18th-century literature has gifted readers with many brilliant authors and books. Jonathan Swift is a prominent representative of the period and his book Gulliver’s Travels sparks considerable interest among literary critics.
Gulliver Travels is comprised of four parts: Gulliver embarks on four lengthy journeys which altogether last for sixteen years and seven months. Sailing every time from a specific city (existing in real life) he unexpectedly ends up in outlandish locations where he explores customs, mentality, and ways of life, and laws of the hosting country. He also shares knowledge of his homeland, England with local inhabitants.
Gulliver’s Travels is a multi-faceted book, and a literary critic would have difficulty attributing it to a specific genre. This piece of work is an adventurous travel novel, it is also a pamphlet novel and at the same time, a novel with characteristics that may be directly attributed to anti-utopia – that is often considered the 20th-century genre. Not only is Jonathan Swift popular with readers, but also with writers like himself.
George Orwell researched and analyzed Swift’s work and even wrote an essay ‘Politics vs. Literature – An examination of Gulliver’s travels. Jonathan Swift’s imagination knows no limits and he seems to have packed Gulliver’s 16-year-journey with irony and satire characteristic of those times. Swift presents a fertile territory for analysis as his book covers an array of socially-pressing issues such as gender and race differences, status and class, money, and even science. His description of these issues is filled with satire and irony.
Despite many layers of meaning and an abundance of serious questions raised in the book, it has been and is still now strongly associated with children’s literature and as a book intended for children. In fact, the book’s enormous popularity among children resulted in a number of movies produced over the years in different countries, with the latest one released in 2010 by 20 Century Fox. Given the adventurous nature of the book, it is not surprising that it still remains appealing to children. By engrossing into Gulliver’s world, they vicariously experience his adventures. In a Lilliputian world, they may feel as if they are the giants among their toys and dolls. Brobdingnag land resonates with children as well who are surrounded by adults viewed as giants by children (Stallcup 87).
Gulliver’s Travels have been printed and reprinted and translated into almost any language. The fact that the version of the book intended for children has been adapted and abridged explains that the contents may disturb adults who do not want their children to be exposed to bold views of anarchy and challenges to authority (Stallcup 88). Due to editors, most of Swift’s humor references and satirical attacks on human nature are either toned down or deleted.
However, editors’ reasons for bowdlerizing satirical and social references may be understood. Children will be struggling with much of Swift’s brilliant satire simply because they have not yet become politically literate and lack knowledge in many of the areas that Swift so masterfully ridicules.
Swift delicately makes multiple political references, some of which, will be hard even for adult readers to decipher. In Lilliputian land, Gulliver learns about egg controversy with two parties in opposition arguing on how an egg should be broken: either by its big or small end. The meaningless argument results in Big-Indians having to flee and find shelter in one of the enemy islands. With this reference, Swift alludes to the two opposing parties then in England, Whigs, and Tory. Those parties disagreed mainly on Catholic and Protestant issues which were pressing not only in England but also in Europe at that time. Although not many will remember the Whigs and Tories feud, Swift’s allegory may still be applied to many present-day political and notably religious disputes.
Apart from an array of political references, Swift elaborately examines and researches the legal system in Gulliver’s Travels. The reader traces and obtains a full insight into the justice system, corruption, laws, punishments, and trials which seem rather plausible (Fernandes 98). Most of Swift’s political references may be easily attributed to a specific political concept prevailing in England at that time.
Political and legal references are backed up with historical references when Swift describes a crew of pirates arriving in some unknown land. They immediately engage in robbing and marauding the natives. They deprive the country of its possessions and even erect a monument to celebrate their discovery. The invasion results in casualties among the locals although is presented as a divine act. With this description, Swift directly alludes to the colonization process and its ramifications for the colonized nations. Ironically, colonization is presumed to be the act of civilizing the ‘barbarous’ indigenous population (Fernandes 101).
Gulliver’s visit to Lagado is full of issues relating to science. Gulliver sees a city in chaos and abject poverty. Rather than tackling the city’s problems, its rulers, called projectors, are engaged in meaningless activities and experiments and claim that they bear a scientific value to the people. Gulliver’s visits to the academy and his talks with ‘scientists’ are filled with sarcasm and contempt. By illustrating various scientific experiments in Lagado, Swift hints that pure science is a meaningless and worthless activity and cannot be applied in practice.
To back his views and attitude to science, Swift meticulously describes dilapidated buildings and houses and other projects that seemed perfect on paper but turned out absolutely impractical ( Fernandes 102). Swift also elaborates on linguistic elements such as languages and dialects spoken by the people.
Incredible as it might seem, some of the episodes described in Gulliver’s Travels may be deemed as references to events that took place long after the book was published (Fernandes 103). One such example is the decision of the Soviet Union to produce an atomic bomb in the middle of the cold war. Despite a severe lack of funds and even a food deficit, the government pursued this decision. Similarly, in Gulliver’s travels, the king decides to bear the costs of accommodating and feeding Gulliver only to have leverage in a war with Blefescu. The book contains other references which may be attributed to future events, and deep analysis will reveal even more of them.
Gulliver’s journeys open insight into human values that were true in his times and remain on top of relevancy even today. Jonatan Swift did not only observe the historical context of the time, but he was able to throw a spotlight on human values which were and still remain topical as of today. Over the years, observant readers who read and re-read Gulliver’s Travels may notice and shed light on other references which perhaps remain concealed now. Gulliver’s Travels is a phenomenal book, and it will fascinate readers both young and old for many years to come.
Works Cited
Stallcup, Jackie. E. “Inescapable Bodies, Disquieting Perception: Why Adults Seek to Tame and Harness Swift’s Excremental Satire in Gulliver’s Travels.” Children’s Literature in Education (2004): 87-111. Print.
Fernandes, Marcelo. “Economics and Literature: An Examination of Gulliver’s Travels.” Journal of Economic Studies. (2001): 92-105. Web.