Gulliver's Travel: A Fairy Tale with a Twist
When we start to consider a utopia we realize that it is a worldwhere the people, events and the world as a whole is perfect. Thisperfection is a scenario where the people attempt to create a world whereideals exist. The reality of our world is such that the people and thegovernments are given to periodic spasms of imperfection that coincide withravages of human life in the form of war and hatred. A person who isaffected by this ravage would seek an ideal world where there is peace andprosperity. Thus, within reality a person would create a fairy tale andseemingly atrocious situations would be perceived through rose tintedglasses. Swift thus relegated the societies role as a rule maker into onethat falsified the true character of man and made his readers see the ironyin following the rules of society where the imperfections ran rampantthrough the social classes and views of man towards his fellows.Then we see that "The fascination for the reader lies in this ambiguitybecause to a large extent the text invites and encourages the reader totake power over its meaning" (Chapman, 2003). Through the creation of a political satire Swift makes clear his
The worldseen through his naive eyes can be interpreted as Swift's satire. At thispoint it becomes clear that in so much as trying to impress theBrobdingnags with enhanced details and depictions of the English life,Gulliver is halfheartedly trying to bring himself to believe that thedetails he is giving are all precise. In this, the first book of the Travels, we find a good deal ofpolitical allegory and satire. Another, even more significant aspect of satire is apparent in theportion acknowledging Gulliver's presence within the land of theBrobdingnags, giants that are as proportionately larger as Gulliver as hewas than the Lilliputians. The use of satire Since "We view Gulliver from so many different perspectives - toweringabove us - cowering below us" it is indeed difficult to form a clearimpression of him (Chapman, 2003), as "our impressions of him becomedistorted. This leads to Gulliver's realization of the insensibilityinherent to this significant degree of formal procedure and this is aclearly satiric attempt on the part of Swift, possibly in so much as beingan effort to depict his contempt for these procedures via the persona ofGulliver. Though the satiric purpose was fulfilled, the reader isnevertheless forced to contemplate the aspect of Gulliver's obvious disgustfor the human body that came forth as a result of the bodies of sheermagnitude and size. Consider that in the "Introduction to Gulliver's Travels" the author statesthat," Swift adopts an ancient satirical device: the imaginary voyage"(905). Swift's tone here exemplifies the manner in which a manfrom one part of the world may disregard the ways in which people in otherparts of the world live in and handle their womenfolk. These two words clearlyshow the manner in which Swift would rather keep his readers interested inhis work and the issues he addressed than simply divert their attentionthrough writing something fictional and the like. his own people seemed contemptibleby their smallness. The problem lies in thefact that the voracity with which Swift perceives the faith, hope, andcharity, to be fading is not as significant as he actually makes it sound. This is an aspect that becomesincreasingly clear when the reader comes to terms with the possibility thatSwift is using the protagonist of his tale, Lemuel Gulliver, as a means toportray the situation inherent to mankind at the time. Hence, the multiplicity of tales makes the use of satire quite clearto the reader in so much as coming to terms with the mannerisms chosen bySwift in which to illustrate his scorn and contempt towards the situationinherent to the era that he was living in. And as to ideas, Entities,Abstractions ands Transcendentals, I could never drive the least Conceptioninto their heads.
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