When one thinks of Gulliver 's Travels, he/she thinks about a fairy tale. Perhaps even a children 's book about a giant in a town of little people. Or maybe the semi-successful G-rated movie with Jack Black. The truth is is that the real story is a deep, thought-provoking novel. It involves the nature of humans and the criticism of early eighteenth-century politics.
In 1726, Jonathan Swift wrote his successful satirical novel Gulliver 's Travels. The story involves a young middle-class surgeon named Gulliver in England. He embarks on several voyages to bizarre countries all around the world. Using allegory, irony, and motif, Swift used Gulliver’s adventure to criticize British politics at the time and human nature. To understand how Swift’s …show more content…
To start, since 1670 there had been a “fear of Catholics” in England among Protestants. The reason why is because England thought that all Catholics had some sort of plot to overthrow the government. They would ruin the English constitution with their religion if they were to invade. At the time, France was a Catholic country. Thus many wars over religion started between England and France causing much hostility. The term “Tories” was the common insult in England of the day. The term meant to accuse Catholics and the French of being “theocratic anarchists”. This tension increased in the latter half of the seventeenth-century that led to the Glorious Revolution in 1689. This was just Parliament’s decision to replace Catholic King James II (whom France supported) with Protestant William of Orange. Bloodless, James II fled to France, thus ushering a new generation of Whig rule (Cody).
Gulliver 's Travels is a satire. That is, its goal is to make fun of what Swift had a strong opinion on: politics and humans. After looking at the context of the book and the conflicts behind it, one can analyze the story. The three main lands Gulliver travels to illustrate Swift’s use of allegory, irony, and motif to show how human politics are
In 1726, Jonathan Swift wrote his successful satirical novel Gulliver 's Travels. The story involves a young middle-class surgeon named Gulliver in England. He embarks on several voyages to bizarre countries all around the world. Using allegory, irony, and motif, Swift used Gulliver’s adventure to criticize British politics at the time and human nature. To understand how Swift’s …show more content…
To start, since 1670 there had been a “fear of Catholics” in England among Protestants. The reason why is because England thought that all Catholics had some sort of plot to overthrow the government. They would ruin the English constitution with their religion if they were to invade. At the time, France was a Catholic country. Thus many wars over religion started between England and France causing much hostility. The term “Tories” was the common insult in England of the day. The term meant to accuse Catholics and the French of being “theocratic anarchists”. This tension increased in the latter half of the seventeenth-century that led to the Glorious Revolution in 1689. This was just Parliament’s decision to replace Catholic King James II (whom France supported) with Protestant William of Orange. Bloodless, James II fled to France, thus ushering a new generation of Whig rule (Cody).
Gulliver 's Travels is a satire. That is, its goal is to make fun of what Swift had a strong opinion on: politics and humans. After looking at the context of the book and the conflicts behind it, one can analyze the story. The three main lands Gulliver travels to illustrate Swift’s use of allegory, irony, and motif to show how human politics are