Use of Satirical Techniques in Swift's Gulliver's Travels

Use of Satirical Techniques in Swift's Gulliver's Travels

Swift is a master of satirical writing, and his use of satirical

technique in Gulliver's Travels is of a deep and intense nature. In

each mysterious island he visits, there is a subtle attack on European

nature, and the way the people of his time lived and acted. Gulliver's

Travels was written to expose and open up the cracks in the society of

his time. Each island he visits has no knowledge of Europe at all, and

this further enhances the shock and dismay by the people and creatures

he meets. It is a satirical technique used so the characters can

amplify there emotions, thus creating a more shocking experience and

reaction.

Gulliver was the leader of a ship with an array of foreign crew

because of heavy losses to his original crew. His ship crashes and he

is finally cast upon the land of Lilliput. He falls to sleep due to

sheer exhaustion and wakes up later, tied up. As he opens his eyes he

see's the inhabitants of Lilliput, the Lilliputians. With their six

inch stature he is shocked and confused to whom these species could

be. A short while later he is released and talks to the king of

Lilliput. Sadly the tiny size of the inhabitants makes everything

about them, such as concerns, and beliefs seem so irrelevant and

pathetic. This is actually a subtle attack on the way Europeans

quarrel, and how a poor government system is in place. The

Lilliputians select spokesmen and men of power by jumping over a pole.

They are also in a war over which side an egg should be eaten from.

This depicts the way that men of power are selected in England and the

pathetic reasons for war tho...

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.... He wanted to stay, yet was dismissed.

Once again his ignorance and lack of tact left him stranded. Swift

uses this to construct a thick and detailed depiction of the European

life, which he found mistake ridden and scatological.

He was later picked up by a ship, and taken back to England, in which

his stories were not believed until a Lilliputian horse was found.

Swift is a misanthropic person who believes human nature is not right

and works in a decrepit and foul manner. In Gulliver's travels he

highlights the flaws in society and shows them satirically. He

particularly attacks politicians and there lack of leadership and

decision making. He includes utopian lands to once again emphasize

what Europe and England lack. Swift tries to show that we are all

animals at heart, and sometimes not as intelligent as shown.