Major themes in Gulliver's Travels

Paper Name: Neo-classical age

Name: Baraiya Bhavna P.

Semester: 1

Topic: Major themes in Gulliver’s Travels

Date: 01/10/2012

Submitted To: Heenaba Zala

                          Department of English,

                           Bhavnagar University.            

                           Major theme in Gulliver’s Travels

         *The Theme of Travel And Discovery

           The travelogue, a popular genre of writing in the eighteenth century, chronicles the experiences and adventures of a traveler. It is generally written from the first-person point of view giving immediacy to the experiences narrated. It is also a literary genre which the author manipulates to suit his purposes in the text. Gulliver’s Travel is a fictional travelogue containing factual elements related to travel by sea.

         The four parts of Gulliver’s Travels are linked by the theme of travel and discovery. Each of the parts starts of with a voyage leading to a destination. However, the voyage only works as a means to get to a place of adventure. The travails he suffers en route such as being shipwrecked or captured by pirates serve as reason for him to abandon the sea and find new lands. Each of the Islands Gulliver arrives at offers varying and diverse experiences for the traveler. The entire novel is contained within the framework of a travelogue documenting the new, bizarre, and occasionally life-threatening experiences that befall Gulliver.     

         Here we can journey along with the traveller in the narration, discovering places and observing the customs and manners of the people through the eyes of the writer.

* As A Satire of Human Nature

         “Satire is a literary genre in which human vices, weaknesses, foibles and follies are held up to ridicule.”

Wit and humour are commonly used as instruments of satire. Satirical writings were popular in England in the eighteenth century.

           In Gulliver’s Travels, Swift uses satire as a vehicle to point to the depraved state of humankind. Swift seems to be holding up a mirror to society so that in viewing the gross magnification of its vices, humanity has a hope for nature. The voyages to Lilliput and Brobdingnag  focus on the flows in human society, with particular reference to English socity.

         Satire in Gulliver’s Travels also extends to human institutions, to politics and the state.

*As Utopian/Dystopian Fiction

          “A term ‘utopia’ has come to be synonymous with an ideal society”. It was first used by Thomas More in his work ‘Utopia’ where he set out the vision of an ideal society.

          Gulliver’s Travels can be read from the perspective of utopian/dystopian fiction as Lemuel Gulliver journeys from the imaginary Island community to another. The land of the Houyhnhnms seem almost utopian  but here again, Swift exposes a world where Reason prevails in its perfection but is devoid of individuality of personal identity and therefore leaves much to be desired. The Laputan community in part III is a dystopia which relies on its Island-subjects living below it for sustenance.

          It is interesting to note that in Gulliver’s description of England, its people, and institutions, England too emerges as a dystopia, an unpleasant, violent, brutal and corrupt society which does not practise what it preaches.

*As A Political Allegory     

         “An allegory is a literary genre which is structured in such a way that its meaning could be read on two level – a primary or literal level, and a secondary and more complex level.”

          “An allegory is defined as a narrative in which the characters, plot, setting and occasion, while making sense in themselves also signify a second layer of meaning where they point at another set of people, events and setting either from the writer’s social milieu or recent historical events”. It is a figurative mode of representation where ideas are conveyed through symbolism and metaphor.  

          As a political allegory of European civilization, Swift presents the aspects of war and European propensity for distruction, particularly in the parallels that one can draw between Lilliput’s desire to enslave an already defeated Blefescu and the strained relationship between England and France.

            Patterns of war and destruction are woven into the allegorical motif here to explicate the exiting political situation that Swift is satirizing.