You Thought "Gulliver's Travels" Was For Kids Didn't You??? - Essay One

A Bigger Picture Behind Little Lilliput                                                                                               

            

            Gulliver’s Travels, a political satire written in the eighteenth century by Englishman Jonathan Swift, is predominantly a critical commentary upon human society generally and upon European and English society in particular. It is the fictional account of Lemuel Gulliver’s adventures as he travels the seas and visits four different counties. The first country at which he ends up is named Lilliput, inhabited by a very tiny people mostly hostile to Gulliver. Gulliver recounts their customs and habits in great detail, including their criminal justice system, education, mannerisms, government and wars with the neighboring country of Blefescu.

            The culture and mannerisms of Lilliputian life are ones very similar to those of Swift’s England during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries – years marked by events such as the Civil War, Cromwellian government, the Restoration, the Glorious Revolution, the Enlightenment, and English colonialism overseas. Jonathan Swift was highly critical of these events and of the people and institutions which caused them. Thus his fictional Lilliput mirrors and mocks his own tiny England, big with self-importance.

            For instance Swift’s account of the ridiculous argument with Blefescu may easily be seen as a mockery of the Civil War between England, Scotland and Ireland. In England, the cause was the opposition to King Charles I’s rule by Parliament, which Swift considered wrong. In Lilliput, the cause of dispute was which end an egg should be cracked on first. Swift saw both conflicts as equally petty. Blefescu may also represent France during the Glorious Revolution, which was constantly threatening England during the reign of Mary and William of Orange.

            “There have been two struggling parties in this empire, under the names of Tramecksan and Slamecksan, from the high and low heels on their shoes, by which they distinguish themselves”… This is the account given by the royal secretary of Lilliput to Gulliver of the opposing parties within the kingdom. One cannot but help think of King Charles I, who was very fond of high-heeled shoes and was beheaded in the Civil War. Tramecksam and Slamecksan also bring the Whigs and Tories to mind, which two opposing parties appeared in Parliament for the first time after the Restoration.

            Lilliput’s naval defeat of Blefescu is similar to England’s famous defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 – her test of jump-roping to choose courtiers is a mockery of English politics – and her pride and injustice serve as a commentary upon England, a tiny country that thought very highly of itself during Swift’s time.