Summary of “Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels”

This work Swift can be attributed immediately to several genres: a novel-narrative, a novel-journey, a pamphlet and at the same time it contains features of an anti-utopia (and at the end of a book of utopia), and also contains elements of fiction. But most importantly this novel can in fact be considered prophetic, since all the human strangenesses that are described in it with the murderous and merciless Swift satire, not only did not go along with those who were ridiculed by Swift, but, unfortunately, it is extremely important nowadays.

The book consists of four parts, corresponding to the four travels of the hero, with a total duration of 16 years and 7 months. Every time he sails from a concrete, real port city, and gets into completely outlandish, non-existent countries. Where he gets acquainted with the manners, worldly way of life, the way of life, traditions and laws that exist there and, in turn, tells those residents about England. And the first such place for the hero

of Swift is the country of Lilliput. Now about the hero: on the one hand Swift has put into him many features and qualities that belong to himself (that is, his original self-portrait), and on the other hand he has put into him wisdom, combined with simplicity, which help the hero every time, being in a new place to catch the most important feature inherent in a new place. At the same time, in the intonation of the hero there is always a certain detachment and a calm irony, as if he does not talk about his adventures, but looks at everything from the outside. He seems to be laughing at us, above himself, over all nature and human morals, which he sees as unchangeable. The novel written by Swift seems to belong to the literature of the “absurdity” peculiar to writers of the second half of the 20th century, therefore Swift seems to us a modern writer.

Let’s return to the first stop of Gulliver – the country of Lilliput, inhabited by very small people. From the very beginning, the author managed to convey (in this and other parts of the novel) from the point of view of psychology absolutely

exactly, the sensation of a person who got into a society of people (or beings) completely different from himself: these are feelings of loneliness, inner lack of freedom and abandonment because of the fact that around you – all and all the others, not like you. With secret and surprising humor, slowly Gulliver talks about the absurdities and absurdities that face in Lilliput.

The Lilliputians are at first very friendly to the Man of Grief (they called Gulliver): they give him shelter, they make special laws to regulate the hero’s communication with the locals, to ensure safety, he is fed, despite the fact that he eats as much as 1728 Lilliputians! The emperor himself welcomed him (Gulliver rendered invaluable assistance to the state-he brought the entire fleet of neighboring, hostile state Blefuscu to the rope), he was granted the highest title of the state. Gulliver is consecrated in the customs of the country, and he commits an oath of allegiance to the state of Lilliput. In the text, special attention should be paid to the first part, which enumerates the numerous titles of the emperor (the most powerful, terrifying and comforting of the entire universe)! If we take into account the size of this lilliput with those epithets that are given to him. it is impossible to compare with anything. Then Gulliver is introduced to the political system of the country: in Lilliput, a bipartisan system, parties are at enmity among themselves and are called Tremexenes and Slemexenas, they are distinguished from each other, what one advocates for low heels and the second for high heels. It is because of this insignificant issue between them that “the fierce strife” occurs. This kind of question (from which end to break the eggs from the blunt or acute) led to the war two great empires – Lilliputia and Blefuscu. This Swift hinted at his contemporary England, which was divided into supporters of the Tories and Whigs. This confrontation has now become history, and the allegory, invented by Sfift, is still alive today. After all, it’s not in the Whigs and Tories, and in a particular country in a particular era – the allegory of Swift turned out to be “for all time”. in Lilliputia a bipartisan system, parties are at enmity among themselves and are called Tremexenas and Slemexenas, they are distinguished from each other, what one advocates for low heels, and the second for high heels. It is because of this insignificant issue between them that “the fierce strife” occurs. This kind of question (from which end to break the eggs from the blunt or acute) led to the war two great empires – Lilliputia and Blefuscu. This Swift hinted at his contemporary England, which was divided into supporters of the Tories and Whigs. This confrontation has now become history, and the allegory, invented by Sfift, is still alive today. After all, it’s not in the Whigs and Tories, and in a particular country in a particular era – the allegory of Swift turned out to be “for all time”. in Lilliputia a bipartisan system, parties are at enmity among themselves and are called Tremexenas and Slemexenas, they are distinguished from each other, what one advocates for low heels, and the second for high heels. It is because of this insignificant issue between them that “the fierce strife” occurs. This kind of question (from which end to break the eggs from the blunt or acute) led to the war two great empires – Lilliputia and Blefuscu. This Swift hinted at his contemporary England, which was divided into supporters of the Tories and Whigs. This confrontation has now become history, and the allegory, invented by Sfift, is still alive today. After all, it’s not in the Whigs and Tories, and in a particular country in a particular era – the allegory of Swift turned out to be “for all time”. that one advocates for low heels, and the second – for high. It is because of this insignificant issue between them that “the fierce strife” occurs. This kind of question (from which end to break the eggs from the blunt or acute) led to the war two great empires – Lilliputia and Blefuscu. This Swift hinted at his contemporary England, which was divided into supporters of the Tories and Whigs. This confrontation has now become history, and the allegory, invented by Sfift, is still alive today. After all, it’s not in the Whigs and Tories, and in a particular country in a particular era – the allegory of Swift turned out to be “for all time”. that one advocates for low heels, and the second – for high. It is because of this insignificant issue between them that “the fierce strife” occurs. This kind of question (from which end to break the eggs from the blunt or acute) led to the war two great empires – Lilliputia and Blefuscu. This Swift hinted at his contemporary England, which was divided into supporters of the Tories and Whigs. This confrontation has now become history, and the allegory, invented by Sfift, is still alive today. After all, it’s not in the Whigs and Tories, and in a particular country in a particular era – the allegory of Swift turned out to be “for all time”. This kind of question (from which end to break the eggs from the blunt or acute) led to the war two great empires – Lilliputia and Blefuscu. This Swift hinted at his contemporary England, which was divided into supporters of the Tories and Whigs. This confrontation has now become history, and the allegory, invented by Sfift, is still alive today. After all, it’s not in the Whigs and Tories, and in a particular country in a particular era – the allegory of Swift turned out to be “for all time”. This kind of question (from which end to break the eggs from the blunt or acute) led to the war two great empires – Lilliputia and Blefuscu. This Swift hinted at his contemporary England, which was divided into supporters of the Tories and Whigs. This confrontation has now become history, and the allegory, invented by Sfift, is still alive today. After all, it’s not in the Whigs and Tories, and in a particular country in a particular era – the allegory of Swift turned out to be “for all time”.

The situations described by Swift, human weaknesses and state orders sound very modern, however, like some textual passages. For example: the language of the Blephuscans differed from that of the Lilliputians, just as the languages ​​of any two peoples of Europe differ. And each nationality at the same time is proud of the beauty, antiquity and expressiveness of its own language. So in the book the emperor, taking advantage of the situation (thanks to the seizure of the enemy fleet), demanded from the embassy [the Belfusans] to negotiate in the Lilliputian language.

Although the narrative is on behalf of Gulliver, but in his voice, the voice of Swift, a utopian and idealist, is heard. He likes the Lilliputian laws that put morality above mental merit, and laws that prescribe denunciations and fraud are much more serious crimes than theft. And the law that considers ingratitude as a punishable crime explicitly manifested the utopian dreams of Swift, who on his experience knew the price of ingratitude – both personally and on a national scale.

However, some of the emperor’s advisers do not share his enthusiasm for the Mountain Man, many do not like his elevation (literally and figuratively). They organize the accusation, turning all the good things Gulliver provided to crimes. These advisors demand the death of Gulliver, and the methods for this are offered the most cruel. Only the chief secretary of the “secret affairs” Relstresel, considered “true friend” of Gulliver, is truly humane towards him: he proposes to gouge out both eyes to Gulliver. Justifying this by the fact that such a measure will lead the whole world into admiration, as it will be a demonstration of the true meekness of the monarch, and the generosity and generosity of his advisers. In fact, he thinks more about the state interests, which Gulliver’s physical strength can still come in handy, and this just does not suffer with the loss of his eyes.

Another example of Swift’s foresight in this work: he describes the custom introduced by this emperor of the Lilliputians: if a court sentenced someone to please the vengeance of a monarch or his favorite to a severe punishment, the emperor at a meeting of the state council makes a speech in which he extols his greatest mercy and kindness as all recognized and well-known qualities. This speech is announced the same hour throughout the empire, which is incredibly frightening people. As the people have already established that the more extensive and intricate these praises are to the charity of the emperor, the punishment will be inhumane, and the sacrifice will be more innocent. It does not seem like the examples we know from life.

Gulliver is forced to flee to Blefuscu. Then the story repeats itself, everyone is happy, but at the same time are happy to get rid of it more quickly. Gulliver is forced to secretly build a boat and swim away from these unfriendly nations (taking with him a miniature sheep, which he said quickly proliferated), then he accidentally meets an English ship and returns home to England. The second strange country, where Gulliver-by-accident happens to be – Brockdingnag is a country of giants, there Gulliver already resembles a kind of a lilliput. Each time the hero of Swift falls into another reality, in a kind of “looking-glass”, and in a matter of days or hours. That is, the real and the surreal coexist very close, you just want to get there.

In this part, Gulliver and the locals, in comparison with the previous part, seem to be changing roles. And the appeal of the local population with Gulliver exactly corresponds to his behavior towards the Lilliputians, which is written in detail and in detail by Swift. An example of his hero, he shows the property of a person to adapt to any circumstances and any, even the most fantastic and incredible life situation, which is deprived of those fictitious, mythological creatures that Gulliver is visiting.

Gulliver, finding himself in a fantastic world, realizes the relativity of our ideas about the world in which we live. Swift’s hero has the ability to accept the circumstances in which it turns out, that is, has “tolerance”, for which for several decades earlier Swift was advocated by Voltaire. In a new country, Gulliver turns out to be less than just a dwarf, he gets into all sorts of adventures, and eventually gets back to the king’s court, and becomes a beloved interlocutor of “His Majesty.” In one of these conversations Gulliver talks about his homeland. (These stories are repeated in every country where the hero gets to, and each time Gulliver’s interlocutors are amazed at what he tells them.) For Gulliver’s inexperienced interlocutors, all his stories seem to be real absurdity and delirium, and often they ingratiatingly consider them to be lies or fiction. At the end of this conversation, Gulliver (or perhaps Swift) concludes that a brief account of the history of the country in the last century has inexpressibly surprised the king. The king made his conclusion: this story is a bunch of conspiracies, murders, confusions, beatings, expulsions and revolutions that are the worst result of greed, hypocrisy, partisanship, treachery, rabies, cruelty, insanity, envy, hatred, voluptuousness, ambition and anger!

The more sarcastic is Gulliver’s own words that he was compelled to listen quietly to this insulting description to his beloved homeland. At the same time, he says that one can not demand too much from a king who is cut off from the rest of the world and therefore can not judge the customs and customs of other peoples without certain prejudices. In this episode, Swift’s obvious mockery, extremely obvious, and transparent, that does not require comment. And yet Gulliver, even in the company of such a good interlocutor as the king of giants, feels all the humiliation of his position: a midget among the giants. He again rushes home to his family. And when he returns home, he can not adapt: ​​everything seems to him. very little.

In the third part, Gulliver first appears on the flying island of Laputu. Again, everything that he observes and describes – is the height of the absurd, and Gulliver’s (Swift’s) intonation is again imperturbable-meaningful, and is openly ironic. And again everything that he describes is easily recognizable: like the Laputians’ appetite for news and politics, and the constant fear settled in their minds, which keeps the Laputians constantly in such anxiety that they are not able to sleep or enjoy life at all. The visible embodiment of absurdity, which is the basis of life on the island, is the flapper, designed to make the listeners concentrate on what they are being told at the moment. And when Gulliver descends from the island to the “continent” and finds himself in the capital (the city of Lagado), he is shocked by the combination of boundless ruin and poverty, striking around, and peculiar oases of order (remaining, as it turned out, from a past, normal life). The so-called “projectors” led to the ruin, which, after a trip to the island (that is, abroad in our own way) began to compose projects for alteration of everything, in a new way. The Academy of Projectors first appeared in the capital, and then in all the big and small cities of the country. His visit to the Academy and conversations with learned men Gulliver describes with incomparable sarcasm, combined with contempt (to those, in the first place, who allow themselves to be fooled). abroad in our own way) began to make projects of alteration of everything, in a new way. The Academy of Projectors first appeared in the capital, and then in all the big and small cities of the country. His visit to the Academy and conversations with learned men Gulliver describes with incomparable sarcasm, combined with contempt (to those, in the first place, who allow themselves to be fooled). abroad in our own way) began to make projects of alteration of everything, in a new way. The Academy of Projectors first appeared in the capital, and then in all the big and small cities of the country. His visit to the Academy and conversations with learned men Gulliver describes with incomparable sarcasm, combined with contempt (to those, in the first place, who allow themselves to be fooled).

Tired of all the “miracles”, Gulliver decides to return to England, but on his way to the house first turns out to be the island of Glabboddrib, and then the kingdom of Lagnegg. It should be noted that with the transfer of Gulliver from an unusual country to another more and more turbulent is the fantasy of Swift, and his venomous contempt is ever more merciless and ruthless. This is the description of the manners at the court of King Luggnegga.

The final part of the novel is devoted to the journey of Gulliver to the country of Houyhnhnms (horses). It is in the Guingmanns that Gulliver finally finds those human traits that he (Swift) would probably like to observe in people. And evil men and evil disgusting creatures serve as guignons, ehu, who, like two drops of water, look like a man deprived of the cover of civilization, therefore they appear as real savages alongside the highly moral, well-bred, respectable horses, in which honor and nobility, dignity and modesty live, as well as a habit of abstinence.

Again Gulliver talks about his country with its customs, manners, political structure, traditions – and again his story meets first distrust, and then – perplexity turning into anger: how can one live in contradiction to the laws of nature? The device of the horse-guingnm community is a variant of the utopia of Swift, the old writer, who has already lost faith in nature. Swift was not “simple-minded”, so his utopia looks utopian even for himself. This is shown in the fact that these respectable and sympathetic Guingnms drive out the alien-Gulliver who has flocked into their “herd”. Too it turned out to be like an echo, and it does not matter to them that this similarity is only in the structure of the body. If he is an echo, then let him live next to the ehu, and not in the company of “decent horses”. He is expelled and Gulliver finishes his wanderings, again coming home. In England, he retires to his small garden in Redrif, where he meditates, and in practice exercises the lessons of virtue.