Another look at Jonathan Swift’s
Gulliver’s Travels
Mr. Cleon M. McLean
A.P. English
Ontario High School
Vocabulary to Know
censure
infallibly
prostrating
civility
morose
recapitulate
conjecture
panegyric
retinue
dexterity
perfidiousness
schism
diminutive
pernicious
solicitation
Satire: Laughter as Weapon
• Satire—a literary technique in which
behaviors or institutions are ridiculed for
the purpose of improving society. Satire is
set apart from other forms of social and
political protest because of its application of
humor.
A Historical Perspective
• Satire began with the ancient Greeks, but came
into its own in ancient Rome, where the “fathers”
of satire, Horace and Juvenal, had their names
given to the two basic types of satire:
• Horatian satire: is playfully amusing and seeks to
correct vice or foolishness with gentile laughter and
understanding. E.g., Alexander Pope’s “A Rape of the
Lock”
• Juvenal satire: provokes a darker kind of laughter. It is
often bitter and criticizes corruption or incompetence
with scorn and outrage. E.g., Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels
The author in his own words
• Swift once said, “I have ever hated all nations,
professions, and communities, and all my love is
towards individuals…But principally I hate and
detest that animal called man.” Swift’s
misanthropy, or hatred of mankind, may have
grown from his religious conviction. He saw
humans as fallen victims of original sin, not the
rational creatures in which many Enlightenment
thinkers believe.
Interesting Epitaph
• Swift died in 1745 from a mental disease we now
called vertigo (Meniere’s disease). Interesting to
note, he left his remaining fortune to go towards
the building of a mental hospital.
• Translated from Latin, Swift’s epitaph reads:
Here lies the body of
Jonathan Swift, D.D.., Dead of this Cathedral.
He has gone where fierce indignation
can lacerate his heart no more.
Go, traveler, and imitate if you can
A man who was an undaunted
Champion of liberty.
Socratic Seminar Questions
• One of Swift’s purposes for writing
Gulliver’s Travels was “to vex [i.e., make
angry] the world rather than divert it”.
1. How is Swift’s purpose overshadowed in
Gulliver’s Travels?
Socratic Seminar Questions
2. What aspects of human nature does Swift
satirize through Gulliver’s behavior?
Hint: Think about hilarious portraits of pride,
arrogance, dullness, and depravity
Socratic Seminar Questions
3. What effect is produced when Gulliver quotes the
Lilliputian language?
4. Why do the politicians dance on the rope for the
king?
5. Research the real status the following three honors
during the 18th century:
blue—the Order of the Garter
red—the Order of the Bath
green—the Order of the Thistle
Socratic Seminar Questions
6. “These Articles…after they were read, I was demanded to swear to the
performance of them; first in the manner of my country, and afterwards in the
method prescribed by their [Lilliputian] laws; which was to hold my right foot
in my left hand, to place the middle finger of my right hand on the crown of
my head, and my thumb on the tip of my ear” (Swift 20).
• Why does Swift create such a ridiculous
ritual?
• Possible answer: Swift is satirizing the
meaningless or absurd ceremonies of state
business
Socratic Seminar Questions
7. Gulliver’s articles of freedom begin with a
tribute to the “most mighty Emperor of
Lilliput.” What is ironic about Swift’s
description of the king in this preamble?
8. How does the above irony contribute to
the satire on the Lilliputians?
Clarifications
• The Low-Heels (Slamecksan) are the party in the
Emperor’s favor and therefore have more power than the
more numerous High-Heels (Tramecksan). The LittleEndians open their eggs at the small end, in accord with
Lilliputian law. Big-Endians are a dissenting faction of
Lilliputians who open their eggs at the larger end. They
are supported by the government of Blefuscu, i.e., France .
• The “High-Heel” party correspond to the Tory Party, which
promoted the “High-Church,” i.e., Catholic, aspects of
Anglicanism; while the “Low-Heel” party correspond to
the Whig Party, which promoted the “Low-Church,” i.e.,
Protestant aspects.
Clarifications
• “…our histories tell us, there have been six rebellions
raised on that [egg war] account; wherein one emperor lost
his life, and another his crown” (Swift 26). The dispute
over the egg-breaking corresponds to the conflict between
Roman Catholics and Protestants in 17th century England.
The “emperor” who lost his life in the conflict was King
Charles I; the one who lost his crown was James II, who
fled into exile.
• His Imperial Majesty—i.e., George II
• Blefuscu—an imaginary country that represents France,
Britian’s main political rival at the time
Jacob Talamantes
• Because Gulliver is a “man-mountain” and
the Lilliputian society is minuscule, Swift
focuses on how the individual (modern
man) affects (or acts upon) society, rather
than how society affects (or acts upon) the
individual.
Socratic Seminar Questions
12. How does Gulliver appear to regard his own
story's publication--what effect, if any, does he
expect it will have on readers?
13. What first led Gulliver to follow the course of
life he did--that of an adventurer and traveler?
Do his motives change as time passes?
14. What are your impressions of the Lilliputians at
the beginning? How do they change as the book
progresses?
15. How does being a giant change Gulliver’s
attitude toward himself?
Socratic Seminar Questions
How does Swift present the Lilliputian Emperor? (Swift is
satirizing England's King George) Flimnap? Bolgolam?
17. Why are the Lilliputians at war? What is Swift saying about
war? About nationalism?
18. How does Gulliver treat the Lilliputians during his first weeks
on the island? What does this tell you about Gulliver?
19. How does Gulliver describe the physical appearance of the
Lilliputians? Do their physical characteristics compliment
their personality?
20. What ideas about religion are satirized? What ideas about
government are satirized?
16.
Socratic Seminar Questions
1. What is the first clue that Gulliver has
landed in another fantasy world?
2. What familiar features of human society
does Swift include in his initial description
of Brobdingnag?
3. How is Gulliver made to look ridiculous
when he first presents himself to the
farmer?
Socratic Seminar Questions
4. How is Gulliver the object of Swift’s
satire in his response to the king’s
unflattering description of the English?
5. What is it about Brobdingnagians that
make Gulliver feel horror?
6. How does Gulliver’s perception of himself
and his country change according to his
environment?
Jacob Chavez & Natalie Zamora
• “Human creatures are observed to be more savage
and cruel in proportion to their bulk” (56).
• “This [reaction from the King of Brob.] made me
[Gulliver] reflect how vain an attempt it is for a
man to endeavor doing himself honor amongst
those who are out of all degree of equality or
comparison with him” (56).
Socratic Seminar Questions
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
In what sense is Gulliver diminished in more than size
when he meets up with the giant Brobdingnagians? What
does the king, for example, think of him? And what does
Gulliver come to think of himself?
How does the King react to Gulliver's description of his
native Britain? Is the King's realm similar to or very
different from what Gulliver has described of his own
country? About what English invention does Gulliver
inform the King? How does the King react to this
information?
What information about Brobdingnag learning and
culture does Gulliver relate?
How does the Brobdingnag’s attitude toward language
differ from that of the Lilliputians?
How does Gulliver function as a foil to both the
Lilliputians and to the Brobdingnagians? What is Swift
saying with their different sizes?
Socratic Seminar Questions
11. Gulliver has many vexing encounters with
animals and insects in Brobdingnag. How
does setting Gulliver in contest with
animals affect out sense of his character?
Socratic Seminar Questions
“Above all, he [the Brobdingnagian king] was
amazed to hear me talk of a mercenary standing
army in the midst of peace, and among a free
people. He said if we were governed by our
own consent in the persons of our
representatives, he could not imagine of whom
we were afraid, or against whom we were to
fight…”
12. How does Swift use his fantasy world above to
deliver his satire on England’s interest in war?
Socratic Seminar Questions
13. What message is Swift sending through
the Brobdingnagian king?
14. Does the reader’s opinion of Gulliver
change by the king’s bitter criticism?
15. In general, how do the Brobdingnagians
treat Gulliver?
16. What impresses you the most about
Gulliver’s adventures in Brobdingnag?
Socratic Seminar Questions
• Is Gulliver changing (dynamic character) as
the story progresses? Is he learning from his
misadventures?
• I have said that Gulliver represents modern
(18th century) man under a microscope. Is
Gulliver an everyman figure, or does he
have an idiosyncratic persona of his own?
Socratic Seminar Questions
•
Allegory—def. a narrative in which the agents and
actions are contrived by the author to make sense on the
literal level, and, at the same time, to communicate a
second, correlated level. In sustained allegory of ideas, the
central device is the personification of abstract entities
such as vice, virtues, and state of mind.
1. What is allegorical about the floating island of Laputa?
Hint: think of the relation between government and the
people
2. Why does Gulliver keep traveling despite of his series of
misadventures?
3. In Laputa, power is exerted not through size, but through
technology. Does this imply that Swift was a Luddite?
Why or why not?
Socratic Seminar Questions
4.Unlike Gulliver’s first two wayward
voyages, his mischance arrival on Laputa et
al. uncovers absurdity not in terms of size,
but in excessive rationalism. Which
institutions are satirized in Gulliver’s third
voyage? Why?
Socratic Seminar Question
•
Scattered among the standard narrative style of most of Gulliver's
travels are legal documents and reports, such as the inventory of
Gulliver's possessions and the list of obligations presented to him by
the Lilliputians. A good example is at the beginning of Part II,
Chapter I, where Gulliver uses complicated nautical jargon. The
effect is so overdone that, instead of coming off as a demonstration
of Gulliver's in-depth knowledge of sailing, the passage works as a
satire of sailing language and, more generally, of any kind of
specialist jargon. A similar passage occurs in Part III, Chapter III,
where Gulliver's painstaking description of the geometry of Laputa
serves as a satire of philosophical jargon.
• Why would Swift dispense Juvenal satire on specialist
jargon? (hint: think of Swift’s conservative posturing on the
English language, and the absurdity—genesis in
redundancy, malapropism and neologism from polysyllabic
words—brought upon the language by specialists)
Socratic Seminar Question
• What is gained by playing on the word
“gullible” to create “Gulliver,” and then
presenting Gulliver’s Travels as a plausible
journalistic chronicle of misadventures,
albeit satiric?
Socratic Seminar Questions
• How is Gulliver’s Travels not entirely one
of the following:
• A children’s storybook
• A proto-science fiction novel
• A meta-fiction (this type of work selfconsciously and systematically uses devices of
fiction. It draws attention to its status as an
artifact in posing questions between reality and
fiction via irony and self-reflection)
Socratic Seminar Question
• Some novels and plays seem to advocate changes
in social or political attitudes or in traditions.
Choose such a novel or play and note briefly the
particular attitudes or traditions that the author
apparently wishes to modify. Then analyze the
techniques the author uses to influence the
reader’s or audience’s views. Avoid plot
summary.[1]
•
[1] 1987 AP English Literature & Composition
Examination Free Response prompt
Socratic Seminar Questions
•
According to Gulliver’s most recent
misadventure, which premise is more
saliently promoted:
1. Man is inherently corrupt
2. Man becomes corrupt (esp. through the
mediums of institutions)
Consider: Gulliver finds a friend in each of his
mischance adventures.
Socratic Seminar Questions
1. Gulliver is consumed with concern about what
others think of him and his countrymen. Give
examples of this concern and explain its effects
on his actions and themes of the novel
2. What comments does Swift (not Gulliver) make
about religion?
3. Explain the uses of vice and virtue in Gulliver’s
Travels and “A Modest Proposal”
4. How is irony used in Gulliver’s Travels?
Analyzing
• Thesis—a premise, argument, or
proposition. E.g., love is an ideal thing.
• Antithesis—a counter to the premise,
argument, or proposition. E.g., Marriage is a
real thing.
• Synthesis—a blending of the thesis and
antithesis, or conclusion reached from an
exploration of the thesis and antithesis. E.g.,
A loving marriage is sublime.