Name : Makwana Vijay K.
Course name : M.A English
Semester : 1
Roll no : 46
Enrolment no : 2069108420180035
Email : vijaykm7777@gmail.com
Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University
Batch year : 2017-18
Submitted to : department of English Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji
Paper no : 2 "The Neo-Classcal Literature"
Topic : Critical approach of "Gulliver's Travels".
Introduction About the author :
Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1667 and came of age at the height of the Glorious Revolution, in which James II, a Roman Catholic, was forced to abdicate in favour of William of Orange, a Protestant. Although he was a great literary figure even in his time, we know very little about his private life. For example, we are not even sure if he married. He became an influential member of the British government but he never achieved the position in the Church of England that he felt he deserved. He was, he felt, banished to the deanship of St. Patrick’s and when his party fell from power with the accession of George I, his period in the political limelight came to an end. Swift died in a mental institution, finally struck down by an illness which had probably been with him for a long time. But he wasn’t mad when he wrote Gulliver’s Travels, a brilliant satire on politics and society, and a timeless book for children.
Summary :
In each of the three stories in this book, the hero, Lemuel Gulliver, embarks on a voyage, but, as in the Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor on which the stories may in part have been based, some calamity befalls him. First, Gulliver arrives in Lilliput, where he finds himself a giant, held prisoner by tiny men. They are initially afraid of him, but he gradually wins their trust and eventually helps them in their war against Blefuscu. The second land he visits is called Brobdingnag, a land of giants. Gulliver, now a tiny person, has to work as a freak in a show at first but is then rescued by the Queen and has long talks with the King.
Gulliver finally ends up in the land of the Houyhnhnms, peaceful horses who have created a perfect society, except for the presence of monkey-like Yahoos. Although Gulliver looks like a well-kempt Yahoo, he wants to be a Houyhnhnm. Finally, he has to leave because he does not fit into this society.
Gulliver Travels is based on 4 voyages :
1. The voyage of Lilliput
2. The voyage of Brobdingnag
3. The voyage of Laputa
4. The voyage of Houyhnhnms
1 : A Voyage to Lilliput :
"A Voyage to Lilliput," is the most famous section of Gulliver's Travels. Lured by the prospect of adventure and easy money, Lemuel Gulliver signs up as a "surgeon," or ship's doctor, for a voyage through the East Indies in Asia. Unfortunately for Gulliver, he is shipwrecked. He swims to an unfamiliar shore and, exhausted by his efforts, goes to sleep. When he awakes, he finds himself tied up by a crowd of extremely tiny and well-armed people. Gulliver is taken prisoner, shipped to the capital, and presented to the Emperor. A cross between court pet and circus attraction, Gulliver makes friends with many of the courtiers and learns about the history, society, politics, and economy of Lilliput. For many years, Lilliput has been at war with its sister island Blefuscu over whether to break soft-boiled eggs at the big or little end. This clash parodies the French-English and Catholic-Protestant conflicts of Swift's time, and many of the characters in this section correspond to actual political figures of the day.
2: A Voyage to Brobdingnag :
Gulliver is only home two months when he sets out on Part II, "A Voyage to Brobdingnag." After encountering a terrible storm, Gulliver's ship puts in to another unfamiliar shore for much-needed food and water. He goes ashore with the landing party but is abandoned by the crew when they discover there are giants living there. Gulliver is captured by a farmer, who displays him as a circus wonder at local fairs. The farmer's daughter, Glumdalclitch, teaches Gulliver to speak the language and the two become good friends. Eventually, the farmer sells Gulliver to the Queen of Brobdingnag, who allows Glumdalclitch to join the court as Gulliver's keeper.
Once at court, Gulliver has a series of violent, physical misadventures because of his size. Once, he is taken into the country and allowed to walk around a meadow on his own. Poor Gulliver has not yet learned the limits of his size in Brobdingnag, however. As he reports, "There was a Cowdung in the Path, and I must needs try my Activity by attempting to leap over it. I took a Run, but unfortunately jumped short, and found my self just in the Middle up to my Knees." Gulliver spends most of his time discussing history, politics, philosophy, and economics with the King. The King frequently dismays Gulliver by displaying his "ignorance," that is, finding certain aspects of Gulliver's England repulsive. When Gulliver offers to teach him about gunpowder so he can rule over his subjects with force, for example, the King rejects him in horror. In the end, Gulliver is carried off by a giant bird and dropped into the sea, where he is rescued again by an English ship. Disoriented by the size of things on shipboard and then in England, Gulliver takes some time to adjust to people of his own size. Eventually he gets used to other English people again and resolves to stay at home for the rest of his life.
3: A Voyage to Laputa :
Gulliver is unable to keep his resolution. He is tempted by the prospect of easy money yet againand embarks on Part III, "A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnag, Glubbdubdrib, and Japan." Gulliver's misfortunes begin when he and his crew are seized by pirates, who abandon him alone on a deserted island. In despair, Gulliver begins to make the best of his bad lot when he is astonished to see a giant floating island appear in the sky. The inhabitants carry him up to them and make him welcome on the island, which they call Laputa. The Laputans control a nonfloating island named Balnibarbi and live entirely by the rules of science and mathematics: even their bread and meat are carved into geometric shapes. The men are so consumed in thought that they have servants, called flappers, to bring them out of a trance into conversation. Women, who are excluded from these activities and entirely ignored by the men, frequently try to escape to Balnibarbi. After some persuasion, Gulliver is allowed to descend to Balnibarbi, where he witnesses the destructive effects of not enough practical thinking on agriculture, economics, education, and architecture.
Gulliver visits the Grand Academy, Swift's parody of London's Royal Society. There he meets men devoting their lives to absurd experiments such as extracting sunlight from cucumbers and turning human waste into its original components. Gulliver proceeds from Balnibarbi to Luggnag via the island of Glubbdubdrib, which is run by magic. There the governor raises several historical leaders and philosophers from the dead, giving Gulliver a chance to wonder at the corruption and brutishness of these supposedly great men. In Luggnag, Gulliver hears of a race of people called Struldbruggs, who live forever. Gulliver imagines what he would do if he were a Struldbrugg, but when he meets them he realizes that eternal life does not necessarily mean eternal youth. The Struldbruggs actually have both infinite age and infinite infirmity, and they are miserable, senile people.
4 : A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhms :
Gulliver's last voyage, Part IV, is called "A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhms" (pronounced whin-hims). Part IV examines less what humanity creates, such as science or gunpowder or government, and more what humanity is. Appropriately, Gulliver is left on an alien shore by a mutiny, a betrayal and abandonment that sets in motion the wheels of Gulliver's detachment from his own people. He encounters two types of inhabitants: the rational Houyhnhms and the vicious, crude Yahoos. The Houyhnhms are talking horses who have established a society based on reason rather than emotion, while the Yahoos are hairy humanoids who are used by the Houyhnhms as slaves. As usual, Gullive
In the beginning of the story, Gulliver explains to the reader a bit about his background, why he was on these journeys to begin with, and where he finds himself at the beginning of his tale. The story begins with Gulliver recounting how he was shipwrecked the land of Lilliput. He awakens to find himself tied down and held captive by a tiny race of people. To the inhabitants of Lilliput, Gulliver is something of a giant. He could not move, because he was tied down, but he notices a a race of tiny people moving about him. These people take all of his possessions for inspection, for they are in awe and fear of his great size. They feed him, and soon untie him but still keep him in confinement. While in his confinement, he is visited by the emperor who likes Gulliver. Gulliver learns there language and the customs of the people of Lilliput. In this book Swift, by describing the ludicrous system that Lilliput's government fashions in, is satirizing the English system of governing. He uses parallels that seem absurd at first glance but make more senses when looked at carefully.
When Gulliver reaches the land of Brobdinag, he finds himself in the exact opposite situation that he was in when in Lilliput. In Brobdinag, it is Gulliver who is the tiny person, and the inhabitants of that land who appear to be giants. Gulliver expects these "giants to be monsters", but soon finds that they are a peaceful race of people, who live in a sort of peace-loving land. Swift was playing on all people's fear of being frightened by those who appear different looking or more powerful.
Critical view of Gulliver's Travels :
In recounting third journey, Gulliver visits the land of Laputa. The stories that are contained within are a satire on specific figures and policies of the British government of the period in which Swift lived. This is probably, out of all of the parts of this story that are commonly read today, the least widely read. This is because most people today do not know of whom Swift is referring to.
When Gulliver reaches the land of the Houyhnhnms, we read a very fine story that we can still relate to today. There is a distinction made between the two type of people Gulliver encounters in this land. The Yahoos, who are considered to be uncivilized Neanderthals, and the Houyhnhnms, who Gulliver's considers to be civilized. Gulliver contends that the Houyhnhnms are civilized because they are similar to him, the people remind him of English people, and they have the most complex language he has run across in his travels. We also read in this part of his travels of a war between the Big-Endians and the Little-Endians, who are at war with one another over which end of a hard boiled egg should be cracked on. Swift is satirizing the futility of wars over things like religion.
Gulliver soon returns home in wonder over his journeys to these lands. Swift did a excellent job of hiding a biting criticism of the government and society in which he lived. He did this by making the characters in the story so fantastic and foreign to the reader that the story could only be a fairy tale, written for children. The actions of the people he runs across are so absurd, and Gulliver seems so innocent, that at first read many people didn't even get what Swift was trying to say. There were, however, people who knew Swift's intentions from the start, and got all of the symbols in the story.
It has been said that Dean Jonathan Swift hated humanity but loved the individual. His hatred is brought out in this caustic political and social satire aimed at the English people, humanity in general, and the Whigs in particular. By means of a disarming simplicity of style and of careful attention to detail in order to heighten the effect of the narrative, Swift produced one of the outstanding pieces of satire in world literature.
Swift created the character of Lemuel Gulliver as his narrator for Gulliver’s Travels, he developed a personality with many qualities admired by an eighteenth century audience and still admired by many readers. Gulliver is a decent sort of person: hopeful, simple, fairly direct, and full of good will. He is a scientist, a trained doctor, and, as any good scientist should, he loves detail. His literal-minded attitude makes him a keen observer of the world around him. Furthermore, he is, like another famous novel character of the eighteenth century—Robinson Crusoe—encouragingly resourceful in emergencies.
The novel is a satire, and Gulliver is a mask for Swift the satirist. In fact, Swift does not share Gulliver’s rationalistic, scientific responses to the world or Gulliver’s beliefs in progress and in the perfectibility of humanity. Swift, on the contrary, believed that such values were dangerous, and that to put such complete faith in the material world, as scientific Gulliver did, was folly. Gulliver is a product of his age, and he is intended as a character to demonstrate the weakness underlying the values of the Enlightenment—the failure to recognize the power of the irrational.
Despite Gulliver’s apparent congeniality in the opening chapters of the novel, Swift makes it clear that Gulliver has serious shortcomings, including blind spots about human nature, his own included. Book 3, the least readable section of Gulliver’s Travels, is in some ways the most revealing part of the book. In it Gulliver complains, for example, that the wives of the scientists he is observing run away with the servants. The fact is that Gulliver—himself a scientist—gives little thought to the well-being of his own wife. In the eleven years covered in Gulliver’s travel book, Swift’s narrator spends a total of seven months and ten days with his wife.
Gulliver, too, is caught up in Swift’s web of satire in Gulliver’s Travels. Satire as a literary form tends to be ironic; the author says one thing but means another. Consequently, readers can assume that much of what Gulliver observes as good and much of what he thinks and does are not what Swift thinks.
As a type of the eighteenth century, Gulliver exhibits its major values: belief in rationality, in the perfectibility of humanity, in the idea of progress, and in the Lockean philosophy of the human mind as a tabula rasa, or blank slate, at the time of birth, controlled and developed entirely by the differing strokes and impressions made on it by the environment. Swift, in contrast to Gulliver, hated the abstraction that accompanied rational thinking; he abhorred the rejection of the past that resulted from a rationalistic faith in the new and improved; and he cast strong doubts on humanity’s ability to gain knowledge through reason and logic.
The world Gulliver discovers during his travels is significant in Swift’s satire. The Lilliputians, averaging not quite six inches in height, display the pettiness and the smallness Swift detected in much that motivates human institutions such as church and state. It is petty religious problems that lead to continual war in Lilliput. The Brobdingnagians continue the satire in part 2 by exaggerating human grossness through their enlarged size.
Conclusion :
Gulliver's Travels is a story of journey of Lemuel Gulliver. The whole story partly divided into 4 voyages they are 1 Lilliput, 2 Brobdingnag, 3 Laputa, 4 Houyhnhnms. Every voyage discribed the social life, it's aspects, human emotion, vertue, action, kindness and other aspects of social and people life.
Work cites :
https://www.enotes.com/topics/gullivers-travels-jonathan-swift/critical-essays/critical-evaluation
http://mural.uv.es/mafranch/critic.htm
https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/g/gullivers-travels/critical-essays/swifts-satire-in-gullivers-travels
