Gulliver’s travels

It is organised into several parts according to Gulliver’s travels (4 travels). Gulliver is the main character,
in the beginning we are told his origins, information about him. He belongs to the middle class and he is
a doctor (surgeon because he performs surgeries). His dream is to travel the world and he goes on the
sea as a doctor, to cure people.

His name denotes a very naïve person, who believes everything which is told to him, meaning that
Gulliver is easy to be cheated. We have the first person in the text hence we have a subjective
perspective.

On his first journey he goes on a ship and he reaches Lilliput because the ship was destroyed by a great
storm which occurred on the sea. On the island were only small people, as tall as our middle finger.
Lilliput is in constant war with another island, Blefuscu, which is also populated by dwarfs. Actually, the
dwarfs aren’t really dwarfs, they are Swift’s contemporaries and when he presents the two islands he
actually makes allusion to the conflict between England (Lilliput) and Ireland (Blefuscu). Also, these
dwarfs aren’t as little as we may think, they are actually normal people, but the technique used to
describe them is the technique of the telescope. Swift’s perspective changes their size because he chose
to see them through a telescope.

In the beginning, he finds himself on a beach, immobilised by strings and around him are all these dwarfs
of Lilliput, looking at him. He is taken to the capital city where he sees and observes the society of Lilliput
which was very corrupted, the people advanced on the social scale according to their money and fortune
not according to their qualities or good behaviour like it is normal. When someone wanted a higher
position in society we have a rope, all the candidates who want the position get on that rope on the one
who jumps higher than the others is elected.

We have a distinction between the poor people and the rich people. The rich people wear always high
heels and the others wear low heels, showing us that the exterior and the material aspects are much
more important than the qualities. Swift criticizes this thing and he delivers us a contrast between the
appearance and the essence.

Lilliput and the other island, Blefuscu were in war because they couldn’t agree how to break an egg. It
was this ridiculous thing which had created the war and this represents another idea of Swift, meaning
that he believes that the wars are ridiculous, they are just an excuse for not finding the best solution, the
wars aren’t a solution, and they do not have rational reasons.

Lilliput pretends to but very modern but actually it isn’t like that. Gulliver observes the society and tries
to become a part of it, but he never asks questions because he is still so naïve that he believes
everything that he sees. Actually, the dwarfs were very intelligent, but they use their intelligence to make
bad things, they are kind of evil genius. Gulliver meets their king and the king discovers the possibility
that he can use Gulliver in order to conquer and defeat the rival island and Gulliver is asked to capture
the fleet of Blefuscu. The naïve Gulliver captures it, the war ends with the victory of Lilliput and Gulliver
leaves their island. Actually he was quite happy to leave because the dwarfs, after seeing Gulliver’s
power, they started thinking that the giant could have taken the control over both islands and they
started trying to kill him, by all means. In this context, it is the ingratitude which is criticized by Swift.
Before leaving, Gulliver takes a little goat and a little ship; he is saved by a ship and returns into the real
world.

The second journey is made to the world of the giants. Like the dwarfs, the giants are normal people but
the technique used to describe them is the technique of the microscope. The ship is again destroyed by a
storm and Gulliver is the only one alive. On this land, he is the one who is in danger because he was so
small that the giants could have not notice him and they could have walked on him. Also, the giants were
very stupid; the first giant who meets Gulliver is a farmer who in the beginning is afraid of the little man.
We have again a contrast between what we see (the greatness of the giants) and what actually exists
(the stupidity). The farmer thought about a way to earn money using Gulliver and he took him at a
circus. It is the daughter of the farmer who is way more intelligent and talks to Gulliver. At the circus,
Gulliver is seen and he is bought by a member of the royal court, like a sort of toy for the court and for
the queen.

At the royal court there are also stupid people, Gulliver gets almost drowned in a cup of milk and he is
almost squashed by the monkey at the court. The thing that Swift criticizes here is how stupid human
nature can be. It was the king of the giants the only one who was intelligent, he realized that Gulliver
was also a man of culture and they had several discussions. Gulliver talks with the king about Europe,
about England, about war, heroism, the glory and the glorious past of England, his great ancestors. In
this context, the king comes up with a very intelligent question: if you are such a great nature, why do
you go to war? It is the first moment when Gulliver realizes that maybe the human nature is not as
intelligent as it pretends to be and it is also the first moment when he realizes his naivety but he isn’t
fully convinced yet. The king says again something very important that turns the entire laugh into
seriousness (for the first time Swift becomes serious and the criticism is pushed a little bit over the
edge): humans- the most despicable kind of vermin that ever crawled upon the face of the earth.
Gulliver has an argument with the king and he decides that he had better leave.

He runs away from the royal court, he falls into a box, the box falls into the sea and he is saved by An
English ship. He is happy to be rescued again.

On his third journey, Gulliver leaves again on a ship which is also sunk he is rescued again, realizing that
he is on a flying island, called Laputa. There, the intellectual prostitution was very present. There were
very intelligent people who were using their intellect to create bad things in order to receive money.
Here, Swift criticizes the Enlightenment, the people who pretended being illuminated but they were still
miserable.

Gulliver is taken to the capital city, Lagado, where we have The Academy of Lagado. There he observes
their experiments (how to extract sun rays from a cucumber) and their way of leaving (they build their
houses starting with the top, with the roof). We have evil people, stimulated by the power of money,
unable to accept other people’s opinions. Gulliver finds out that human nature is evil corrupted and he
starts thinking that the humans aren’t as great as he thought. He leaves again this island and he is happy
to do that.

On his last journey he reaches to a land which seems to be human, the land of the horses. In the
beginning, he doesn’t see anyone there, he walks across the island and he sees some strange creatures
which were standing in the mud, they had here but they were completely dirty, they couldn’t even
speak. Gulliver ignores them and goes further.

He meets the horses, which were very intelligent and even if they couldn’t speak human’s language, they
could understand each other. Gulliver is taken to their leader, in a stable and he realizes that the horse
knows how to behave; he is really impressed until one day when he realizes something terrible. The
horses bring a group of creatures, the same creatures which were seen by Gulliver. He is placed in front
of one o those creatures and he realizes that they were actually humans/ the horses used the humans to
clean the stables and to do other to do housework. The humans were called yahoos. Gulliver is shocked,
his naivety is gone and he realizes the truth which lies behind the human nature. The people aren’t great
at all and even our main character starts questioning about his origins. He decides to stay on the island
with the horses. Although, in spite of his willingness he is rescued again but for the first time he is not
happy with the leaving of the island.

In conclusion, even if it seems to create laugh and joy, we have a very sad story because we are shown
the reality of the human nature. It is a moral lesson about humility.