Jonathan Swifts Gullivers Travels :: Swift Gulliver Satire Essays

Jonathan swifts Gullivers Travels Jonathan Swifts, Gullivers Travels satirically relates bodily functions and physical attributes to social issues during Englands powerful swayer of Europe. Throughout the story we find many relations between bodily features and British and European society. Swift uses this tone of mockery to explain to his reader the brilliance of many different topics during this time of European rule. Swift feels that the body and their functions relate to political as well as the ration of a society. Swifts fascination with the body comes from its unproblematic undertone which gives his audience recognizable parallelism to many issues such as political change and scientific innovation. Gullivers stolon adventure takes place in Lilliput. Gulliver swims to a foreign shore after his boat and rowboat cap size due to a fierce storm. Washed upon the shore, Gulliver finds himself fastened to the grass surrounded by little bodied people called the Lilliputians. The L illiputians stood no more than six inches high. During this time Swift recognized that England was also a attractive of six inch being that had great influence in Europe. Swift wrote Gullivers Travels during a time when Europe was the worlds most overabundant and influential force. England, despite its small size, had the potential to defeat any nation that might try to conquer them. Swift relates this phenomenon to the small stature of the Lilliputians. They stood a genuine six inches high but had the power to siege the mammoth Gulliver. The capability of a nation consisting of miniature people, who are able to capture someone ten-times their size can be seen as reinforcing the capability of a small nation, such as England, becoming and remaining a great power. Even though this is true, Swift entices a condescending tone to Gullivers portrayal of the small Lilliputians, who easily fit into the hands of Gulliver, yet still manage to threaten his life. Even though the Lilliputians are piteously small in Gullivers eyes, they do not see themselves the same way. To themselves, the Lilliputians feel they are normal and Gulliver remains the outlandish giant. The unpredicted infringement of giant Gulliver into the Lilliputians well-developed society reminds the European society, that size and strength are always relative, and there is no way for Europe to be certain that a Gulliver-like giant, might not arrive and conquer them at any moment. This encounter, between Gulliver and the Lilliputians would put Europes confidence in its power in jeopardy.