Jonathan Swift
“Gulliver’s Travels” (1726)
Study Questions
Millennium I p. 175
STUDY QUESTIONS
1. On what different levels may “Gulliver’s Travels” be read? Explain
• On two levels: on a first level the book reads like a travel story, a children’s
book in which fantasy and reality are mixed; on a second level it reveals a
philosophical tale in which Swift expresses his pessimism towards
contemporary society.
2. To what narrative tradition does “Gulliver’s Travels” belong ?
• It belongs to the tradition of utopian narratives being centred on voyages to
unknown utopian lands. The fantastic, faraway world Gulliver comes in
touch with exposes, by contrast, the faults of European society.
3. Briefly describe the vanities and errors of European society depicted
in “Gulliver’s Travels” four books?
• Book 1: the Lilliputians exemplify the meanness and pettiness of our world
and man’s thirst for power;
• Book 2: the giant people at Brobdingnag condemn the English civilization as
barbarous.
• Book 3: through the people of Laputa he satirizes modern philosophies and
science for their presumptuousness in claiming to be able to solve
mankind’s problems.
• Book 4: he is disgusted by the human race and praises the superior
intelligence of the horses.
STUDY QUESTIONS
4. What narrative technique does Swift make use of?
• Swift uses a first – person narrator. This means that the reader lives
Gulliver’s adventures through the main character’s eyes, which makes the
reader feel emotionally involved in the story but this allows him/her a fairly
limited point of view.