"The chief object of satire in 'Gulliver's Travels' is Gulliver himself." Discuss.

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Adam Draper        Gulliver – ‘Chief Object of Satire’        Mr Hanbidge

“The chief object of satire in ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ is Gulliver himself.” Discuss.

Frequently, at the time of writing, literature was used as a political tool. It was used to send messages, make people think, and to make subversive criticism of monarchy, political parties, or religious factions. To do this effectively, the author uses much satire and irony throughout the novel. The whole of Gulliver’s Travels is ironical. The Englishman in the strange land surrounded by miniature beings is no more than an outsider. In the first book, the reader sees themselves as one of these miniature beings. In the second book Gulliver is overwhelmingly human, with human weakness, distorting the truth, and human strengths, the positive oration. In the last book the situational satire moves beyond our feeling comfortable with it. In this book there is a complete transposition of horse and man. We see a civilisation that is pure and rational. Fraud, deceit, illness, or greet have not influenced it.

Jonathan Swift writes of all social injustices and personal discomfort. Often the writing is with biting sarcasm but sometimes with violent explosions of anger, frequently with quiet ridicule. However he does this, the intention is the same and he urges the reader to really think about the effect of these views. The author intends that even the most far-fetched of his characters is meant to remind the reader of human weaknesses; lust, barbarism, pride and conceit. Often, Swift gives the reader direct comparisons. Two good examples of these are the people in the Court at Lilliput and their antics to procure promotion, and the people in the Academy at Lagado and their time consuming and worthless research.

As the reader travels through each book the humanity becomes more degenerate and despicable and the reader is left to face himself or herself in the Yahoo, whereas the well-bred horse portrays the superior, sensitive, intelligent and virtuous characteristics. In the world of Lilliput we view with some amusement how meaningless the lives at court are. The ceremonies become silly, the awarding of honours meaningless, and the political differences completely comic when we consider such rivalry over which end an egg is eaten from. The whole ‘seriousness’ of Lilliput is reduced to merely a sideshow where the reader sees the action for what it really is; nonsense.

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An alternative environment, that is Brobdingnag, suggests a complete contrast. The tiny become giants and we see things from exactly the opposite perspective. The close-up pictures of skin, nipples and food repulse the reader and we are left to question how we judge beauty and elegance. Other people become physically unattractive to Gulliver in Brobdingnag, just as he himself became socially and intellectually unattractive in Lilliput. In the former, the characters and ridiculed, in the latter it is a society as a whole which is held up to the ridicule. Ironically, now Gulliver is twelve times smaller, it is ...

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