahoos. Norman A. Jeffers
has written about Gulliver’s travel that: “it is at once a delightful,
fantastic story of adventures foe children, a political allegory, and a serious
satire on human nature on contemporary politics, social institutions and on the
manners and the morals of the age” so let’s have a concisely look on that novel
that how and where swift uses bitter satire on England and its culture through
this novel.
Satire and Allegory in
the Gulliver’s travels
Jonathan swift’s novel satirizes
numerous aspects of human life – government, the state, knowledge, human
relations, morals and technology, the entire book can be seen as an allegory of
the slow collapse of human values. Several aspects of human ‘culture’ come in
for mockery here. The novel here is an allegory of the human race itself. Gulliver refers to
the ‘degenerate nature of man’. He is not making an observation about Lilliput
or Laputa alone, but about the whole of humankind. In each and every case,
Laputa, Lilliput or Glubbdrib, swift satirizes a particular set of human
qualities or systems. Gulliver’s travel is basically written in four books the
first and second book specifically satirizes English culture and customs,
whereas the third and fourth book satirizes the general human condition. In
writing this novel swift had aimed at amending and correcting his public, he
wanted to shock the people into a realization of their faults and fallings.
Second thing is that Gulliver’s travel is an allegorical satire this means that
swift does not attack personalities and institutions directly but in a veiled
manner.
Satirizing Morals
Some critics have argued that swift’s
novel is a moral satire. (Herbert deivis, 1947
Swifts moral satire is an attack on
rituals that are solemn, even when the participants are corruptor morally
depraved. The entire novel is satire on humankind’s obsession with empty
rituals. Gulliver eventually realizes that the customs and traditions of the
court in Lilliput are actually frivolous.
“Hold the right foot in the left
hand, place the middle finger of the right hand on the crown of the head, and
the thumb on the tip of the right ear”
These lines are portraying that rituals
is meaningless, and yet is considered important in Lilliputians customs. Swift
satire is directed at such practice in society. In the land of the Houyhnhnms
Gulliver makes a strong criticism of lawyers, by saying they are
‘biased…against truth and equity’ and favor‘ fraud, perjury and oppression…’.What
swift criticizes is not the profession itself but the morals of the people in
these professions. Gulliver himself becomes a symbol of human’s follies. When the
queen of Brobdingnang adopts Gulliver he suddenly ignores the farmer who had
found him and taken care of him. His behavior towards this farmer in the queen’s
court shows ingratitude. Here in this scene swift’s comment on the human tendency
to always flatter and praise those in power. Here, Gulliver’s own moral codes
and virtues are open to question, since he revels both sycophancy and
ingratitude.
Satirizing the culture
of Appearance
The
voyages to Lilliput and Brobdingnang revel to Gulliver the excessive human
obsession with size and appearance. When Gulliver is bigger than Lilliput’s
inhabitant he is in a position of power over them. His size symbolized
allegorical representation of the class. The big size of Gulliver symbolize the
England as an upper class and other tiny people are seems like lower class. In
Brobdingnang he is, in terms of size, a ‘cockroach’. Here, Swift wants to show
that size has little to do with power, and even the tiny king is powerful
enough to order the execution of his subjects for any minor misdeed. It is Gulliver’s
size that determines his relations with other people, not his real qualities.
This also functions as a satire
on humankind’s inability to go beyond appearances.
Satirizing power
The entire novel is a criticism of power and
institutions, of knowledge and authority. Swift suggest that all human
relations are based not on virtues but on power. When Gulliver destroys the
navy of Blefuscu, he misuses his power against a people who have done him no
harm. To satirize the power swift makes use of politics and the government,
through describing England’s political and legal institutions to Brobdingnag’s
king, Gulliver’s tries to paint a bright picture. But after he describes how
the parliament works and the way in which the ruling classes in England behave,
the king of Brobdingnang believes and declares that every aspects of England’s
society and political power is corrupts and immoral. In the third voyage of
Laputa we can see that Laputa establishes control over its neighbor’s by
threatening to shut off sunlight. It’s suggested that power does not lead to compassion or understanding – it leads to
an abuse of power. After visiting his past in Glubbdudrib he realizes the flaws
of his own country’s ruling system and now he describes the English parliament
as ‘a knot of peddlers, pickpockets, highwaymen and bullies’. This is swift’s
satire on the institution that the Englishmen were so proud of. If he had the
power of immortality, as in the case of the race of Struldbruggs in the land of
luggnagg, Gulliver believes that he could have endless wisdom, riches and
learning. In the end of the novel
Gulliver
discovers that colonial power is actually not about civilizing the natives or
improving them- it is about oppression and exploitation.
Satirizing Knowledge
When Gulliver teaches the Brobdingnagian king
the use of gunpowder, the king is shocked at the destructive potential of this
human invention. He then declares that the humans were
‘the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature
ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth’.
Here, swift is satirizing humankinds
pride in its abilities, inventions and power. Swift wants to show here that how
humankind seems to take pride even in its ability to destroy. In the third
voyage of Laputa we find the better examples for satirizing the knowledge and
the abuses of science are the aim of satires.
In the third voyage of Laputa we find better examples for satirizing the
knowledge and the abuses of science. The laputans are philosopher, and
brilliant at theoretical mathematics, but they seem to have no common sense,
For example: their houses do not have straight walls or square corners. Its seems
that they have knowledge but where and how to use it they totally unaware.
Swift suggests that even though their
imagination may be powerful, the laputans have lost have controls over reality.
Here is no practical reason at all. Only highly evolved abstract mathematics
and thought.
Swift is writing in the period of the
Elizabethan age when Reason was believed to be supreme, thus he satirizesHumankinds
obsessions with rational thinking here. In the land of Laputa a women were runs
away from Laputa to lagando and lives with a man who beats her regularly she
did not think even though she is beat by that man.
In the land of Houyhnhnms the Horses
are allegorically portrayed as the have more humanity than Humans. Houyhnhnms
(horses) who are endowed with reason even they are animals. On the other hand
Yahoos, who is human they are caricatures of humans lacking the power of
reasons.
At the end this discussion swift tries to say
that there is no humanity left in either Laputa or Lagado- in both cases the
emphasis is on Knowledge of a particular kind, without seeing how that
knowledge can work for or against humans.
Conclusion:
To sum up this discussion about Gulliver’s
travels we may find that Gulliver’stravel is an outstanding adventurous story
by Jonathan swift. This is novel interwoven many aspects of human life. It is
political allegory its deals with many political allegories. The story is
surrounded by one central character lemual Gulliver who goes on four separate
voyages, each voyages brings new perspectives to Gulliver’s life and new
opportunities for satirizing the ways of England. At the end we can say that
Gulliver’s travels is a literary work in which human vice or
folly is attacked through irony, derision, or wit.
Citations:
- Critical Edition of Gulliver’s Travels(Jonathan
Swift), Edited by
Pramod K. Narayan
·
From Mahesh B. dholiya’s
Blog assignment
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