Gulliver's travels
The book was 1st published in 1726. Swift was disgusted to be in the company of his family at the end. He loses his identity at the end.
Swift was born on November 1667 of English parents in Dublin and he defended all his life Ireland, Dublin... His father having died 7-8 months before his birth, he was dependant on his 4 uncles, especially the oldest Godwin who helped him to graduate in 1676. His mother was born in Ireland where her parents immigrated in 1644 and she married Johnattan Swift the Elder. After the Glorious revolution (1688), Swift returned to England. And he became the private secretary of Sir William Temple in 1689. The Swifts are likely link to 2 powerfull Irish family. and Sir william Temple retired diplomate and...
Swift returned to England because of his illness and diseases called the « Maneer » (disturbance of the inner ear causing vomitting, deafness...). His doctors advised him to change of climate .
In 1622, he went to Oxford and was admitted to the MA degree in July. In the spring of 1695, he was appointed as a priest in Christ church and spent the whole of his life in te Church of Ireland. In 1699, when Temple died, he left him on the pound and the task of publishing his literary reminds. At that time, Swift had composed 3 satires :
→ « Tale of a Tab » which is an alegory on the history of the church. This work offended Queen Anne (on the throne in 1702). It was published anonymously in 1704. He shows as an anglican the purest and free of corruption. It's a satire with an explicitely christian concern.
→ « The battle of the books » : it's published as a Tale. The argument is that modern writers are guilty of plight of neglecting the wisdom of the past. It's related to the 2 sections of Gulliver's 3rd voyage that is the attack on modern science and « la putain », and Gulliver's talk with the spirit in Glubbdubdred.
→ « Discourse concerning the mechanical operation of the spirit » : it's an examination of zeal. It's also very criticized.
Then he returned to Ireland and became the Vicor of Laracol and Parish North of... In 1701, he came to England and wrote a pamphlet praising the conduct of the Wings (Liberal leader). This Pamphlet is « Discourse of the context and dissenssion in attend of Rome ». AT the same time, it was a warning to the Tories not to weaken the Nation by the partisan activity. In 1702, he took the degree of doctor of divinaty at Trinity college and kept himself busy editing more of temple's manuscrit. From 1708-1809, he was writing a serie of pamphlet such as sentiments of a church of England man with respect to religion and government but it wasn't published before 1711. In this pamphlet, there is irony and he wasn't going too easy on the Wing. By praising them, he tried to defend the church interest but by the end of the decade he found that they passed legislation damaging the church. Arguments against abolishing his charity.
The Tory leader, Harley, Earl of Oxford, and Bolingbloke wanted to have Swift on their side. As the Wing failed in 1710, the Tories try to attract him to work for them and that's he became the examinor to that Tory journal. He wrote for them 32 numbers from October 1710 till June 1711. he edited anonymously. Bu defending the Tories, he lost many friends. Another political tract was the conduct of the allies which appear in november 1711. It was a real attack on the Wings, especially Malborro and Whalton. It finished Malborro's carreer because it provided the Tories with arguments against him in parliementary debates. The critics thinks that this political track is one of the...
Swift couldn't obtain by the Tories a high office in the Church. On the 1st of August 1714, the Queen died and Swift planned to leave for Ireland the next day. He returned as Dean ofSt Patrick cathedral. The tories fell from power. Both were accused of treason : Bolingbroke was exiled to France and Harley imprisoned in the Tower of London. It's because they defended the Tories.
Bolingbroke was welcome with those who wanted to restore the Stuart dynasty which French aimed. Swift wrote down the hitory of the last 4 years of the Queen but was not published before 1768. He was loyal to his friends.
His friends appear in the giant form of Gulliver tormented by Wingged pigmend. It was published after Bolingbroke pardon.
In 1720, he was deeply involved in Irish affairs and the condition of Ireland. The Wings passed an Act to increases the the dependancy of Ireland on Britain. In reply, Swift wrote a proposal for the Universal use of Irish manufacture. It's to defend the Irish economic interest. It's the right to the Irsh to export their meat. When Sir Robert Wholeporte, the new wing leader tried to impose a new coinage, Swift answered with his series : 1st drapir letters and then a letter to the whole people of Ireland. It united the Irish/Anglo-Irish but it was finally dropped.
Swift became a national hero, all Ireland was behind him.
Gulliver's travels was written between 1721-1725. His later writings, A short view of the state of Ireland (1728) and a Modest proposal (1729), versus on the death of Doctor Swift, the Legend...
A Modest proposal : it's a modest proposal for preventing the children of Ireland for being a burden to their parents or country.
Satire of Swift : the solution of famine and overpopulation is to feed the children by giving them to the rich. The children would be fatten, put to the market and eaten by the riches.
He attacks the wings in difference to Irish... There is no more savage in the English satire.
1742 : couldn't manage his affaire and he died in 1945. He was buried in his cathedral 3 days later under an epital of his own composition.
He spent all of his income to build an hospital for the insanes before his death.
« Swift haunts me, he's always around the next corner » - Byeats.
In the first voyage, Gulliver can see the whole nation in a glance. The emperor's army can march between his legs, though Gulliver has the physical advantage by a factor of 1thousand 7hundred and 28 each lilipucian possess his full body human mesure of hypocrisy envy, pride, threatury, bloodlost, greed, ingratitude, malice what began at the beginning of the book as a play for the reader and for G become more serious. We come to recognise as Gulliver the bistanign people capable of a deadly distractivness.
In the second book, everything is reversed. G is so tiny that his travel skills are restricted to navigating a toy boat in a tub. Here G represent the average man but much better than average in many ways. He has the skills and abilities as the reader. The only aspect he remains average is his acceptance of the values of his own society. He has a lot of courage. He represents us and he is proud. In the first book he feels superior in his book he starts to feel inferior.
In liliput even the largest action is so tiny. The tiniest details is significant. The picking of the pin from the sleeves. In this voyage, the farmer has no need to protect himself, formalities are absent, he is at ease all the time while in liliput he can't act in a easy way.
There is a mixture of vice and vertue, thoughtfulness and consideration fully and wisdom. The farmer nearly works G to death, the foolish mother who gives him as a play thing to her baby. There is the kings Edwarf who indangers his life twice out of malice and evil. Begles are obliged to live in the most fillfull condition of dirt deeases, the public executions are treated as a public entertainment.
People enjoy to see other suffer.
These people in Br.. are very ordinary people made into giant but with about the same brage of . And vertue as us.
G is small so waterver he sees he tries to exagerrate. This society is giant but there is less vice. These society is less soficticated in oragnizing vice in war intrigue, corruption, politics than of cours in europe or lilliput
Book3:
It's a curious book. Each of the other 3 could stand on its own. The 3rd book has no such independency. We can understand a great deal more about its structure and purpose when we realise that it was the last book of the 4 to be written. It provides a kind of bridge between the satirical methods of the first two books and book 4.
What's interesting is that Swift thought its better ...
If the voyage to the land of horses had followed directly after G return from Brog.. the effect upon the reader would have been so sudden and distressing that it would have interfered with the satirical processus. In Lilliput the reader can congratulate himself that he is like G. that is tolerant..
in Brog.. the giants are human too and we can confort ourselves by being a giant for some times. It doesn't disturb us a lot to be like the lillipucians or Bro.
In book 4 we dare and cannot identify ourselves with the horses and we refuse to identify ourselves with... The 4th book offers no relief toward our selfrespect. In book 3, the terror of age is important. You can be immortal but what is the price ? It is not only presented in terms of the loss of the senses but intelect. One of the most terrible fates the stradbrogs? Suffer is the loss of friendship and natural affection. The Straldbrogs? As their buddies and their minds decate? Become isolated from their fellow men???
The title even "laputa" is a symbol of such government controled by madmen who govern scientificly not moraly and.. it is a flying island.
In Laputa and gulivervy? G is once more observer than observe. In Glabdabrig? The satire is inward and G is the object of the satire. It is his vanity are .... the reader feel disappointed. Moral corruption of man appears here. In the 3 book Swift replaces the fear of death by something worse which is the fear of imputles? Painful of age?
Swift dismisses the idea that extreme old age may be haooy and wise and paradoxicly tells to conferm the illusion it will destroyed.
We are terrorised by reading this. In this book Swift is criticised a lot
Book 4:
It's a progression of how Gulliver moves from Liliputh to the last voyage. And the relationship with the previous voyage as of increased intensity and moral focus. As a character, Gulliver's experiences are real. He mets up the horse and he talked with the national horse but as an instrument to a satirical argument. At the end of the travel, he seems to be more than the mouthpiece for a view on human nature which is pathological in its nature (wants to be like the horses → question of identity).
Gulliver is no longer a sergant but a captain. His men set him ashore, alone. He spent this time narrating the metamorphosis of his surrounding than in any previous voyage. His 1st meeting with Delrose, thought desagreable, is incidental to his purpose of discovering human presence. Everytime he meets them, he's disgusted of human nature. The group of the Yahoos who attacked him are frightened by the arrival of a horse (superiority of horses to the human beings). Gulliver begins to interpret certain gesture by contrasting them with dirty Yahoos. These yahoos' language is an indication that these creatures are not rational machine but natural creatures. They are disgusting but they are not human as Gulliver imagined them to be. Gulliver's error is mistaking some similarities in the yahoos for the essential characteristic of man at his moral worst. Gulliver has to choose between these 2 extremes: he chooses to affiliate himself with the horses. He follows a higher rational ideal at the cost of his human nature. When Gulliver's gloves are removed, he thinks of himself as a yahoo. And his bodily self-consciousness becomes a matter of shame to him.
Swift tries to make an analogist between English political tyrany. Gulliwer discovers with the massive horse not only about England but about the nature of man. He's no longer the representative Englishman but the representative human being. In less than a year time, he decides to nerver return to England.
From the beginning in chapter 7, it's Gulliver who tells the master horse about Man. And from chapter 7 till the end, the narrative is dominated by the Master horse.
Gulliver here is of the yahoo's kind but at the same time, he's a danger to the state as leader of the yahoos. Through the horses are positive, they are not a model for us. They are passionless, they treat Gulliver with dignity, especially the Master who treats him with gentleness, affection. The horses have aquired all the wisdom for human nature and that's why they can't understand why Gulliver is ashamed of his body. They have no terms for lying. Gulliver fails to make them understand that there is so much vice in human society, their personal life is completely different from our life (they don't have sentiments so they are governed by pure reason). That's what we call an absence of personal intimacy.
What is dramatical here is that Man is closer to the Yahoos than to the horses. That's what saddens Gulliver.
→ Intellect vs passionnate beast. And neither of them are really Man.
This book is a satire. Gulliver is our representative faced with a choice of identification. He chooses his reason. He rejects brutishness and is accepted by it. That's why the Yahoos try to be close to him. The irony is really cruel for the XVIIIth reader because this is the victory of reason over instinct ?
The new developpement in philosophy and science has given man a new system of ideas and made them aware of his failure to match his own ideal concept of himself. When Gulliver return after his last voyage, he's maddened by sinful pride. Swift's dream is to have democracy and in this book, each horse is subject to a control (totalitarism because they have to be controlled). There is perfection but it turns to be a dictatorship. At the end, he chooses passion over reason.
In this land of horses, Swift confuses the reader by showing them 2 races that appear to be moral artificies. In this book, G is a moral agent who fails to realise that the choice is not between between the 2 island races but the real choice is to return to a human nature.
1st book: achievement of human society.
2nd book: his pride in his own country and his own personal reality. He's ridiculed by his human nature but still manages to retain his intellectual position.
3rd book: he describes/attacks intellectual achievement of man and the royal society in particular. All the discoveries for him and research lead nowhere.
4th book: it's reason the last support of pride which is examined. The horses are completely rooted by reason. They seem to be the ideal race. Swift tries to attack man's arrogant assumption in pretending to reason.
Deception and self-deception in Gulliver's travel
The 1st thing we think when reading the book is the full-name of Swift's protagonist in Gulliver's T: Lemuel Gulliver. Ironically, Lemuel in hebreu means 'devoted to God', hardly the most prominent characteristic of Gulliver's personality, in a book where God's absence is striking. The surname Gulliver may be interpreted as gull + ever → one that is easily deceived. But the word in early XVIIIth Century als meant a "cheat". In other words, Gulliver stands both for the victim and the victimizer. It was also helpful from a start to mark out the highly conscious distancing between Swift and his fictive persona.
Swift gives a capital hint to his gentle readers at the end of book 4 when he makes Gulliver quote from the Aeneid where Virgil has the deceitful greek Sinon author. Unfortunately for G, Sinon was one of the greatest lawyer in the antiquity who persuaded him to bring the famous wooden horse into the walls. 2 other points may help to distance Swift from his fictive persona (in a letter to Miss...). The dialetic of description emplied not only as an analysis of G's character and persona but also involves the tentative exploration of the relation created by Swift between himself as author, his fictive persona (Gulliver) and the gentle reader. It's hardly possible that G who is no simpleton but a fairly well read average english man should be but a passive goal, forever deceived and an helpless victim of Men and fortune.
G is certainly deceived as a captain or gulled at times but he occasionally turns into a deceiver as well. But any wise reader of G' travel will also wonder whether G during his travels into several remote, nations of the word may not tumble into the not frequent pit-fall of self-deception as well does finally turn in in book 4, especially into a willfully bewilder creature who has lost psychological and moral bearings largely owing to his pride which causes him into fooling himself about himself.
If G makes some money at the end of book 1 and book 3, his overall gains for 15 years of adventures aren't to be considered as real wealth. G's dreams whenever he reaches a new country, he fails to undergo a willing suspension of belief but to experience an immediate urge to understand.
In book 1 and 2, he becomes grotesque (a giant...). In fact, G is as much of an exploited slave in Liliputh as a Brogdener while he's in fact a prisoner of the King's court such as his civility that helps to design his own cage.
G at the end becomes mad. Immediate acceptance of the various social classes in the four removed country we visit, a symbolical gesture of Swift. G never questions any social advancement althought in book 3 because of his practival turned of the mind, he dearly entertains little spectre for the technical achievement of Laputan. Some passive acceptance of the horses in book 4, the hatred of the Yahoos, notions of family life, education...
From assimilation to identification → book 4. But also through all the other books. The extend to which G has been deceived into assimilating himself with the horse maybe assess, according to the difficulties, he experiences in reajusting himself to England.
Book 1: there is none.
Book 2: retarding effect
Book 3: no reajustement problem but painful drama of G's forced exil from the Land of Horses which clearly indacte the extend to which G had identifed himself with the horse.
Book 4: Throughout the book, G strives to pass himself, not only as a gentle Yahoos, but as a rational one. And his urge to please the horses is pathetic. He comes tohate the Yahoos as much if not even more than the horses do.
Finally, the unsaid, especially before, is as important as what is actually said. How does G manage to secure the skins of the youngest yahoos for his sail. And other skins as well to cover his canoe, where they put to death for that specific purpose.
Total identification lead to unhumanity and unbearable cruelty of Swift's irony in his modest proposal where the skins of poor Irish children will make gloves for the ladies and summer hoods for fine gentleman.
At the end of book 4, G is not only a poor gull who has been deceived into rejecting his own set of values but he finds himself between a satarised middle man, neither flesh (yahoo) nor spirit (horse). But G is not only a passive dupe, he's also an active deceiver.