Gulliver's Travels

Gulliver's Travels:

Gulliver's Travels is more than an adventure - it's a clever satire on politics, society and human nature. Get ready for a journey where nothing is as it seems!

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Themes

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Plot

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Style interpretation

Swift's life

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04.

Title

Characters

By Calvio Miriam and Panfili Francesca

Jonathan Swift:

Jonathan Swift (born November 30, 1667, Dublin, Ireland—died October 19, 1745, Dublin) was an Anglo-Irish author, who was the foremost prose satirist in the English language. Besides the celebrated novel Gulliver’s Travels (1726), he wrote such shorter works as A Tale of a Tub (1704) and “A Modest Proposal” (1729).

Why is Jonathan Swift an important writer?

What is Jonathan Swift best known for?

Gulliver's Travels: Characters

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.

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Gulliver's Travels:Plot

Gulliver’s Travels is a first-person narrative that is told from the point of view of Lemuel Gulliver, a surgeon and sea captain who visits remote regions of the world, and it describes four adventures:

1°: Lilliput

3°: Laputa

2°: Brobdingnag

4°: Houyhnhnmland

ORIGINAL TITLE

"Travels Into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts by Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, then a Captain of Several Ships." The 1726 edition of Gulliver's Travels is anonymous and claims to be written by its main character, "Lemuel Gulliver".

A SATIRICAL BOOK

This book was explosive – a clear attack on both the king of England, George I, and on the Whig government. Gulliver's Travels is a ferocious satire on human vices. The reader is invited to see something very familiar in a way that it becomes ridiculous or even disgusting.

PESSIMISM

Gulliver's alienation from humans reflects a deep pessimism about human nature, society, and progress. While the novel begins as a witty satire, it gradually reveals Swift’s cynical view of humanity, culminating in Gulliver’s complete disillusionment.

STYLE

The style of Gulliver’s Travels is a blend of satire, realism, irony, and allegory.

• Satirical and ironic tone
• First-person, travel narrative Style
• Detailed and realistic descriptions
• Allegorical and symbolic language
• Shifts in perspective and tone

INTERPRETATION

The novel can be read on different levels:

• a tale for children
• a political allegory of Swift’s time
• a parody of voyage literature
• a masterpiece of misanthropy and a reflection on the aberration of human reason

themes

• Human nature and the flaws of mankind
• Political satire and critique of government
• The limits of human knowledge and science
• The relativity of perspective and truth
• Misanthropy and disillusionment

UTOPIAN NOVEL

Utopian fiction is a style of fiction that takes place in an idealized world. The term “utopia” was invented by the English philosopher Sir Thomas More, recalling ancient Greek words meaning “good place” and “no place.” In the 18th century, the most famous utopian writer was Swift with his Gulliver’s Travels, which was a masterpiece of semi-utopian narrative.