The first reading overview for our first day of class has some background information on the author of Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift, as well as some information about satire. Swift is known for his satirical work, and Gulliver’s Travels is considered a satirical novel. As the introduction in the NA points out, this novel was very popular when it was published and has remained popular in the centuries since then. Part of its appeal is the fact that Gulliver’s Travels appealed then (and arguably does today) to a range of audiences, from children who read it as a simple fantasy story to politicians who read it as a satire of the current political situation.
I’ve asked you to read the two letters that introduce the novel, but some context may help you to understand what they are about. As the NA explains,
Swift’s full title for this work was Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of several Ships. In the first edition (1726), either the bookseller or Swift’s friends…and others, who were concerned in getting the book anonymously into print, altered and omitted so much of the original mauscript (because of its dangerous political implications) that Swift was seriously annoyed. (975)The 1735 text includes these two introductory letters, as Swift takes on the persona of Gulliver to complain about the earlier version. The text included in the NA is from this 1735 edition.
Though we’re only reading the first part of Gulliver’s Travels, it might help you to have an understanding of the text as a whole, which includes three other voyages after his visit to Lilliput in Part 1. In Part 2, Gulliver ends up in Brobdingnag, which is a land of giants that is ruled by a wise prince, who talks with Gulliver about the government of England. The distinction between the utopia of Brobdingnag and the problems in England are where the satire of this part really becomes clear as Gulliver begins to question his homeland. In Part 3, Gulliver ends up in Laputa, which is a flying island, whose inhabitants are focused on the pursuit of knowledge and music to an extreme. This part satirizes the Royal Society of England, which also tended to blindly pursue the knowledge of science and math in the eighteenth century. After a few detours on his journey home, Gulliver leaves again, in Part 4, where he encounters the Houyhnhnms, a race of intelligent and reasonable horses, and the Yahoos, dull and deformed human beings that serve the Houyhnhnms. Here, the way that the Yahoos lack reason and follow only their passions disgusts Gulliver, as he prefers to consider himself associated with the Houyhnhnms. He is expelled from this land and returns again to England where the novel ends with him becoming a recluse from other humans and distancing himself from his family though he spends several hours each day in conversation with the horses in his stable.
Questions for Thinking and Discussion
- Compare the introductory letter from Gulliver to the opening paragraphs of Oroonoko. What is similar about their emphasis on the reality of the narratives they are sharing? What is different?
- Readers of Gulliver’s Travels are often split on their views of Gulliver. While some quickly become impatient with him or completely dislike him, others find him relatable, interesting, and/or humorous. Based on the first four chapters of Part 1, what are your thoughts on our narrator, Lemuel Gulliver?
- Thinking about “A Modest Proposal,” which offers a satirical plan for dealing with the issue of the large (and growing) Irish population, how do you see the issue of size playing a role in this text?
- What is your take on the Lilliputian beliefs about eggs? How does the description of the beliefs and rules about eggs relate to religion in this period?
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