Gullivers Travels
Generations of schoolchildren raised on the first Book of "Gulliver¡¯s Travels" have loved it as a delightful visit to a fantasy kingdom full of creatures they can relate to¡ªlittle creatures, like themselves. Few casual readers look deeply enough to recognize the satire just below the surface. But Jonathan Swift was one of the great satirists of his or any other age, and "Gulliver¡¯s Travels" is surely the apex of his art.
"Gulliver¡¯s Travels" tells the story of Lemuel Gulliver, a ship¡¯s surgeon who has a number of rather extraordinary adventures, comprising four sections or "Books." In Book I, his ship is blown off course and Gulliver is shipwrecked. He wakes up flat on his back on ...
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us to the essential conflict of Book I: the naive, ordinary, but compassionate "Everyman" at the mercy of an army of people with "small minds". Because they are technologically adept, Gulliver does not yet see how small-minded the Lilliputians are.
In Chapter II, the Emperor of Lilliput arrives to take a look at the "giant", and Gulliver is equally impressed by the Emperor and his courtiers. They are handsome and richly dressed, and the Emperor attempts to speak to Gulliver civilly (although they are unable to understand one another). The Emperor decrees that every morning Gulliver is to be delivered "six beeves, forty sheep, and other victuals," along with as much bread and wine as he needs, his basic needs are to be attended to, and six scholars are to teach Gulliver the language of his new compatriots.
Again, in this chapter, Gulliver is won over by the fact that the Lilliputians are well-dressed and articulate (despite the fact that they speak a language he cannot ...
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receive a snippet of colored thread, which they wear on their clothing with great pride. Gulliver delights the Emperor by inventing some new forms of entertainment, also; one involves making the calvary perform military maneuvers on the drum-taut surface of his handkerchief, stretched above the ground, but when a rider is thrown, Gulliver stops the game. At the end of this chapter, Gulliver is freed after agreeing to nine silly conditions.
Chapter III is where it really gets interesting. Look at the types of entertainment the Lilliputians engage in, and why they do so. Swift makes a point of telling us that the only people who perform the rope dance are people seeking to acquire or ...
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Gullivers Travels. (2005, April 17). Retrieved April 20, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Gullivers-Travels/25497
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"Gullivers Travels." Essayworld.com. April 17, 2005. Accessed April 20, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Gullivers-Travels/25497.
"Gullivers Travels." Essayworld.com. April 17, 2005. Accessed April 20, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Gullivers-Travels/25497.
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