An example of his humorous technique is when the inhabitants of Liliput are shown to select their politicians by seeing who is superior on a tight rope. The politicians are chosen by seeing who can jump the highest on a tight rope suspended two feet off the ground:
Five or six of those candidates petition the emperor to entertain his majesty and the court with a dance on the rope, and whoever jumps the highest without falling, succeeds in the office
Also another humorous event is the ceremony of breaking an egg with your head, Swift has created a conflict between two parties, one party breaks the egg at the large end and the other party breaks the egg at the smaller end.
It is allowed on all hands, that the primitive way of breaking eggs before we eat them, was upon the larger end
The discrimination of women, this may seem harsh on the women’s part but really instead of Swift being spiteful and insulting the women he is putting across a subtle hint of superiority.
The story is a mirror image of the city of London in 1726. Lemuel Gulliver sets out on a voyage upon a fine sailing vessel, the crew soon run into trouble and the ship becomes wrecked. Gulliver is stranded and runs adrift upon a strange island, this island isn’t like any other though, as Gulliver soon discovers. Its inhabitants are all a twelfth of his size. The book describes Gulliver’s amazing adventures that lay before him. Throughout the story a great deal of ingratitude is shown in many different forms. When Gulliver urinates on the palace to extinguish a fire, even though Gulliver may see this as a good deed it is seen as a kind of insult by the Lilliputians. Gulliver is also shown ingratitude by the Lilliputians, after defeating an opposing fleet single handily and saving the palace from burning to the ground the inhabitants turn on Gulliver and decide to try and gauge his eyes out, this I feel is Swift attacking the simple mindedness of the human race and how easily judged some people are.
Before I proceed to give an account of my leaving this kingdom, it may be proper to inform the reader of a private intrigue which had been for two months forming against me
Jonathan Swift has filled this book full of Satire, on another level away from the humour he is pointing out and describing the criticisms of modern England and its faults. When he is using he is using his humorous techniques behind the comical mask lies many messages.
When Swift is commenting on the selection process of the politicians of Liliput he is making a swipe at the employment methods of the British government, he is saying that politicians these days are being selected for reasons which have no relevance to the profession they have been awarded.
Also the ceremony of breaking an egg with your head is also an attack on modern ways, instead of politics Swift has concentrated on religion, he is making the point that no matter what end you break the egg at you always end up with the same result, this is aimed at Catholics and Protestants. Even though they believe the same thing they still manage to create conflict between themselves.
While all of this is going on Swift still manages to keep a decent and interesting story rolling, one of the good things about his book is, that’s no matter what age group it attracts it still manages to please, and on the younger level you have a fun story of a giant. But as the age increases the story develops into an enthralling tale of hidden images and opinions.
Another comical moment in the story is the subject of size, all through the story size is a key issue. It brings a hint of amusement to make you want to read on
Gulliver’s size in comparison to the Lilliputians is the device that generates all the talk about the difficulty of feeding and housing his enormous body. He is twelve times the Lilliputians in height, but it follows (in terms of the mathematical conceit) that’s he is twelve times their size in every dimension
Swift uses Gulliver’s abnormal height to great use, without his height the book would not be what it has become, it is the base of many opinionated points behind the text.
The Height helps to link in with the whole plot of ingratitude, when Gulliver defeats an entire fleet he is shown a great deal of congratulations, but when he extinguishes a fire in the royal palace by urinating on it the Lilliputians see him as a sort of traitor and treat him with complete ingratitude and ungratefulness. This is showing the pure simple mindedness of humans and Swift has created this with the foundation of size, by using a kind of unrealistic and humorous base he has created many different forms of putting across his feelings on modern day culture.
This book shows great depth behind words, it shows that a book can contain more than it seems and Swift has shown this exceptionally well with the use of in depth thoughts and satire, with this combination he has created a superb book. This book backs up the saying
You can’t tell a book by its cover
