Gulliver's Travels
Written by:
Jonathan Swift
Power Point by:
Anita Hoffman
Period 2
Genre, Setting, and Mood
• Genre: Gulliver’s Travels is an obvious satire
piece.
• Setting: The setting of Gulliver’s Travels is
mainly in England, but also in the fictious
countries of Liliput, Brobdingnag, Blefuscu,
Laputa, and the country of the
Houyhnhnms. in the past, during the 18th
Century.
• Mood: The mood is adventurous,
emotionally affecting, and also I think
ignorant at the same time.
Imagery
• Page 190 : “The buildings were in bad
repair and the people all in rags.”
• Page 242: “The gray steed rubbed my hat all
round with his right fore-hoof , and
discomposed it so much that I was forced to
adjust it better, by taking it off, and settling
it again…”
• Page 299: “When I happened to behold the
reflection of my own form in a lake or
fountain, I turned away my face in horror
and detestation of myself, and could better
endure the sight of a common Yahoo than
of my own person.
Narrator and Symbolism
• Gulliver is the narrator, and it is told
in first person.
• Symbol 1: The Yahoos symbolize
humans for what we truly are.
• Symbol 2: The way the storm takes him
down when he is traveling symbolizes
the hardships of life.
• Symbol 3: The Liliputian’s represents
the small mindedness of human kind
and how trivial we are.
Protagonist and Antagonist
• Theprotagonist is Gulliver.
• You have to look deeper to find the
true antagonist in Gulliver’s Travels,
and it is the society that humans
have.
Themes
• Themes: 1) The limits of human knowledge
2) No form of Government is ideal
3) Power may be great, but using it
for what’s right is what is truly
great.
Plot
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Expository: Gulliver becomes a surgeon on a ship called
swallow. His business begins to fail.
Rising Action: Gulliver begins to encounter different places.
Climax: Gulliver really starts to reject human society
because of all of his travels. He calls the Brobdingnagian
king ignorant because he refuses Gulliver’s offer to teach
him how to make gunpowder.
Falling Action: After Gulliver encounters the horses during
his voyage to Houyhnhnm, he returns to England with a
less than excited attitude, and buys horses of his own that
remind him of Houyhnhnm.
Resolution: Gulliver’s epiphany is that human society is all
gross. He becomes a hermit and tries to find his own
secluded land when the Houyhnhnm’s reject his return.
When he gets home to England, Gulliver cannot even stand
to be in the same room as his wfie and children.
Conflict
• Gulliver washes onto the shore of Liliput
during his first voyage. The Liliputians are
tiny, ignorant, and petty. This is Gulliver’s
first encounter with the insignificance of
human society and it is when he first begins
to despise it. This conflict is external
because of his first encounter with
Liliput, but internal because
of the slow but sure spiral
of misanthropy he gets into.
Character Relations
• Gulliver and the Houyhnhnm’s: Gulliver first
encounters the Houyhnhnm’s after a less than
pleasant interaction with the Yahoos. They surprise
him because animals in his own reality are simple
minded beasts (the Houyhnhnm’s think of
themselves as “the perfection of nature.”) Gulliver
becomes a member of the horses’ household and starts
to both admire and accept their lifestyle more than
his natural human one. He begins to act like the
Houyhnhnm’s but after a time the Houyhnhnm’s
expel him for being a danger to their society because
of his Yahoo likeness.
Characterization
• Lemuel Gulliver: Gulliver is a educated, bold
adventurer who travels to many foreign lands.
He goes through many difficult circumstances,
showing courage and perseverance through
them. Gulliver doesn’t show too much emotion.
During his travels he begins to hate humanity,
he’s absolutely repulsed by it. He becomes a
misanthrope and a hermit, and rejects his
family because of his experiences.
• Lord Munodi: He is the Lord of Lagardo, and
though he is a minor character, he symbolizes
the possibility of a brainwashed community. His
civilization is more of a science based one,
where they try to create sun beams. Munodi is
isolated like Gulliver, but Munodi is ignorant of
being so.
Overall Meaning/ Connection to Life
• The overall meaning of the story is what
human society is like, and how no
matter high and mighty we claim to be,
there is no such thing as a perfect
anything.
• ALL throughout history there is conflict
of culture and conflict of individuals.
During my life, I have experienced both,
just as everyone has. I do not believe that
a person can live without conflict
because conflict is the basis of human
nature.