Gulliver's Travels as an Allegory

“Gulliver’s travels” was the culmination of swift’s literary achievement- his magnum opus.
It was begun in 1720 and finally published in 1726. It is at once a delightful, fantastic story
of adventure for children a political allegory and a serious satire on human nature, on
contemporary political, social institution, religious controversies and on the manners and
morals of the stage. This book is written in the form of travelogue. The hero and narrator and
the protagonist character of the story is “Lemuel Gulliver”, an English physician who opts to
travel as a ship’s surgeon when he is unable to take care of his family on his meager income.
Gulliver is endowed with a keen, almost journalistic sense of reportage, and a desire to
travel. The book is made up of four parts, each dealing with the person’s experiences in a
different fantasy land. Before we see more about Gulliver’s Travels, let’s see first of all
about allegory and satire. What is an allegory? An allegory is a literary genre which is
structured in such a way that its meaning could be read on two levels, and a secondary and
more complex level. An allegory is defined as a narrative in which the characters, plot,
setting and occasion, while making sense in themselves also signify a second layer of
meaning where they point at another set of people, events and setting either from the writer’s
mass, milieu or recent historical events. It is a figurative mode of representation where ideas
are conveyed through symbolism and metaphor.

“Gulliver’s Travels” – An allegorical satire “Swift was a wild beast who worried and baited
all mankind….” said Compton and Rickett in the book” The History of English Literature”.
Pramod K. Nayak marks, “Swift’s novel Gulliver’s Travels is a mocking account of such
journeys to different parts of the earth.” Gulliver’s Travels shows Swift’s gust with man. The
novel deals with directly human nature at every moment in the life. There is a great
happiness after reading seriousness behind the instruction of each and every place and time
in Gulliver’s Travels. What do we think after reading the novel? Can we put the novel
among the great books of satire or childish as well as adventure story? The novel has lots of
images that we can say the novel of satire and moral tale, a fanciful account of strange and
wonderful lands, and therein lie its real charm, one of the most delightful of children’s
books, an attractive fiction with a utopian concept, or a neurotic phantacy, ‘a pseudo-realistic
narrative and a playfulness of fancy’ says Compton and Rickett, or at last a short story of
numerous endeavors of common human being named Gulliver. But one should also focus on
the other side of the novel. Not only a medium of ultimate delight but it is also the novel of
great sarcastic remark of whole human being, mordant attack men, great hatred towards
human weakness misanthropy toward the whole human kind, irony on human frailty and
mockery on human beings’ existence and so many other things.

In “Gulliver’s Travels”, Swift uses satire on highlight the allegorical elements in his
tale. He has used allegory as a vehicle in an excellent way. What is a satire? Satire is a
literary genre in which human vices, weaknesses, foibles and follies are held up to ridicule.
Wit and humor are commonly used as instrument of satire. In “Gulliver’s Travels”, Swift
uses satire as a vehicle to point out to the depraved state of human kind. Some critics have
observed that Swift is a misanthropist because the paints human nature as a whole in a sordid
and gloom light, almost as if there are no redeeming features to humanity. Swift seems to be
holding up a mirror to society so that in viewing the gross magnification of its vices,
humanity has a hope for the future. The allegory and satire, in a sense, are interwoven
inextricably and deftly. A Voyage to Lilliput: - This deals with Gulliver’s experiences in the
land of the little people, who are no more than six-inches tall. It is on one level an absorbing
tale of the adventures of the giant Gulliver among the midgets of Lilliput and on another
level rich in England. It is above all a scathing satire on the moral pettiness of human as
seem in the behaviour of the Lilliputians. Human beings are filled with and importance and
cannot view themselves and objectivity. Their pride and boastfulness are revealed as
ridiculous when perceived from Gulliver’s great height. As we saw that the people of Lilliput
are more than six-inches tall. All their acts and motives are on the same dwarfish, petty
quarrels of these dwarfs, we are supposed to see the littleness and humanity. The statesmen
who obtain place and favour by cutting monkey capers the tight rope before their sovereign
and the two great parties, the littleendians and big-endians, who plugs the country into civil-
war over the momentous question of whether an egg should be broken on its big or on
politics of Swift’s own days and generations. In society, also, we see that type of people who
shows littleness in their nature and also shows the narrow mind. All their actions and aims in
life are at low level. They never try to come out from it. Their narrow and they live their life.
They are always busy in petty things because they can’t think they can’t think to go ahead in
life. This shows in trivial matters. A Voyage to Brobdingnag: - In this voyage, the situation
is reversed. Gulliver is now marooned and dwarfed in the land of giants who are over forty
feet tall. He now becomes the midget he had laughed at in Lilliput, observed through the
microscopic eyes of Gulliver, the Brobdingnagians are hideous in size and stature and
Gulliver realizes that he must have been just as hideous to the little people in Lilliput. Here,
Swift satirizes the physical grossness of the human and the grotesque ugliness of the human
body. Gulliver is little more than an insect in Brobdingnag and at his best, an amusing toy.
When Gulliver tells about his own people, their ambitions and comes and conquests, the
giants can only wonder that such great venom could exist in such little insects. Here, in the
second part, Gulliver is alone among the giants. He is showed as insects among the
Brobdingnagians because they think this way. Here, Swift satirizes on the Brobdignagian’s
unpleasant and unattractively large body. In a way, there are lots of people in society who
are huge at status but their thinking shows their narrowness. Also he satirizes on the ugliness
of the Brobdignagians. It shows that the thinking of that time of people who has very ugly
motif in their life to fulfil their wishes. We can see this, Brobdignagians, type of people
around us and also both we can see the physical grossness and ugliness in people. By this,
we can know their aims of life. They just boast on their endeavor, conquest. This type of
people believes that others are nothing before them. They show others inferior but in reality,
their unattractivity and ugliness becomes them inferior. A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi,
Language, Glubdubdrib, and Japan: - In this voyage, Swift satires on the Scientist and
Philosophers of the age. The people of Laputa have extraordinary physical features- head
turned at angle, one eye turned upward and the other inward. Through the people of Laputa,
Swift ridicules the experiments of the royal society and allied institution of the time. The
frightening emptiness and sterility of a purely scientific society is evident from this book.
The philosophers who worked eight years to extract sunshine from cucumbers are typical of
Swift’s satire treatment of all scientific problems. It is in this voyage hear of the struldbrugs,
a ghastly race of the men who are doomed to live up on the earth after losing hope and the
desire for life. The picture is all the more terrible in view of the last years of Swift’s own life
in which he was compelled to live on a burden to himself and his friends. In this third good,
Gulliver’s journeys go through different people, culture, custom and rules. The strange thing
of the people of Laputa regarding the physical structure of the body shows types of people at
that time. Also Swift’s disliked the society of his time that’s why he satires on it. Here,
cucumber is the typical of Swift’s satiric treatment of all scientific problems. This shows the
ridiculous thing of scientific problems show that time of things. There are different types of
people who show different types of culture of swift’s time. A voyage to the country of the
Houyhnhnms: - In this voyage, Gulliver narrates his experiences of his journey to the land of
the Houyhnhnms and the yahoos. The horses are creatures governed by solely by reason, free
from any emotions and passions, while the yahoos who physically resemble human beings
are ruled purely by animal’s instincts. Swift seems to indicate to us that the nature of the
human is complex and defies definition unlike that of the yahoos and the Houyhnhnms. The
book for all its harsh satire and anger, instructs human to see themselves with humility and
honesty and it condemns pride ego and myopic self-esteem. It urges every person to use
reason to be a good Christian. Swift here tries to say that we have to live our life in a way in
which we can show the humanity. Swift emphasized on the yahoos that despite of human
being, they are unspeakable persons who show the brutality of that time. Also by the female
yahoos Swift shows the lust in their nature this also a picture of his time. We have to live
like a good Christian and try to avoid that all things which damages humanity. Conclusion:-
By these four voyages, Gulliver’s journey goes through different types of people, culture,
customs, beliefs etc. they show the society of swift’s time. Like, how they cure narrow
minded also interested in petty things and unattractive appearances and ugliness of humanity
etc. All these, proof of that time of people’s way of thinking and living.

It looks like; Swift has extracted England from the glob and fitted in his book that
represents the mass, milieu and moment of the land. Sometime ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ is
reckoned as an utopian or dystopian novel same like Thomas Moor’s "Utopia", ‘Brave New
World’ by Aldus Huxley where ideal state is visualized where no one can get delight and joy
from any place. Such a dystopian novel is an imaginative reality and allegorical satire. The
dystopian novel is a seething attack on wretchedness and hypocrisy of the royal class people.
The novel is a tongue-in-check presentation of factual pertinent to the narrative. Gulliver’s
boringness suggests that he is now no more but such adventure like sea voyage makes him
feisty and powerful. People are not happy in their own society because of evils of social
dogmas and taboos. Such a great affliction leads him toward his social leads him toward
great traveling of danger and terror of the life. There is a deep significance and
meaningfulness in the storm and the shipwreck that is ironically and satirically manifested.
One can say that ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ is an allegorical satire on various kinds of the people.