Political satire
Gulliver’s travel is a master piece of satire which is written by Jonathan Swift. This novel created a new dimension in the history of English literature. Religion,society,human nature and political condition of the contemporary England are portrayed in this text.
Political satire is a satire which satirizes the political devices and activities. In Gulliver’s Travels Swift expresses his political satire to show the wicked activities and modification of politics and politicians of the eighteenth century England with a view to correcting them.
The political satire is started from beginning of the story. In Gulliver's first adventure, he begins on a ship that runs aground on a submerged rock. He swims to land, and when he awakens, he finds himself tied down to the ground, and surrounded by tiny people, the Lilliputians. Gulliver is surprised "at the intrepidity of these diminutive mortals, who dare venture to mount and walk upon my body" (I.i.16). The Lilliputians are the personification of England of the time period. The Lilliputians are small people who control Gulliver with their threats. England was a small country that had Europe and many other parts of the world under their control.
In the first part, Gulliver goes to the country of Lilliput where he is experiencing many problems. He has to do many works and learn their culture, religion, Education, and language. He observes that the Lilliputs are divided against themselves politically and religiously. There are two political factions; the High Heels and the Low Heels which are correspond to two religions faction. Here two Lilliputians parties stand for English political parties. The high heels represent Tories, the low heels Whigs. These two are the struggling parties of English soil both politically and by religion. Here, it should be mentioned that at first Swift was Whig and later joined the Tory. Again the king was sympathetic to the Whigs. He used them to support Hanover against France and appointed them to official positions to strengthen his position against the House of Lords. In the Lilliput’s country, the Emperor is an ironic depiction as King George-I.
Gulliver encounters a ridiculous war. His first encounter of war over the way to eat an egg. A former king took the right of personal choice away from his people.
He told them to eat the egg from the small end instead of the large end. Swift relates this trait to the situations where a dominant ruler oppresses nations. It also shows how a simple, ridiculous act can bring war. The fight continues through generations, soon the people continued to fight without really understanding why. Some of the people resisted and they found refuge in Blefuscu, an the two sides have been at war. According to Swift, Lilliput is like to England, and Blefuscu to France. With this event Swift satirizes the unnecessary struggling and fighting between the two nations.
He told them to eat the egg from the small end instead of the large end. Swift relates this trait to the situations where a dominant ruler oppresses nations. It also shows how a simple, ridiculous act can bring war. The fight continues through generations, soon the people continued to fight without really understanding why. Some of the people resisted and they found refuge in Blefuscu, an the two sides have been at war. According to Swift, Lilliput is like to England, and Blefuscu to France. With this event Swift satirizes the unnecessary struggling and fighting between the two nations.
In part IV, Gulliver represents the middle ground between pure reason (as embodied by the Houyhnhnms) and pure animalism (as embodied by the depraved Yahoo), yet Gulliver’s pride refuses to allow him to recognize the Yahoo aspects in himself. Therefore, he identifies himself with the Houyhnhnms and in fact, tries to become one. But the horses are alien to Gulliver, yet he thinks of the Yahoos as alien and animal. Separating himself from his naturally depraved cousins, the Yahoo, Gulliver also separates himself from European Yahoos. He is near to madness because of pride. However, Gulliver has ‘reasoned’ himself into rejecting his species and his nature and all according to the due Course of Things. Swift had many ‘imperfect sympathies’ – the Catholic native Irishman, the dissenting Scottish Presbyterian, the obstinate Dutchman, the subtle politician and the gambling aristocrat- but most of all he hated false pride, and especially man’s false pride in his own institutions, those very institutions which, he felt, were responsible for so much misery and decay.
Finally, I would like to say, Swift’s Political satire is a weapon against the political conflict in his time. He satirizes the contemporary political condition as well as the politicians. His purposes of the satire are of human frailty, conceit, stupidity, and barbarism. The satire is rarely their customs ideals and through contrast with European customs.
