Gulliver S Travels Essay

Essay 2 Gulliver’s Travels is the story of one man’s journey to hating humankind. It poses as a parody of traditional travel log literature, while simultaneously representing the satire of human nature. The first chapter of each section of the novel begins with Gulliver arriving on a remote land, the victim of forces out of his control, where he discovers a variety of human­like beings.
We learn much about Gulliver as his own person, but we are also presented with a more general, broader view of what Jonathan Swift intended to represent through his characterization of
Gulliver, as well as the indigenous people described throughout the novel. Through his journey to these various lands, the once accepting and open­minded Gulliver transitions into a far less tolerant, and judgemental person. More broadly, the immensity of political weight Swift highlights throughout the book indirectly conjure a tale of England’s corrupt eighteenth century government, as well as the stupidity of the human race as a whole.
From the first chapter of Part One, to the first chapter of Part Four of Gulliver’s travels,
Lemuel Gulliver’s views and overall persona change drastically. Readers are first presented with a slightly resentful Gulliver; a man who doesn’t want to leave his wife, and feels forced into a life at sea because of the decline of his business. These factors, however, don’t override his generally pleased disposition and love of learning. We discover Gulliver to be an incredibly intelligent and observant person who, once at sea, enjoys people watching and spending, “My hours of leisure...reading the best authors, ancient and modern, being always provided with a good number of books; and...in observing the manners and dispositions of the people.” Both his smarts and observant nature repeatedly come to his rescue in by allowing him to befriend, communicate, and when need be, manipulate the peoples he comes in contact with. Each opening section builds off the previous to begin the destruction of Gulliver’s faith in humanity which develops with his brief integration into each new culture he encounters.
Gulliver’s first shipwreck lands him on the island of Lilliput. Before he can make any discoveries about the land, he falls asleep from the exhaustion of his misfortune, and awakes restrained. The Lilliputians, “are not six inches tall,” and being so small in comparison, frightened by his overwhelming stature, are quick to wreak havoc on his flesh with arrows and knives; rash in their reactions to his gestures. Although Gulliver realizes he could easily free himself of their bondage and could even squash the Lilliputians with his feet if necessary, we quickly see his intellect come into play when his actions remain calm, and his attempts to communicate with them, peaceful, because he realizes he has no way of knowing their number, or what they are capable of. His ethical nature is presented when he states, “I confess I was often tempted...to seize forty or fifty of the first that came in my reach, and dash them against the ground. But...the promise of honour I made them­­for so I interpreted my submissive behaviour­­soon drove out these imaginations.” This Gulliver is level­headed, open to productive and friendly communication, and is also willing to remain loyal and trusting. His curiosity and joy in observing also prompts him to act appropriately so that he can not only survive, but learn

the cultures and customs of the Lilliputians. “But fortune disposed otherwise of me. When the people observed I was quiet, they discharged no more arrows...I answered in a few words, but in the most submissive manner, lifting up my left hand, and both my eyes to the sun…”. This acquiescent display presents Gulliver in a positive light.
At the start of Part Two, we are presented with a Gulliver similar to that at the opening of
Part One, but this time he is excited to be back out at sea after only a short time home with his family. He has already been at sea for a year when his ship is once again caught in the nasty wrath of a storm which leaves him, and a few of his men, stranded on the island of Brobdingnag.
Different upon first arrival, because he is not the sole survivor of the wreck as was the case in
Part One, his journey soon becomes almost identical to the last time when his men are chased back to sea by what he describes as, “a huge creature.” Also similar, Gulliver’s initial experience of the land is full of confusion and fear when spotting the giants, just as he felt helpless and afraid when waking up tied down on Lilliput and being immediately ambushed by their tiny weaponry. Although Gulliver may have seemed desperate to distance himself from his family because of his impatience to leave England and once again voyage to foreign lands, we see he is still compassionate and weary of their well­being when stuck in a corn­field, fearing that he will be crushed by one of the creatures. Gulliver, “bemoaned my desolate widow and fatherless children.” We are then given another glimpse of his intellect when he is brought by one of the
Brobdingnagians to the head farmers house and given to his wife and presented to
Glumdalclitch. Gulliver fears she will tear him apart, so he kisses her hands in an attempt to manipulate her affections and promote kindness to his well­being. When this works, she clings to him, and although he’s treated with respect, Gulliver is very much treated like a doll; a mere plaything. Especially when given to the Queen’s baby who almost bites his head off, and is only unsuccessful because Gulliver is able to scream and frighten the child. When the Queen begins to breastfeed the infant, we see his views on the beauty of humans begin to waver, and his distaste for humans, although not character based, starting to blossom. He describes his disgust by saying, “The nipple was about half the bigness of my head, and the hue both of that and the dug, so varied with spots, pimples, and freckles, that nothing could appear more nauseous…” We are then presented with another broader picture claim when
Gulliver reflects, “upon the fair skins of our English ladies, who appear so beautiful to us, only because they are of our own size, and their defects not to be seen but through a magnifying glass; where we find by experiment that the smoothest and whitest skins look rough, and coarse, and ill­coloured.” This alludes to the broader idea that all seemingly beautiful things are in actuality, corrupt; that although the English politicians and people, may view their respective parties as individually righteous and valid, they are both corrupt.
Gulliver then sleeps and dreams of being with his wife and children, showing his affection and longing for their companionship, but is quickly jolted out of his nostalgic state when two rats attack him from both sides. The way he describes killing the rat, as having, “the

good fortune to rip up his belly before he could do me any mischief,” and upon seeing it still twitching with life, quickly acting with, “ a strong slash across the neck, I thoroughly despatched it,” shows Gulliver’s removal from moral high ground as was so prominent in the juxtaposition between himself and that of the Lilliputians. Although not yet discussed in just the opening section of Part Two, the Brobdingnagians are illustrated as far beyond Gulliver in morality.
Chapter One, Part Three is dissimilar, while at the same time related, to both openings we have encountered so far. In this Chapter, Gulliver has returned home after his time in
Brobdingnag for only ten days, and his wife has begged him not to leave again, but he agrees anyways when offered a position as a surgeon on his former captain’s ship. This neglect of attention to his wife’s wishes shows such a grave disconnect to his loved ones we readers have not yet been presented with. In the openings of both previous sections, he speaks highly of his family and longs for them in his times of loneliness and near death. This time, he is eager to leave. Similarly to the first two sections, he has been abroad roughly a year when his ship is not wrecked, nor does he stumble upon a foreign land, but is captured by Japanese pirates. It isn’t difficult to comprehend why such an encounter would make anyone a bit weary of humankind.
The Dutchman who is with the Japanese pirates is harsh and when he decides to split up Gulliver and his crew, Gulliver being left by himself in a canoe with very little food doesn’t help to boost his confidence in humanity either. As in each opening, Gulliver stumbles upon foreign islands, but where he lands is not where he ends up, and he’s brought to the land of Luputa with the help of the Luputians. So far, the similarities and differences presented in each section seem to be a way for Swift to highlight the fact that our journey to a place can be similar, and yet the outcome of the experience can vary greatly. This ties together many of the topics already aroused throughout the other two opening sections; the opposition of the Lilliputians and the
Brobdingnagians, and the “things aren’t always what they seem” claim made by Gulliver’s reflection on the beauty of English women.
The opening of Part Four is where we are presented with the most drastic of Gulliver’s
“calls to sea.” He abandons his pregnant wife and children for yet another trip. We see an even greater shift from the last opening in his compassion for his wife. Leaving her when she’s pregnant after a measly five months home, following five years away. He describes leaving in a way that one could read as feeling sorrow for her condition, “big with child,” and having maintained, “a very happy condition,” while there. However, his selfishness is too prominent to ignore when considering the fact she had previously requested he not leave before his prior travel endeavor, and his pride in being captain of his own ship instead of merely a surgeon aboard someone else’s, surely a large, selfish draw as well.
This voyage leads him to a a few different lands. The hospitality and generosity he is greeted with by the Welch is largely juxtaposed with the barbaric nature of the beasts he encounters at the next island he ventures to. The creatures are ugly, “covered with a thick hair, some frizzled, and others lank; they had beards like goats, and a long ridge of hair down their backs, and the fore parts of their legs and feet,” very animalistic in nature. The fear he had

experienced upon previous arrivals to foreign islands exists, but Gulliver is far less docile in his approach of contact with the beast, representing his disregard for the submissive and polite nature he once possessed in his dealings with the Lilliputians and Brobdingnagians. When one of them approaches Gulliver, he hits him with his hanger, and becomes quite fearful only because of his realization that the other beasts may retaliate against him if they discover he’s injured one of their own, This also shows the mistrust he has built up after being betrayed by the Lilliputians who were consumed with conspiring against each other, and eventually Gulliver himself when deciding he was more of a liability to their nation rather than an asset. After the great amount of help he supplied them with by capturing all of Blefuscu’s ships, it was the ultimate betrayal.
The beasts begin to shower him in their excrement once the attacked being howls in anger, but immediately retreat once a horse appears in a nearby field. Gulliver is careful to address the horse, and the second one that appears in fear they may also attack him, but he soon attempts communicating with them in hopes they will help him in exchange for goods. His immediate reaction to offer trade instead of simply asking for help with no payment is an example of Gullivers persisting belief in the selfish nature of all creatures. Gulliver follows the grey horse, in an attempt to regain trust in the mercy of others.
The progression of Gulliver’s beliefs rollercoaster a bit from his encounter with the
Lilliputians, to his final trip home, and the resentment he is consumed with after his time with the horses of Houyhnhmn. Swift employs drastic dichotomies between the groups of people encountered in the novel to stress the corrupt nature of eighteenth century English folk, and the attainable virtue they could each if they were to attempt a more Brobdingnagian or Houyhnhmn outlook on life. In Parts I and II, Swift’s use of satire is directly targeted towards specific members of England’s political parties, whereas Part III focuses more widely on the parties as whole entities. The Lilliputians are being directly compared to the Whigs, the Blefuscus to the
Tories, and the Luputans to the government as a whole. Their disorganized system of rule and thought prevents them from being able to create anything apart from chaos. Their clothes and houses are poorly constructed, and they aren’t able to form cohesive thoughts that are thought out past a momentary basis. They think without considering and end result of their actions as opposed to the Brobdingnagians who are morally constructed, just as the Houyhnhmn horses who are only just, virtuous, reasonable and not saturated with greed or the grievances of one­track, egotistic minds. In fact, they are so upstanding that they have no differentiating characteristics and see themselves as a united lot. When placed in these morally rich settings,
Gulliver’s faults as an Englishman are highlighted and mocked for his, at first, comfortability in the malevolence of English politics.
Though much of the elaboration on the values of each group of people Gulliver encounters is not covered in only the opening sections of each part of the story, these details are essential in building an overall claim as to what Jonathan Swift intended to represent through
Gulliver’s travels to each of the islands. It is through his depiction of vastly immoral, unintelligent characters, that the highly esteemed angelic nature of other characters is profoundly

symbolic to his personal views in regard to eighteenth century English politics. The blatant comparison of humans to the Houyhnhmn horses, not human in nature whatsoever, exhibits
Gilliver’s, and through him, Swift’s, repulsion of humankind and the idiocy the people of his time displayed. The advancement of Gulliver’s character throughout each section of the novel, the similarities and extensive differences developed, create a comprehensive embodiment of the attributes that Swift wishes, we humans, could all achieve.