Gulliver's Travels: Satire's Paradise
An Irish bishop was forced by Jonathan Swift to say that Gulliver's Travels, "was full of improbable lies, and for his part he hardly believed a word of it." (Brady 1) In a way the bishop was correct as six-inch people, giants, immortal humans, intelligent horses, and deformed creatures, all races presented in Swift's novel, don't exist. Gulliver's Travels, by far, was the most popular, influential, and controversial novel. For nearly three centuries, authors, professors, and critics have tried to fully decipher the purpose and meaning of his farfetched characters. A common conflict many critics arise at when researching or reading Gulliver's Travels is whether to identify it as a novel or a satire. (Knowles 3) The details and characters of the literature can be argued in either way. Whatever the identity of the work, Gulliver's Travels proved to be influential and controversial to the degree that within two weeks of its publication not only did it become, "the conversation of the whole town," but was also sold out. (Downie 262)
Before any more is mentioned about the influence or aspects of this literature, it is first important to fully comprehend the meaning of satire with which Gulliver Travels is identified many times. Satire is the use of wit to depict idiocy, flaws, and illogicality. Inversely, it is a type of condemnation, which uses jesting to formulate its position; hence satire is essentially directed critical of fault, particularly those submitted as levelheaded scheme. Also, satire is frequently aimed at against those in authority, headship, or influence. It generally uses circuitous forms of joking, such as irony, exaggeration, and parody, to make its statements; troubles are tackled implicitly; for example, admiring that which merits criticism or taking a dreadful or feeble proposal to its bizarre conclusion. (Jaffebros)
Written in a first person narrative of Lemuel Gulliver, the story and characteristics of Gulliver's Travels can easily be
Before any more is mentioned about the influence or aspects of this literature, it is first important to fully comprehend the meaning of satire with which Gulliver Travels is identified many times. Satire is the use of wit to depict idiocy, flaws, and illogicality. Inversely, it is a type of condemnation, which uses jesting to formulate its position; hence satire is essentially directed critical of fault, particularly those submitted as levelheaded scheme. Also, satire is frequently aimed at against those in authority, headship, or influence. It generally uses circuitous forms of joking, such as irony, exaggeration, and parody, to make its statements; troubles are tackled implicitly; for example, admiring that which merits criticism or taking a dreadful or feeble proposal to its bizarre conclusion. (Jaffebros)
Written in a first person narrative of Lemuel Gulliver, the story and characteristics of Gulliver's Travels can easily be