Daniel Defoe was a travel writer of the 1700’s, one of his pieces included ‘A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain’. Here is an extract:
I BEGAN my travels, where I purpose to end them, viz. At the city of London, and therefore my account of the city itself will come last, that is to say, at the latter end of my southern progress; and as in the course of this journey I shall have many occasions to call it a circuit, if not a circle, so I chose to give it the title of circuits, in the plural, because I do not pretend to have travelled it all in one journey, but in many, and some of them many times over; the better to inform myself of everything could find worth taking notice of.
In my view, this account of writing is very boring and includes too much irrelevant detail. Defoe is completely of the point; he is talking about what he is going to talk about and how, rather than giving information about the Island of Great Britain or even where he is. Swift parodies Defoe’s writing in paragraph three of page two chapter one by explaining the latitude, the people with him, the weather and many more. He is mocking Defoe by doing what Defoe does; which is giving irrelevant detail and creating expectations in our minds rather than giving detail on what the environmental surroundings are etc.
“as the common size of the natives is somewhat under six inches, so there is an exact proportion in all other animals, as well as plants and trees: for instance , the tallest horses and oxen are between four and five inches of height...” p20
Swift imitates the style of a standard travelogue throughout the novel to increase the satire. Here he creates a set of expectations in our minds, namely a short-lived belief in the truth of Gulliver’s observations. He parodies the boring nature of travel writing and the long and tedious list writing. Later in the novel, Swift uses the style of the travelogue to exaggerate the absurdity of the people and places with which Gulliver comes into contact.
Modern travel writer Bill Bryson compared to early 18th century travel writer Daniel Defoe, it is seen that Bryson and Defoe have different styles of writing; this could be due to the time they are writing in or even that Jonathon Swift has helped changed the way of travel writing. This is an extract of Bryson’s book ‘Notes from a Small Island’:
‘Blackpool- and I don’t care how much times you have hear this, it never stops being amazing- attracts more visitors every year than Greece and has more holiday beds than the whole of Portugal. It consumes more chips per capital than anywhere else on the planet (it gets through 40 acres of potatoes a day). It has the largest concentration of rollercoasters in Europe. It has the continents second most popular tourist attraction, the 42-acre Pleasure Beach, whose 6.5 annual visitors are exceeded in number only by going to the Vatican. It has the most famous illuminations. And on Friday and Saturday nights it has more public toilets than anywhere else on Britain; elsewhere they call them doorways.’
Bryson’s writing contains much more facts and description about the place around him whereas Defoe’s writing has nothing to do with the place he intended to describe which is London.
The structural, informative and writing change in travel writing could be and in my opinion should be commended to Jonathon Swift. Swift as I believe and many others helped to change the way travel writing was written, as he had the courage to write a satirical novel based on his views and reflecting others views on how they felt about travel writing of their time; early 18th century.
The monarchy and government is one of the main focuses in ‘Gulliver's Travels’. Jonathon Swift had an interest in monarchy and government otherwise known as politics. His interest had begun since his early career, as politics affected the strength and stability of the Anglican Church in both England and Ireland of which he was a member. The restoration of the Catholic monarchy was a real threat which he feared during his lifetime. Swift uses ridicule and exaggeration to satirise the monarchy and government of the early 18th century. In book one Swift satirises the arrogant and inhumane treatment of people in invaded countries. In the book Jonathon Swift apprises himself by showing that he is not in favour of the monarchy and government, and the way it acts. He shows this when Gulliver refuses to help the Emperor (supposed to be King George) turn Blefuscu (France) into a colony.
The Emperor, Empress and Skyresh Bolgolam are three of the main Lilliputians (from the country of Lilliput- representing England) in book one called ‘A Voyage to Lilliput’. The Emperor is the ruler of Lilliput, like all Lilliputians he is fewer than six inches tall. The Emperor is both laughable and sinister. His belief that he can control Gulliver appears absurd due to his tiny size, however his approach to execute his subjects for minor reasons of honour or politics gives him an aspect of fright. The Emperor is proud of all his possessions as well as being hospitable and spending money on his captives’ food. The Emperor is both a satire of the autocratic leader King George I and a serious person of political power. The empress likes Gulliver at first; he charms her by kissing her hand. However, when he extinguishes the fire in her quarters of the palace by urinating on the building, she is repulsed and turns against him. She represents Queen Anne, who denied Swift a position in the Church of England because she thought his satirical writings were vulgar, even though one of those writings, A Tale of a Tub, defended the Church of England against the Puritans and Roman Catholics. Queen Anne also ungratefully exiled Swift's friend, Bolingbroke, after he'd gone through the trouble of negotiating a peace with France, thereby ending the War of Spanish Succession. Queen Anne dies in 1716, she is a very serious Lilliputian who would probably make a huge fuss of minor issues. Skyresh Bolgolam is the High Admiral of Lilliput, who is the only member of the administration to oppose Gulliver’s liberation. Gulliver imagines that Skyresh’s enmity is simply personal, though there is no apparent reason for such hostility. If argued, Skyresh’s hostility may be merely a reason to divert Gulliver from the larger Lilliputian exploitation to which he is subjected. Skyresh Bolgolam represents the Prime Minister Robert Walpole.
The government ministers behave in a queer way in the Lilliputian court in order to gain favour with the Emperor. The court of Lilliput is compared to a circus. Lilliputian government officials are chosen by their skill at rope-dancing, which the Lilliputians see as relevant but which Gulliver recognizes as arbitrary and ridiculous. The would-be officials are almost literally forced to jump through hoops in order to qualify for their positions. Clearly, Swift intends for us to understand this as a satire of ’s system of political appointments and to infer that England’s system is s random. Gulliver, however, never suggests that he finds the Lilliputians ridiculous. In the court Gulliver is made to stand with his legs apart whilst soldiers march underneath him, this is toilet humour as the soldiers peek at Gulliver's private as they march underneath him, this could also be seen as revenge for personal delights.
The government is not the same now as it was in Swifts time as before limits were set on freedom, this is exaggerated in his book when acts are read out to him on his limits. This is satirised on the paranoid nature of the Lilliputians (English people) towards foreigners and the way the state sets limits on people freedom.
Swift obviously does not like the monarchy and government of his time as it affected his early career, and also for the reason that the way they acted was not a formal serious manner.
In Swifts time France and England were in war, called the ‘Spanish War of Succession’. The war was expressed as Lilliput (England) at war with Blefuscu (France). “The War of the Spanish Succession was also a Spanish civil war. Britain agreed to a separate peace with France, and the allies withdrew from Catalonia, but the Catalans continued their resistance under the banner "Privilegis o Mort" (Liberty or Death). Catalonia was devastated, and Barcelona fell to Philip V after a prolonged siege (1713-14).” (Information take from - http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi- bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+es0021))
Europe was the world’s dominant power, and when , despite its small size, was rising in power on the basis of its formidable fleet. England’s growing military and economic power brought it into contact with a wide variety of new animals, plants, places, and things. As written above England was small but powerful, this is why Jonathon Swift decided to make the English people, otherwise Lilliputians a small size.
Despite the fact that the history of the conflict between Lilliput and Blefuscu is ridiculous; as it is over ‘what side to crack their eggs on?’ Gulliver reports it with complete seriousness. The more serious the tone, the more laughable this conflict appears. But Swift expects us to understand that the complete history that Gulliver reports is corresponding to the European history exactly. The High-Heels and the Low-Heels correspond to the Whigs and Tories of English politics. The violent conflict between Big-Endians and Little-Endians represents the Protestant Reformation and the centuries of war between Catholics and Protestants.
By rewriting European history in a book with characters representing people of the English society, Swift implies that the differences between Protestants and Catholics, between Whigs and Tories, and between France and England are as ridiculous and pointless as how a person chooses to crack an egg.
Eventually Gulliver becomes a national resource, used by the army in its war against the people of Blefuscu, whom the Lilliputians hate for doctrinal differences concerning the proper way to crack eggs. When Gulliver disobeys the order of the Emperor to destroy Blefuscu’s fleet of ships, is a sign that he feels some responsibility toward all beings. However small, the inhabitants of Blefuscu still have rights, one of which is freedom from cruelty. Granted almost godlike power by his unusual size, Gulliver finds himself in a position to change the Lilliputians’ society forever.
