Guillivers Travels :: Essays Papers

Guillivers TravelsSatire in LilliputIn Jonathan nimbles Gullivers Travels, Swift uses satire to tell a tale of Lemuel Gulliver going on voyages in strange lands and meeting a variety of different characters. Jonathan Swifts was one of the greatest satirists of his and our time. In the first book of Gullivers Travels millions of young schoolchildren have grown to love this famous story and neer recognize the satire hidden in the story. In his first restrain he uses satire to demonstrate English politics by development the citizens of Lilliput. Gullivers first adventure takes place in Lilliput. Gulliver gets shipwrecked and finds himself tied hatful by a considerable number of little people called Lilliputians. The Lilliputians stood yet sixer inches high. During this time Swift recognized that England was also small in stature but was dominant force and had a great solve in Europe. England, despite its small size, had the potential to defeat any estate that might try to conq uer them. Swift relates this situation with the Lilliputians. They only stood six inches tall but had the power to take on the, Man-Mountain, Gulliver. The ability of the Lilliputians to trip up someone ten times their size can be seen as reinforcing their strength as a small nation, such as England. consequently becoming and remaining a great and powerful country. Swifts personal life surfaced when Queen Anne represented the Lilliputian Empress. She was responsible for blockage Swifts advancement in the Church of England because she was offended by his writing. Swift in Gulliver Travels had Gulliver urinate on the Empress room when it caught on fire. Gullivers micturition on the palace offended the Lilliputians and thought that they where insignificant. Even though Gullivers urination intends to prevent a disaster, it also gives Gulliver the ability to fit the Lilliputians in any way he likes. Swift uses this sequence of problems to level a personal issue in his life. S wifts urination scene parodys his own life giving him a satire within a satire. By pointing this out in the story, he mocks his critics. Swift further illustrates satire by comparing English presidential term to Lilliput. In the early eighteenth century, the English government was under the Whigs political party. Swift represented himself as Gulliver as being a Tory, and the Lilliputians as being power-hungry Whigs. Their heels of their shoes identified these parties.