Political Satire In "Gulliver's Travels" Part I

Want to read the rest of this paper? Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay and over 50,000 other term papers

he has become a prisoner. He has power to do whatever he wants in this new land he has discovered by chance (it is important to notice that the power is not only physical but it is also based on the technological achievement of Gulliver's culture). But despite this fact, Gulliver seems to be afraid of the Lilliputians arrows and he condescends to be held prisoner. Probably here Swift makes an allusion to the policy of England in relation to the countries it was colonizing: though it is more powerful, it condescends not to destroy their native identity.
Besides this, there are some resemblances that concern places that Gulliver describes at arriving to Lilliput. Thus the temple "polluted some years ago by an unnatural murder" may remind us of the Banqueting-House at White-Hall where King Charles I was beheaded.² However many other critics argue that there has been no hint in the narrative that features of the Lilliputian landscape should be taken as allusions to contemporary ...

Get instant access to over 50,000 essays. Write better papers. Get better grades. Already a member? Login

represent England and France. The violent conflict between Big-Endians and Little-Endians stands for the centuries of warfare between Catholics and Protestants. As far as the Tramecksan and the Slamecksan are concerned, there is no difficulty to recognize the Whigs and Tories of English politics. Gulliver reports Reldresal's description of Lilliputian party politics:
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.
It is alledged indeed, that the High Heels are most agreeable to our ancient ...

Succeed in your coursework without stepping into a library. Get access to a growing library of notes, book reports, and research papers in 2 minutes or less.

CITE THIS PAGE: