Swift's "Gulliver's Travels"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" is a satire. The author points out that the madness of the characters is really a tool to satirize that which is being made fun of, in this case, the civility of men. The paper states that the distance between the reader and Gulliver in the narrative gives the feeling that the work is a travel log, which no reader could possibly believe. The author concludes that the message of this book is for readers to see madness not as madness but as valuable knowledge, which can change the shape of their own behavior and beliefs.

From the Paper:

"The job is done in "Gulliver's Travels", by reversing the roles of men and horses, showing the horse to be kind and gentle, even to a creature that they recognize as a refined Yahoo, the name they have given to the human beasts. The horses even took it upon themselves to feed Gulliver's growth, as they recognized in him a refinement that was lacking the other yahoos, and heartily went about trying to teach him their language."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Elfenbein, Andrew. "Cultural Constructions of Madness in Eighteenth-Century Writing: Representing the Insane." Wordsworth Circle 36.4 (2005): 158.
• Ingram, Allan. The Madhouse of Language: Writing and Reading Madness in the Eighteenth Century. New York: Routledge, 1991.
• Richardson, John. "Still to Seek: Politics, Irony, Swift." Essays in Criticism 49.4 (1999): 300-318.
• Turner, Paul, ed. Gulliver's Travels. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

More papers on Swift's "Gulliver's Travels":

• Book Review # 109007 : "Jonathan Swifts' "Gulliver's Travels"
• Book Review # 117773 : "Gullivers Travels"
• Analytical Essay # 52993 : "Gulliver's Travels"
• Analytical Essay # 63838 : "Gulliver's Travels"

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