Another look at Jonathan Swift

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Another look at Jonathan Swifts Gullivers
Travels

• Mr. Cleon M. McLean
• A.P. English
• Ontario High School

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Vocabulary to Know
censure infallibly prostrating
civility morose recapitulate
conjecture panegyric retinue
dexterity perfidiousness schism
diminutive pernicious solicitation
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Satire Laughter as Weapon

• Satirea literary technique in which behaviors or
  institutions are ridiculed for the purpose of
  improving society. Satire is set apart from
  other forms of social and political protest
  because of its application of humor.

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A Historical Perspective

• Satire began with the ancient Greeks, but came
  into its own in ancient Rome, where the fathers
  of satire, Horace and Juvenal, had their names
  given to the two basic types of satire
• Horatian satire is playfully amusing and seeks
  to correct vice or foolishness with gentile
  laughter and understanding. E.g., Alexander
  Popes A Rape of the Lock
• Juvenal satire provokes a darker kind of
  laughter. It is often bitter and criticizes
  corruption or incompetence with scorn and
  outrage. E.g., Swifts Gullivers Travels

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The author in his own words

• Swift once said, I have ever hated all nations,
  professions, and communities, and all my love is
  towards individualsBut principally I hate and
  detest that animal called man. Swifts
  misanthropy, or hatred of mankind, may have grown
  from his religious conviction. He saw humans as
  fallen victims of original sin, not the rational
  creatures in which many Enlightenment thinkers
  believe.

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Interesting Epitaph

• Swift died in 1745 from a mental disease we now
  called vertigo (Menieres disease). Interesting
  to note, he left his remaining fortune to go
  towards the building of a mental hospital.
• Translated from Latin, Swifts epitaph reads
• Here lies the body of
• Jonathan Swift, D.D.., Dead of this Cathedral.
• He has gone where fierce indignation
• can lacerate his heart no more.
• Go, traveler, and imitate if you can
• A man who was an undaunted
• Champion of liberty.

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Socratic Seminar Questions

• One of Swifts purposes for writing Gullivers
  Travels was to vex i.e., make angry the world
  rather than divert it.
• 1. How is Swifts purpose overshadowed in
  Gullivers Travels?

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Socratic Seminar Questions

• What aspects of human nature does Swift satirize
  through Gullivers behavior?
• Hint Think about hilarious portraits of pride,
  arrogance, dullness, and depravity

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Socratic Seminar Questions

• 3. What effect is produced when Gulliver quotes
  the Lilliputian language?
• 4. Why do the politicians dance on the rope for
  the king?
• 5. Research the real status the following three
  honors during the 18th century
• bluethe Order of the Garter
• redthe Order of the Bath
• greenthe Order of the Thistle

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Socratic Seminar Questions

• 6. These Articlesafter they were read, I was
  demanded to swear to the performance of them
  first in the manner of my country, and afterwards
  in the method prescribed by their Lilliputian
  laws which was to hold my right foot in my left
  hand, to place the middle finger of my right hand
  on the crown of my head, and my thumb on the tip
  of my ear (Swift 20).
• Why does Swift create such a ridiculous ritual?
• Possible answer Swift is satirizing the
  meaningless or absurd ceremonies of state
  business

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Socratic Seminar Questions

1. Gullivers articles of freedom begin with a
   tribute to the most mighty Emperor of Lilliput.
   What is ironic about Swifts description of the
   king in this preamble?
2. How does the above irony contribute to the satire
   on the Lilliputians?

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Clarifications

• The Low-Heels (Slamecksan) are the party in the
  Emperors favor and therefore have more power
  than the more numerous High-Heels (Tramecksan).
  The Little-Endians open their eggs at the small
  end, in accord with Lilliputian law. Big-Endians
  are a dissenting faction of Lilliputians who open
  their eggs at the larger end. They are supported
  by the government of Blefuscu, i.e., France .
• The High-Heel party correspond to the Tory
  Party, which promoted the High-Church, i.e.,
  Catholic, aspects of Anglicanism while the
  Low-Heel party correspond to the Whig Party,
  which promoted the Low-Church, i.e., Protestant
  aspects.

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Clarifications

• our histories tell us, there have been six
  rebellions raised on that egg war account
  wherein one emperor lost his life, and another
  his crown (Swift 26). The dispute over the
  egg-breaking corresponds to the conflict between
  Roman Catholics and Protestants in 17th century
  England. The emperor who lost his life in the
  conflict was King Charles I the one who lost his
  crown was James II, who fled into exile.
• His Imperial Majestyi.e., George II
• Blefuscuan imaginary country that represents
  France, Britians main political rival at the time

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Jacob Talamantes

• Because Gulliver is a man-mountain and the
  Lilliputian society is minuscule, Swift focuses
  on how the individual (modern man) affects (or
  acts upon) society, rather than how society
  affects (or acts upon) the individual.

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Socratic Seminar Questions

• 12. How does Gulliver appear to regard his own
  story's publication--what effect, if any, does he
  expect it will have on readers?
• 13. What first led Gulliver to follow the course
  of life he did--that of an adventurer and
  traveler? Do his motives change as time passes?
• 14. What are your impressions of the
  Lilliputians at the beginning? How do they change
  as the book progresses?
• 15. How does being a giant change Gullivers
  attitude toward himself?

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Socratic Seminar Questions

• 16. How does Swift present the Lilliputian
  Emperor? (Swift is satirizing England's King
  George)  Flimnap?  Bolgolam?
• 17. Why are the Lilliputians at war?  What is
  Swift saying about war?  About nationalism?
• 18. How does Gulliver treat the Lilliputians
  during his first weeks on the island? What does
  this tell you about Gulliver?
• 19. How does Gulliver describe the physical
  appearance of the Lilliputians? Do their physical
  characteristics compliment their personality?
• 20. What ideas about religion are satirized?
  What ideas about government are satirized?

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Socratic Seminar Questions

• 1. What is the first clue that Gulliver has
  landed in another fantasy world?
• 2. What familiar features of human society does
  Swift include in his initial description of
  Brobdingnag?
• 3. How is Gulliver made to look ridiculous when
  he first presents himself to the farmer?

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Socratic Seminar Questions

• 4. How is Gulliver the object of Swifts satire
  in his response to the kings unflattering
  description of the English?
• 5. What is it about Brobdingnagians that make
  Gulliver feel horror?
• 6. How does Gullivers perception of himself
  and his country change according to his
  environment?

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Jacob Chavez Natalie Zamora

• Human creatures are observed to be more savage
  and cruel in proportion to their bulk (56).
• This reaction from the King of Brob. made me
  Gulliver reflect how vain an attempt it is for
  a man to endeavor doing himself honor amongst
  those who are out of all degree of equality or
  comparison with him (56).

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Socratic Seminar Questions

• 7. In what sense is Gulliver diminished in
  more than size when he meets up with the giant
  Brobdingnagians? What does the king, for example,
  think of him? And what does Gulliver come to
  think of himself?
• 8. How does the King react to Gulliver's
  description of his native Britain? Is the King's
  realm similar to or very different from what
  Gulliver has described of his own country? About
  what English invention does Gulliver inform the
  King? How does the King react to this
  information?
• 9. What information about Brobdingnag
  learning and culture does Gulliver relate?
• 10. How does the Brobdingnags attitude
  toward language differ from that of the
  Lilliputians?
• 11. How does Gulliver function as a foil to
  both the Lilliputians and to the
  Brobdingnagians?  What is Swift saying with their
  different sizes?

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Socratic Seminar Questions

• 11. Gulliver has many vexing encounters with
  animals and insects in Brobdingnag. How does
  setting Gulliver in contest with animals affect
  out sense of his character?

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Socratic Seminar Questions

• Above all, he the Brobdingnagian king was
  amazed to hear me talk of a mercenary standing
  army in the midst of peace, and among a free
  people. He said if we were governed by our own
  consent in the persons of our representatives, he
  could not imagine of whom we were afraid, or
  against whom we were to fight
• 12. How does Swift use his fantasy world above
  to deliver his satire on Englands interest in
  war?

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Socratic Seminar Questions

• 13. What message is Swift sending through the
  Brobdingnagian king?
• 14. Does the readers opinion of Gulliver change
  by the kings bitter criticism?
• 15. In general, how do the Brobdingnagians treat
  Gulliver?
• 16. What impresses you the most about Gullivers
  adventures in Brobdingnag?

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Socratic Seminar Questions

• Is Gulliver changing (dynamic character) as the
  story progresses? Is he learning from his
  misadventures?
• I have said that Gulliver represents modern (18th
  century) man under a microscope. Is Gulliver an
  everyman figure, or does he have an idiosyncratic
  persona of his own?

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Socratic Seminar Questions

• Allegorydef. a narrative in which the agents and
  actions are contrived by the author to make sense
  on the literal level, and, at the same time, to
  communicate a second, correlated level. In
  sustained allegory of ideas, the central device
  is the personification of abstract entities such
  as vice, virtues, and state of mind.
• What is allegorical about the floating island of
  Laputa? Hint think of the relation between
  government and the people
• Why does Gulliver keep traveling despite of his
  series of misadventures?
• In Laputa, power is exerted not through size, but
  through technology. Does this imply that Swift
  was a Luddite? Why or why not?

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Socratic Seminar Questions

• 4.Unlike Gullivers first two wayward voyages,
  his mischance arrival on Laputa et al. uncovers
  absurdity not in terms of size, but in excessive
  rationalism. Which institutions are satirized in
  Gullivers third voyage? Why?

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Socratic Seminar Question

• Scattered among the standard narrative style of
  most of Gulliver's travels are legal documents
  and reports, such as the inventory of Gulliver's
  possessions and the list of obligations presented
  to him by the Lilliputians. A good example is at
  the beginning of Part II, Chapter I, where
  Gulliver uses complicated nautical jargon. The
  effect is so overdone that, instead of coming off
  as a demonstration of Gulliver's in-depth
  knowledge of sailing, the passage works as a
  satire of sailing language and, more generally,
  of any kind of specialist jargon. A similar
  passage occurs in Part III, Chapter III, where
  Gulliver's painstaking description of the
  geometry of Laputa serves as a satire of
  philosophical jargon.
• Why would Swift dispense Juvenal satire on
  specialist jargon? (hint think of Swifts
  conservative posturing on the English language,
  and the absurditygenesis in redundancy,
  malapropism and neologism from polysyllabic
  wordsbrought upon the language by specialists)

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Socratic Seminar Question

• What is gained by playing on the word gullible
  to create Gulliver, and then presenting
  Gullivers Travels as a plausible journalistic
  chronicle of misadventures, albeit satiric?

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Socratic Seminar Questions

• How is Gullivers Travels not entirely one of the
  following
• A childrens storybook
• A proto-science fiction novel
• A meta-fiction (this type of work
  self-consciously and systematically uses devices
  of fiction. It draws attention to its status as
  an artifact in posing questions between reality
  and fiction via irony and self-reflection)

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Socratic Seminar Question

• Some novels and plays seem to advocate changes in
  social or political attitudes or in traditions.
  Choose such a novel or play and note briefly the
  particular attitudes or traditions that the
  author apparently wishes to modify. Then analyze
  the techniques the author uses to influence the
  readers or audiences views. Avoid plot
  summary.1
• 1 1987 AP English Literature Composition
  Examination Free Response prompt

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Socratic Seminar Questions

• According to Gullivers most recent misadventure,
  which premise is more saliently promoted
• Man is inherently corrupt
• Man becomes corrupt (esp. through the mediums of
  institutions)
• Consider Gulliver finds a friend in each of his
  mischance adventures.

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Socratic Seminar Questions

1. Gulliver is consumed with concern about what
   others think of him and his countrymen. Give
   examples of this concern and explain its effects
   on his actions and themes of the novel
2. What comments does Swift (not Gulliver) make
   about religion?
3. Explain the uses of vice and virtue in Gullivers
   Travels and A Modest Proposal
4. How is irony used in Gullivers Travels?

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Analyzing

• Thesisa premise, argument, or proposition. E.g.,
  love is an ideal thing.
• Antithesisa counter to the premise, argument, or
  proposition. E.g., Marriage is a real thing.
• Synthesisa blending of the thesis and
  antithesis, or conclusion reached from an
  exploration of the thesis and antithesis. E.g., A
  loving marriage is sublime.