Made by Victoria Velkova and Veronika Baneva 12b
The book was created in the Georgian era. It is a period of British
history which takes its name from, and is normally defined as
spanning the reigns of the first four Hanoverian kings of Great
Britain who were all named George: George I, George II,George
III and George IV.
The era covers the period from 1714
to 1830. It was a time of immense
social change in Britain, with the
beginnings of the Industrial
Revolution which began the process of
intensifying class divisions, and the
emergence of rival political
parties like the Whigs and Tories.
Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 –
19 October 1745) was an AngloIrish satirist, essayist,
political pamphleteer (first for
the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet
and cleric who became Dean of St
Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin.
Occupation:
• Satirist
• Essayist
• Political pamphleteer
• Poet
• Priest
Language: English
Nationality: Irish
Notable works:
• Gulliver's Travels
• A Modest Proposal
• A Tale of a Tub
• Drapier's Letters
Swift was a prolific writer, notable for his satires. He originally
published all of his works under pseudonyms – such as Lemuel
Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, Drapier's Letters as MB Drapier – or
anonymously. He is also known for being a master of two styles
of satire, the Horatian and Juvenalian styles. Swift's first
major prose work, A Tale of a Tub, demonstrates many of the
themes and stylistic techniques he would employ in his later
work. In February 1702, Swift received his Doctor of
Divinity degree from Trinity College, Dublin.
Gulliver’s Travels recounts the story of Lemuel Gulliver, a
practical-minded Englishman trained as a surgeon who
takes to the seas when his business fails. In a deadpan
first-person narrative that rarely shows any signs of selfreflection or deep emotional response, Gulliver narrates
the adventures that befall him on these travels.
FULL TITLE · Gulliver’s Travels, or, Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, by Lemuel
Gulliver
AUTHOR · Jonathan Swift
TYPE OF WORK · Novel
GENRE · Satire
LANGUAGE · English
TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN · Approximately 1712–1726, London and Dublin
DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION · 1726
PUBLISHER · George Faulkner
NARRATOR · Lemuel Gulliver
POINT OF VIEW · Gulliver speaks in the first person. He describes other characters and actions as they
appear to him.
TONE · Gulliver’s tone is gullible and naïve during the first three voyages; in the fourth, it turns
cynical and bitter. The intention of the author, Jonathan Swift, is satirical and biting throughout.
TENSE · Past
SETTING (TIME) · Early eighteenth century
SETTING (PLACE) · Primarily England and the imaginary countries of Lilliput, Blefuscu, Brobdingnag,
Laputa, and the land of the Houyhnhnms
PROTAGONIST · Lemuel Gulliver
MAJOR CONFLICT · On the surface, Gulliver strives to understand the various societies with
which he comes into contact and to have these societies understand his native England.
Below the surface, Swift is engaged in a conflict with the English society he is satirizing.
RISING ACTION · Gulliver’s encounters with other societies eventually lead up to his rejection
of human society in the fourth voyage
CLIMAX · Gulliver rejects human society in the fourth voyage, specifically when he shuns the
generous Don Pedro as a vulgar Yahoo
FALLING ACTION · Gulliver’s unhappy return to England accentuates his alienation and
compels him to buy horses, which remind him of Houyhnhnms, to keep him company
THEMES · Might versus right; the individual versus society; the limits of human understanding
MOTIFS · Excrement; foreign languages; clothing
SYMBOLS · Lilliputians; Brobdingnagians; Laputans; Houyhnhnms; England
FORESHADOWING · Gulliver’s experiences with various flawed societies foreshadow his
ultimate rejection of human society in the fourth voyage.
The Individual Versus Society
Like many narratives about voyages to
nonexistent lands, Gulliver’s
Travels explores the idea of utopia—an
imaginary model of the ideal community.
Foreign Languages
Gulliver appears to be a gifted
linguist, knowing at least the basics
of several European languages and
even a fair amount of ancient Greek.
This knowledge serves him well, as he
is able to disguise himself as a
Dutchman in order to facilitate his
entry into Japan, which at the time
only admitted the Dutch.
The Limits of Human Understanding
The idea that humans are not meant
to know everything and that all
understanding has a natural limit is
important in Gulliver’s Travels.
Might Versus Right
Gulliver’s Travels implicitly poses the
question of whether physical power or
moral righteousness should be the
governing factor in social life.
Lilliputians
The Lilliputians symbolize humankind’s wildly
excessive pride in its own puny existence. Swift
fully intends the irony of representing the tiniest
race visited by Gulliver as by far the most
vainglorious and smug, both collectively and
individually. There is surely no character more
odious in all of Gulliver’s travels than the
noxious Skyresh. Gulliver is a naïve consumer of
the Lilliputians’ grandiose imaginings: he is
flattered by the attention of their royal family
and cowed by their threats of punishment,
forgetting that they have no real physical power
over him.
England
As the site of his father’s disappointingly “small
estate” and Gulliver’s failing business, England
seems to symbolize deficiency or insufficiency,
at least in the financial sense that matters most
to Gulliver. England is passed over very quickly
in the first paragraph of Chapter I, as if to show
that it is simply there as the starting point to be
left quickly behind. Gulliver seems to have very
few nationalistic or patriotic feelings about
England, and he rarely mentions his homeland
on his travels.
Gulliver's Travels has been the recipient of several
designations: from Menippean satire to a children's story,
from proto-Science Fiction to a forerunner of the modern
novel.
Gulliver - The narrator and protagonist of
the story. Although Lemuel Gulliver’s vivid
and detailed style of narration makes it
clear that he is intelligent and well
educated, his perceptions are naïve and
gullible. He has virtually no emotional life,
or at least no awareness of it, and his
comments are strictly factual. Gulliver
never thinks that the absurdities he
encounters are funny and never makes the
satiric connections between the lands he
visits and his own home. Gulliver’s naïveté
makes the satire possible, as we pick up on
things that Gulliver does not notice.
The emperor - The ruler of Lilliput. Like all Lilliputians, the
emperor is fewer than six inches tall. His power and majesty
impress Gulliver deeply, but to us he appears both laughable
and sinister. Because of his tiny size, his belief that he can
control Gulliver seems silly, but his willingness to execute his
subjects for minor reasons of politics or honor gives him a
frightening aspect.
Glumdalclitch - The farmer’s nine-year-old daughter, who
is forty feet tall. Glumdalclitch becomes Gulliver’s friend
and nursemaid, hanging him to sleep safely in her closet at
night and teaching him the Brobdingnagian language by
day. She is skilled at sewing and makes Gulliver several sets
of new clothes, taking delight in dressing him. To
Glumdalclitch, Gulliver is basically a living doll, symbolizing
the general status Gulliver has in Brobdingnag.
The farmer - Gulliver’s first master in Brobdingnag. The
farmer speaks to Gulliver, showing that he is willing to believe
that the relatively tiny Gulliver may be as rational as he
himself is, and treats him with gentleness.
The king - The king of Brobdingnag, who, in
contrast to the emperor of Lilliput, seems to be a
true intellectual, well versed in political science
among other disciplines.
The queen - The queen of Brobdingnag, who is so delighted by
Gulliver’s beauty and charms that she agrees to buy him from the
farmer for 1,000 pieces of gold. She is by no means a hero, but
simply a pleasant, powerful person.
1. How does Gulliver end up
stranded in Lilliput?
(A) He survives a shipwreck
(B) His crew abandons him
(C) He is dropped there by an
enormous eagle
(D) He stops there for provisions and
is trapped while he sleeps
2.How do the Lilliputians offer
Gulliver something to drink?
(A) They break down their town
reservoir
(B) They divert a river
(C) They summon the rains
(D) They roll out barrels of wine
3.How does Gulliver earn the title of
Nardac in Lilliput?
(A) By capturing the Blefuscudian fleet
(B) By putting out the fire in the
empress’s quarters
(C) By showing lenience toward a group
of soldiers who earlier attack him
(D) By helping the Lilliputians construct a
new palace
4.Instead of killing him outright, the
Lilliputians decide on which of the
following punishments for Gulliver?
(A) Blinding him and slowly starving him to
death
(B) Exiling him
(C) Cutting off his hands
(D) Poisoning him
5.What is the line of doctrine over
which the Blefuscudians and
Lilliputians differ?
(A) “All true believers shall break
their eggs at the small end.”
(B) “All true believers shall break
their eggs at the big end.”
(C) “All true believers shall break
their eggs as they see fit.”
(D) “All true believers shall break
their eggs at the convenient end.”
6.Who is Gulliver’s main
caretaker in Brobdingnag?
(A) The farmer
(B) The queen
(C) Reldresal
(D) Glumdalclitch
7.How does Gulliver leave Brobdingnag?
(A) He builds himself a sailboat
(B) He is exiled
(C) He is carried away by a giant eagle
(D) He is taken back to England by Don
Pedro
8.Who first discovers Gulliver in
Brobdingnag?
(A) The farmer
(B) A field worker
(C) Glumdalclitch
(D) Lord Munodi
9.What does the farmer make Gulliver do
in order to earn money?
(A) Perform tricks for spectators
(B) Spy on neighboring farmers
(C) Work in the fields
(D) Kill rats
10.Who is Gulliver’s main enemy in
the royal court of Brobdingnag?
(A) The dwarf
(B) The king
(C) The queen
13.What do “flappers” do for the people
of Laputa?
(A) Keep them cool by fanning them
(B) Protect them from birds and insects
(C) Keep them engaged in conversations
(D) Introduce them to other people
(D) Reldresal
11.What human invention does Gulliver
propose to the king of Brobdingnag that
the king finds revolting?
(A) Gunpowder
(B) Christianity
(C) Lawyers
(D) Lying
14.Why does Gulliver seem stupid to the
Laputans?
(A) He does not speak their language
(B) He is ignorant of music and
mathematics
(C) He is unwilling to use a flapper
(D) He does not understand how the
floating island works
12.How does Gulliver end up in Laputa?
(A) Pirates attack his ship
(B) His crew mutinies
(C) He is shipwrecked
(D) He stops there for provisions
15.Which of the following places does
Gulliver visit last?
(A) Brobdingnag
(B) Lilliput
(C) Houyhnhnmland
(D) Laputa