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Miguel Caballero
K. Shimabukuro
AP Literature
08 December 2011
Close Reading Of Gulliver’s Travels
Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels is known as a satire for the way he criticizes
the British Parliament in early eighteenth century England, and the Whig party’s wanting
more power; while the Tories wanted to restrict the power that went to Parliament.Swift
began his life as Whig then decided to become a Tory, the reason why he decided to
change parties was he felt dissatisfied with the Whigs. In the following quote, Swift uses
the Tramecksan and the Slamecksan from Lilliput to represent the Tories and the Whigs
from early eighteenth century England:
As to the first,you are to understand, that for above seventy moons past,
there have been two struggling parties in this empire, under the names of
Tramecksan and Slamecksan, from the high and low heels on their shoes,
by which they distinguish themselves.
(Swift 35)
The satire in this quote is the size of the heels from their shoes determine their political
status in Lilliput. The Emperor of Lilliput happens to be a Slamecksan, a member of the
low heel party that was in power. Swift compares the Emperor to King George I, since
King George I was a Whig, which means he was a low heel in Lilliput and happened to
be in power in the British Parliament. Lilliput’s political parties are very similar to the
Tories and the Whigs: both Tramecksans and the Tories favored royal authority. As for
the Slamecksans and Whigs, they were both in power - Slamecksans in Lilliput and the
Whigs in England.Swift uses characterization to compare the Tramecksans- high heel to
the Tories and the Slamecksans- low heel to the Whigs. The symbolism in the quote is
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the low heel and high heel of the shoe, represents the political status in Lilliput of being
either a Tramecksan meaning high heel or a Slamecksan meaning low heel.
Swift uses symbolism in the quote from Gulliver’s Travels to show the meaning
of the low heel and high heel of the Lilliputians shoes that determine their political status
in Lilliput. A low heeled shoe represents a Slamecksan, meaning their political status is
that they are in power on the island of Lilliput. As for a high heeled shoe, it represents a
Tramecksan. They favor royal authority and supported Lilliput’s constitution. Another
example of satire in Gulliver’s Travels is, “We apprehend his Imperial Highness, the Heir
to the Crown, to have some tendency towards the High-Heels; at least we can plainly
discover one of his heels higher than the other, which gives him a hobble in his gait.”
(Swift 35). This means that the Emperor of Lilliput’s son had one low heel shoe and one
high heel shoe. Swift uses the Emperor’s son to represent King George II, since King
George II wanted to be placed in both parties. Even though, King George II was for the
Whig party to please his father King George I, George II Favored both parties. Swift
uses these examples of low heel and high heel shoes to represent the political parities of
eighteenth century England the Tories and the Whigs. In Lilliput Gulliver claims that the
Lilliputians prefer to choose fools for office over wise men, because they want to avoid
corruption. Which is the reason why the Lilliputians political status is determined on the
heel size of their shoes.
In Gulliver’s Travels Swift indicates that the Emperor of Lilliput wears low
heeled shoes that makes the Emperor a member of the Slamecksan party, having low
heeled shoes also meant the he was in power of Lilliput. Swift characterizes the Emperor
to King George I, since King George I was a Whig during the early eighteenth century.
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This indicates that King George I is considered a Slamecksan- low heel in Lilliput for
being in power in the British Parliament,. Gulliver’s Travels uses historical context when
comparing the Tramecksans and Slamecksans to the Tories and the Whigs. The Tories
were a conservative party that wanted to restrict power to the British Parliament, but
favored royal authority and supported the constitution. The Whigs were a liberal party
that wanted more power to go to the British Parliament in the eighteenth century,
although the Whig party was in power over the Tories in England during the eighteenth
century.
Swift also uses characterization in Gulliver’s Travels as he indicates to the the
reader that the Tramecksans- high heels are the Tories and that the Slamecksans- low
heels are known as the Whigs. The political parties in Lilliput, Tramecksans and
Slamecksans are identical to the political parties in eighteenth century England. The
Tramecksans and the Tories are similar, since they both favor royal authority. The
Slamecksans and the Whigs are similar because they both are in power - Slamecksans in
Lilliput and the Whigs in England. In the quote it mentions that the Tramecksans and the
Slamecksans were struggling with each other on the island of Lilliput.Swift uses this to
describe the conflict between the Tories and the Whigs in England, the Tories wanted to
restrict power that went to the British Parliament and the Whigs wanted more power to
go to Parliament.
In Gulliver’s Travels Swift uses satire to criticize the Whigs during the
eighteenth century. Swift wanted to show the feud between the Tories and the Whigs,
which is why he created the Tramecksans and Slamecksans from Lilliput to represent the
political parties in England during the eighteenth century. Not only did Gulliver’s Travels
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mention feud between two Struggling parties, but it also indicated how Swift described
how the British Parliament and the Whig party were running things in England. Although
Swift happened to be a Whig in the beginning of his life, he left the party because he felt
dissatisfied and then joined the Tories, which is why the voyage of Lilliput in Gulliver’s
Travels is considered a political satire.
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Works Cited
Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver's Travels. New York/NY: Washington Square Press,
1970. Print.
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Writer’s Memo
In my close reading of Gulliver’s Travels, I felt that my essay was good on
describing the satire of the book by Swift. Although reading over my essay it sound that I
was little repetitive in each paragraph about the political parties in Lilliput and England.
However, I do believe that I did a good job explaining the satire and symbolism in the
quote about the high heels and low heels. I feel that I did not include enough historical
context of the reason why Swift wrote the book in the essay.