Jeremy Torres
Professor Cotto
English
1/4/14
The Feminism in Gulliver’s Travels
Jonathan Swift growing up, born in Ireland suffered very much. Both his parents exited his life after his birth. Jonathans father Jonathan Swift Sr. died four months after his son’s birth. His mother Abigail Erick tried to care for the young sick Jonathan with his nurse. Eventually his mother gave in and sent Jonathan to England with his nurse to be cared for in a better manner. Jonathan was barely raised by a female figure once his mother and nurse were not by his side as he grew past infancy. When he came back to Ireland, Jonathan lived with his uncle who gave Jonathan the best education possible which he funded for Jonathan.
Even
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In this book you see many examples of how Swift uses Gulliver to express how he felt repulsed towards women. Jonathan Swift references to the body of women and their sexuality, which morally degrade women, and can come off very controversial to women as Swift is corrupting the view of women. Swift often attacks women and their physical characteristics, showing disgust towards them. Simple bodily functions of a woman being exaggeratedly described as disgusting sight. Gulliver expresses his views on how he hates females and considers them inferior to males. He envisions women as dirty animals, who tend to be ignorant, and full of …show more content…
Gulliver scrutinizes the women, seeing everything amplified, inspecting as if it were through a microscope. Gulliver speaks about the Brobdingnag women, and when he does, it is with nothing but disgust. Viewing the bodies of the women Gulliver points out many things to dislike about women physically. The skin of the women is described as too rough, no color to their skin, they are very oily. Carrying on with the negativity towards women physicality, He is disgusted by their aroma, is disgusted with their gigantic blemishes, pores, acne and moles. (quote) In order to expose the women to the best of ability Gulliver uses the maids of honor to point out the flaws in women, which are looked passed. Describing how disgusted he was when he was set down on one of the maid’s breast for recreation. He talks about their bodies as an un-tempting sight, in Gulliver’s words “very far from being a tempting sight.”(page) Gulliver makes a connection with the women of England as he makes it clear they have these same flaws but they are unnoticeable due to them being the same size as he is. “This made me reflect upon the fair skin of our English ladies, who appear so beautiful to us only because they are our own size, and their defects not to be seen but through a magnifying glass, where we find by experiment that the smoothest whitest skins look rough and coarse and ill coloured.”(page)Being that
...llivers Travels not only excite the attention of the reader but they also leave the reader with a very pessimistic impression of the modern world. If Gulliver had left a description of a pile of soil instead of his urination procedure, the reader would perhaps view his work as boring, but not as comedic or repulsive. The tales would have lost their derogatory tone, their satirical edge, and their comedic nature had Swift not used such images.
Although Jonathan Swift and Oliver Goldsmith have two distinct writing styles, their passion for literature, their desire for a better world, and the underlying topic of their work are all strikingly similar. The lives of these two famous authors also resemble each other’s, starting in poverty, living through life’s hardships, and ending in success. Swift and Goldsmith were two of the most famous authors of the 18th century. I believe if Swift and Goldsmith had met, they would have made great friends. For the reason that, along with their passions, their lives were bursting with challenges. Both were born in poverty and underwent numerous challenges, including the death of loved ones and the loss of purpose in life. In addition, Jonathan Swift
By setting up this contrast (it is interesting to point out that this is the only time that Swift makes any reference to Gulliver's "needs") the reader begins to expect the Lilliput to have a higher form of society. When, later in the book (that is the first book of four), the Lilliputians show their true selfish nature it is more of a surprise to the reader because of the great buildup.
Jonathan Swift is a well-known author and satirist who graduated from Oxford University in England. He is very educ...
Therefore, before an analysis can continue, one has to make the assumption that this is strictly a fictional work and Swift had no intention of pursuing his proposal any further. One of the other voices that is present throughout the entire story is that of sarcasm. In order to understand this further, a reader has to comprehend that Swift, becoming infamous after Gullivers Travels, was a member of the upper-class. Right from the first paragraph, Swift attempts to fool his readers by the sarcasm of the dreary scene that Swift presents. For example, he mentions that it is a melancholy sight to see beggars and their children on the street.
Many people believe that Swift, as early feminist wanted to remove the high standards expected from women at that time and still today, to consider them equal. Though he is describing women in the poem, the quotes he has written are applicable to men as well, “ But oh! It turned poor Strephon’s bowels, when he beheld and smelled the towels. Begummed, bemattered, and beslimed with dirt, and sweat, and earwax grimed” (43-46).
Throughput the book “Gulliver’s Travels” by Jonathan Swift, the character Gulliver changes many times. During and after part two and four of the book a noticeable change in Gulliver starts to occur. He himself may not see it but the reader sees it and ones attitude towards Gulliver might change due to Gulliver’s changes. Throughout these two parts, we see Gulliver as an adventurous man that wants to see everything that has been created in the world. During his second adventure Gulliver see the opposite side of the spectrum and has to fend for his life because of his small size, which causes him to lose his view of human size when he goes back to England. In addition, he starts to defend England in his talks, which are totally opposite of how he started. In part four we see the most change in Gulliver, he has lost a grip on reality and no longer wants to accept the fact that he is what he is and looks like a Yahoo. In part two and four of Gulliver’s Travels, we see changes within Gulliver.
In the fourth voyage, Swift presents a case study for opposing states of nature, with the Yahoos representing the argument that man is governed by his passions, seeking his own advantage, pursuing pleasures and avoiding pain, and the Houyhnhnms representing the argument that man is governed by reason. If this is the case, then Swift’s misanthropy was such that he saw men as the foul and disgusting Yahoos, and made it plain that reform of the species was out of the question. A major fault with this theory is that it leaves no place for Gulliver. When attention is drawn to the figure of Gulliver himself, as distinct from his creator, Swift, he is taken to be the moral of the story. If you can't be a Houyhnhnm you don't need to be a Yahoo; just try to be like Gulliver. The trouble with this idea is that when taking a closer look at Gulliver, he isn't worth emulating. The final picture of him talking with the horses in the stable for four hours a day, unable to stand the company of his own family, makes him look foolish. Another theory is that Gulliver made a mistake in regarding the Houyhnhnms as models to be emulated: so far from being admirable creatures they are as repulsive as the Yahoos. The Yahoos might be ruled by their passions, but these have no human passions at all. On this view, Swift was not advocating, but attacking reason.
In Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver Travels, satire is ever-present: in plot, character and setting. Dystopia and utopia set the story, with grotesque added to sharpen character facets. The title character narrates the novel, and all actions are told through his point of view. His voyages expose him to extraordinary and absurd circumstances, used as fodder for mockery, and all throughout Gulliver’s travails society is ridiculed, and a bitter light is cast on humanity. Character growth is not spared: in the beginning Gulliver is much one-dimensional, and as he changes, Swift uses his growth as another ancillary conduit to let loose more satirical prowess.
He puts the main character, Lemuel Gulliver, through four distinct journeys, which all inadvertently reveal vices in human society. In Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, the theme of corruption is portrayed through the evils of politics, the deceitful nature of humanity, and the characters’ exploitation of pride. Throughout the novel, seizes and retentions of power are always accompanied by corrupt means. “He had heard, indeed, some curious Houyhnhnms observe, that in most herds there was a sort of ruling Yahoo (as among us there is generally some leading or principal stag in a park), who was always more deformed in body, and mischievous in disposition, than any of the rest; that this leader had usually a favourite as like himself as he could get, whose employment was to lick his master's feet and posteriors, and drive the female Yahoos to his kennel; for which he was This favourite is hated by the whole herd, and therefore, to protect himself, always keeps near the person of his leader,” (Swift 241). Some Yahoos observe that the Yahoos often pick terrible leaders who surround themselves with even worse subordinates to make them appear less abysmal.
The Importance of Perspective Revealed in Gulliver's Travels According to Gulliver, "Undoubtably philosophers are right when they tell us that nothing is great or small by comparison. " This quotation sums up the knowledge a person would gather after doing a vast study of different societies. The nature of humanity is being discussed, rather than physical size. The Lilliputians are narrow-minded people who become angry over trivial matters, while the Brobdingnagians are deeper people, in contrast.
On the surface, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver's Travels appears to be a travel log, made to chronicle the adventures of a man, Lemuel Gulliver, on the four most incredible voyages imaginable. Primarily, however, Gulliver's Travels is a work of satire. "Gulliver is neither a fully developed character nor even an altogether distinguishable persona; rather, he is a satiric device enabling Swift to score satirical points" (Rodino 124). Indeed, whereas the work begins with more specific satire, attacking perhaps one political machine or aimed at one particular custom in each instance, it finishes with "the most savage onslaught on humanity ever written," satirizing the whole of the human condition. (Murry 3). In order to convey this satire, Gulliver is taken on four adventures, driven by fate, a restless spirit, and the pen of Swift. Gulliver's first journey takes him to the Land of Lilliput, where he finds himself a giant among six inch tall beings. His next journey brings him to Brobdingnag, where his situation is reversed: now he is the midget in a land of giants. His third journey leads him to Laputa, the floating island, inhabited by strange (although similarly sized) beings who derive their whole culture from music and mathematics. Gulliver's fourth and final journey places him in the land of the Houyhnhnm, a society of intelligent, reasoning horses. As Swift leads Gulliver on these four fantastical journeys, Gulliver's perceptions of himself and the people and things around him change, giving Swift ample opportunity to inject into the story both irony and satire of the England of his day and of the human condition.
Feigning sickness, Gulliver travels with Glumdalclitch and, fortunately, is picked up by an eagle and transported into English waters. By chance, an eagle transports Gulliver back to English waters to be rescued. Upon seeing Englishmen again, he remarks them as being pigmies after being used to seeing Brobdingnagians all the time. Gulliver’s perception of the world has changed during his visit to Brobdingnag. On his return home, it seemed as if he was the giant now. He begins to think of his people as contemptible little creatures just as how the Brobdingnagians thought of him. He even remarks that he could not look at himself while in Brobdingnag. “For indeed while I was in that prince’s country, I could never endure to look in a glass after my eyes had been accustomed to such prodigious objects, because the comparison gave me so despicable a conceit of myself” (Swift 149). Gulliver’s views have started to change, foreshadowing his result at the end of the
Gulliver's Travels is one of the most beloved satires of all time (Forster 11). Yet, careful analysis shows it to be very complex with not one definite interpretation. A very surface reading may leave one feeling that the point of the book is "don't be Yahoo." This is the message that David Ward feels Gulliver the character is giving and says that it is no more complex than Orwell's, "four legs good, two legs bad." But this grows out of the fact of Gulliver's nature. A synthesis of the opinions of the writers I read paints Gulliver as an average man of average courage, honesty, compassion, and intellect, a typical Englishman. But there is nothing typical about Gulliver's Travels.
Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels presents a narrator, Lemuel Gulliver, who recounts his various sea voyages to fantastical lands. During each voyage, Gulliver encounters different societies and customs to which Gulliver must adjust to. in order to be accepted into their society The entire novel serves as a commentary on how people everywhere have a tendency to abuse the power given to them.