Gulliver’s Travels : Gulliver’s Travels Jonathan Swift
Quick Biography : Quick Biography Born in Dublin on the 30th of November 1667
EDUCATION:
Studied in Kilkenny College (the best school at that time) at the age of 6 and then when he turned 15 he attended the Trinity College in Dublin. Despite the classy colleges he tended to neglect his studies.
CHILDHOOD:
Primarily, he was brought up by his nurse, afterwards the position of a parent took his uncle Dodwin Swift, who paid his tuition.
Jonathan Swift dies on October 19, 1745
Plot Overview : Plot Overview The main character Lemuel Gulliver a surgeon by profession but his practice isn’t very successful so he decides to take on sailing.
One night his voyage turned into a disaster when a furious sea storm came out of nowhere. The crew lost control over the ship and it eventually crushed on an island leaving everybody dead but D-r Gulliver.
From this event on his adventures begin.
Four parts can be distinguished in the book, which point out the fictional places and countries the main character visits.
They are as follows:
Part I: A Voyage to Lilliput and Blefuscu : Part I: A Voyage to Lilliput and Blefuscu This is the part where Gulliver wakes up after the shipwreck and finds himself immobilized and surrounded by a strange race of people (The Lilliputs), a dozen times smaller than him, carefully strapping him in with ropes or threads as they would appear to the giant. The men construct a wagon-like contraption and transported Gulliver to their kingdom. After he shows good behavior in front of the king the doctor becomes a favorite of the court.
However, things turn into a downfall when Gulliver declines the king’s order to reduce the land of the Blefuscudians (The Lilliputs’ rivals) into a province of Lilliput. Gulliver is charged with treason and sentenced to be blinded. Having no other choice but to run, the main character finds a boat and sails far away from Lilliput just to be rescued by a passing ship which luckily was headed to the right direction – home.
Part II: A Voyage to Brobdingnag : Part II: A Voyage to Brobdingnag After staying two months in England with his wife and son, Gulliver undertakes his next voyage which again is a comic disaster with a little pinch of irony. Gulliver moors his ship on a land where this time the inhabitants are giants. A farmer sees him and decides to use him for the entertainment of people for money. This is how Gulliver gets himself into the hands of the queen, who takes him with her, constructs him a tiny house and keeps Gulliver for her entertainment. In between small adventures such as fighting giant wasps and being carried to the roof by a monkey, he discusses the state of Europe with the King. That is when he realizes that the giants are very ignorant and uneducated people.
One day, during a walk by the shore in his “travelling box” as the queen liked to refer to his house, was snatched by an eagle and then dropped into the open blue.
Part III: A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib, and Japan : Part III: A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib, and Japan Gulliver does not quit so easily, he sets sail
again but this time his ship is attacked by
pirates who marooned him on the land of
Laputa, where the floating island of Balnibarbi
inhabited by theoreticians and scientists,
oppressed the land. The people’s only purpose in Balnibarbi is to conquer science, and yet seem to have no practical use for their discoveries. Taking a short trip to Glubbdubdrib, Gulliver witnesses great figures from history, such as Julius Caesar and other military leaders, whom he finds much less impressive than in books. After visiting the Luggnaggians and the Struldbrugs, the latter of which are senile immortals who prove that age does not bring wisdom, he is able to sail to Japan and from there back to England.
Part IV: A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms : Part IV: A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms Gulliver returns to the sea again, but only this time as the captain of a merchantman, since he has grown tired of being a surgeon. The misfortune this time is mutiny of his crew. Gulliver is thrown overboard on an island infested with hideous, deformed creatures. Having conceived a violent antipathy to these beings he started scattering the island in hope of finding someone normal and stumbled upon a beautiful horse from which he found out that horses (The Houyhnhnms) are the rulers of the land and that the horrible creatures (Yahoos) he had encountered earlier are human beings in their base form. Gulliver created quite a bond to the horses and mostly with their lifestyle but the Houyhnhnms couldn’t have Gulliver living with them anymore because of island codex which states that Gulliver being a Yahoo, for some reason, is a threat for them, thus expelling Gulliver from their society.
He goes to the shore and builds himself a canoe in which he sails away to England. During his sail a Portuguese ship rescues him and takes him back home.
Important Key Facts : Important Key Facts Full title · Gulliver’s Travels, or, Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, by Lemuel Gulliver
Author · Jonathan Swift
Type of work · Novel
Genre · Satire
Language · English
Time and place written · Approximately 1712–1726, London and Dublin
Date of first publication · 1726 (1735 unabridged)
Publisher · George Faulkner (unabridged 1735 edition)
Narrator · Lemuel Gulliver
Point of view · Gulliver speaks in the first person. He describes other characters and actions as they appear to him.
Slide 9 : Tone · Gulliver’s tone is gullible and naïve during the first three voyages; in the fourth, it turns cynical and bitter. The intention of the author, Jonathan Swift, is satirical and biting throughout.
Tense · Past
Setting (time) · Early eighteenth century
Setting (place) · Primarily England and the imaginary countries of Lilliput, Blefuscu, Brobdingnag, Laputa, and the land of the Houyhnhnms
Major conflict · On the surface, Gulliver strives to understand the various societies with which he comes into contact and to have these societies understand his native England. Below the surface, Swift is engaged in a conflict with the English society he is satirizing.
Themes · Might versus right; the individual versus society; the limits of human understanding
Motifs · Excrement; foreign languages; clothing
Quiz : Quiz 1. In which college did Jonathan Swift study first?
a) Trinity college
b) Kilkenny college
c) Veliko-Tarnovo college
Slide 11 : 2. What’s the profession of Gulliver?
a) Surgeon
b) Sailor
c) Scientist
Slide 12 : 3. In which of the following countries the rulers are other than human-like beings?
a) Glubbdubdrib
b) The Country of Houyhnhnms
c) Lilliput
Slide 13 : 4.How many times did you see the name Gulliver in the presentation?
a) 7
b) 16
c) 28
Slide 14 : THANK YOU FOR YOUR
ATTENTION!!!