Ques. Discuss how the first
two voyages are complementary to each other.
Ans. Jonathan Swift was probably the greatest intellectual figure of the first half of the eighteenth century. He was the subtle observer of the follies and foibles of human society. He considers man as a blending of both good and evil. Because every human being has the capacity of being corrupted and idealistic minded. If we look back on us we can see those lacking which we find in others can also be found in us. Here in Gulliver’s Travels when Gulliver find Lilliputian corrupted and in Brobdingnag Gulliver find himself in same position. It indicates that human values are variable place to place, time to time. In that sense, Gulliver’s voyage to Lilliputians and voyage to Brobdingnag are complementary to each other.
Ans. Jonathan Swift was probably the greatest intellectual figure of the first half of the eighteenth century. He was the subtle observer of the follies and foibles of human society. He considers man as a blending of both good and evil. Because every human being has the capacity of being corrupted and idealistic minded. If we look back on us we can see those lacking which we find in others can also be found in us. Here in Gulliver’s Travels when Gulliver find Lilliputian corrupted and in Brobdingnag Gulliver find himself in same position. It indicates that human values are variable place to place, time to time. In that sense, Gulliver’s voyage to Lilliputians and voyage to Brobdingnag are complementary to each other.
By this travelogue Swift satirize the neo-stoic humanism.
And the politics are remarkably present in Part l but such allusions are no more
continued in Part ll. In Part l Gulliver suffered from Lilliputian ingratitude,
petty jealousy, and slander, in Bribdingnag he suffered from humiliation. We
observe Swift’s satirical power in Gulliver’s discourse with the king of
Brobdingnag. In such discourses Gulliver heard some acrimonious comments from
the Brobdingnagian king upon being reported of articulate policies of European
civilization:
“How contemptible a thing
was human gratitude which could be mimicked by such diminutive insects”
Another is his famous observation on mankind as ‘the most pernicious
race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the
surface of the earth’.
Swift
plays with the size of human beings through the two voyages. A grater interest
of Gulliver’s Travels lies in the relationship between human body
and human reason. In Lilliput Gulliver appears more course than one can think
about, and the smallness of Lilliput makes then creatures of delicacy, more
than what they actually are. In Brobdingnag the mammoth bodies of giants emerge
under Gulliver’s microscopic observation foulsome and uncouth. On the other
hand, in Brobdingnag beside the emphatic presence of honesty there is also a
tinge of mischief (as in the behavior of the royal dwarf) or dishonesty (the
farmer’s greediness to acquire money by showing Gulliver) but nowhere Swift
engages in overdoing ugliness of these giant people or other associating darker
aspects. And Gulliver looks at the human beings through the wrong end of
telescope and they appear diminutive with all their pettiness and jealousy of
mind. Their minds seem to be as narrow as their tiny stature. Next he looks at
these human beings through magnifying glass and they appear as big as giants exposing all the ugliness of human physique.
Their mammoth physiques correspond to the nobility of their mind.
In
Lilliput, Swift particularly focuses on the political classes and follies
associated with it. There was a quarrel between Big-Endians and Little-Endians
alluding to the religious conflict between Roman Catholics and Protestants.
Also in Part I we come across the clash between Trumecksan (High-Heel) and
Slamecksan (Low-Heal). They allude to the political clash between the Tories
and the Whigs in British parliament.
In Gulliver’s
Travel irony becomes more than verbal; it becomes part of the entire
structure of the book, so that often the meaning- and eventually the largest
meaning- is seen obliquely- and that made the first two voyages complementary.
We are impressed by how Swift manipulates Gulliver in Brobdingnag: when
Gulliver develops a defensive contempt for things Brobdingnagians, the reader
quickly sees good in the things Gulliver condemns and conversely evil in what
he champions. Thus Gulliver reports with contempt the Brobdingnagians
preference for honest, simple arrangements in governments; he condemns the
giant king’s revulsion from using gunpowder to enslave his own people as ‘a nice, necessary scruple’. The reader knows that Swift’s opinion is
quite the opposite of Gulliver’s.
Again,
over the course of the novel, there are several changes in swift’s style. In the
first two voyages, the style is constant. It is relatively light heated but
still biting satire of European culture and politics, framed as an adventure
among dwarves and giants. Gulliver’s perceptions of himself and the people and
things around him change, giving Swift ample opportunity to inject into the
story both irony and satire of the England of his day and of the human
condition. Actually no form of government is ideal- the simplistic Brobdingnagis
enjoy public execution and have struts infested with beggar, the honest and
upright. Gulliver’s view between pants- Gulliver sees the tiny Lilliputians as
being vicious and unscrupulous, and then the king of Brobdingnag sees Europe in
the exactly the same light.
The
elements and the contemporary politics and politicians have been reflected in
the characters and philosophies of the Lilliputian’s Emperor and the king of
Brobdingnag. The portrayal of the Emperor of Lilliput sharply contrasts with
that of the king of Brobdingnag.
The
Emperor of Lilliput and the king of Brobdingnag represent two different
policies of the rulers. The differences between them are mainly due to their
formation and conditions of living. The king of big giants must have opinions
compatible with his size and strength, while the Emperor of the tiny people
must have been mean minded.
The empire of Lilliput is an
island the north-west of Australia. Its construction is ideal. While treason in
any form is severely punished, accusers are put to death and the victims
compensated out of their estates or by the Crown, and given appropriate
rewards; fraud is the capital crime, since trade depends on credit, so the
ingratitude. Moral virtues, rather than intellectual gifts, are required of
candidates for the posts, and religious belief is essential. On the other hand,
the kingdom of Brobdingnag is a ‘continent’ in the North pacific. The country
seems well governed, by a popular king, not an emperor. We gather that to him
common sense, reason, justice and mercy are the essence of state craft, and
that he looks for piety, valour, integrity and wisdom in candidates for office.
Indeed, what in the neglected laws of Lilliput is put into practice in
Brobdingnag. That makes the first two voyages complementary. The Emperor of the
Lilliput was imperialistic. He was ‘the
delight and terror of the universe’ whose dominions extended ‘to the extremities of the globe’ and
whose feet pressed down to the centre of the earth and whose head struck
against the sun. He wants to rule over the universe. So he wants to bring
Blefuscu under his sovereignty. Yet he is not satisfied and he wants Gulliver
to destroy all the ships of Blefuscu. But Gulliver refused to do so. the Emperor
becomes displeased with him, and plans to punish him. The Emperor also wanted
to destroy the Big-Endians living in exile in Blefuscu and compelling them to
break the smaller end of their eggs. Thus the Emperor of Lilliput is the idol
of tyranny, persecution, and hypocrisy. The king of Brondingnag, on the other
hand, is the representation of virtue and benevolence. He is peace loving and
not anti-human like the Emperor of Lilliput. Like the emperor the giant king
does not want to colonize countries and people. He opposed to destruction and
war.
The comparison and contrast
between Lilliput and Brobdingnag is vivid. The portrayal of the king of
Brobdingnag gives a rise to a feeling of admirations in our minds for the
ruler, but the portrayal of the Emperor of Lilliput is more or less caricature.
The Lilliputians are oppressive and tyrant while Brobdingnagians are peace
loving, benevolent and devoted to prosperity of their nation. The
Brobdingnagian are very much honest and afraid of war.
But the personal and party
grievances are absorbed in the general satire of Brobdingnag. Placing Gulliver
in such a predicament doubly strengthens the satiric effect: for not only does
he become to the Brobdingnagians- the name is in itself gigantic- what
Lilliputians were to him, but he is inadvertently forced into re-evaluating
past experience in light of present ones. Turned from giant to pygmy, Gulliver
again undergoes serious bodily inconveniences and indignities, but this time
finds the physical readjustment of mental values. How even brilliant minds could
have been ignorant of Swift’s original genius in actually compelling contrast between Part l and Part
ll is concentrates as- when once you have thought of big men and little men it
is very easy to do all the rest.
In Part l, satire does not turn
into a bitter attack rather it is employed in lighter vein. For the smallness
of Lilliput we can assume from distant observe the ways with harmless fun. We
are lenient to them and nothing can arouse disgust at these creatures.
Some comments of Gulliver in Part
ll eulogize European civilization. In his discourse with the king of
Brobdingnag Gulliver took pride in glorifying the wisdom and culture of
European people. After listening to Gulliver’s exaltation of European
civilization, its complex laws and over jealous politicians the king concluded:
“I cannot conclude the bulk of your native to be
the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that Nature ever suffered to
crawl upon the surface of the earth”
This presents of the European
civilization in the glorious light.
Gulliver excremental difficulties
in Lilliput and Brobdingnag, his unique method of extinguishing palace fires,
his outraged description of the Brobdingnagian court maids- are the examples of
the theme of man’s animal grossness,
Swift’s misanthropy –which make the two voyages complementary.
Swift consider man as a blending
of both good and evil. He is animal rationis capax (is an animal capable of
becoming rational). Since he can exercise his rational faculty and can see the
moral truth. But he is not all perfect so he prevents his reason and
understanding. Gulliver’s Travel draws our base desires or actually a
regeneration of such desire.
Then after the relatively mild
introduction of Part l, an introduction shows men as petty, scheming,
shockingly vicious little creatures. Swift gives us in Part ll a sudden expansion
of possibilities for man and a hint of the devastating exposures that will
follow. The noble Brobdingnagians are ‘man
big’, as the sneaky Lilliputians were ‘man
little’. Part ll foreshadows what will follow; when the Brobdingnagians
king denounces men as most pernicious little odious vermin -but Gulliver
rejects the king’s judgment as being a confined education. Gulliver is not
ready to accept man’s depravity.
Swift contrasts man’s reality with
the possibilities of his greatness. Parallel contrasts are present in each book
even within the character of Gulliver. He presents himself as a good-natured
giant when seen against the Lilliputian (morally as well as physically) against
the good-natured Brobdingnag giants. Thus Swift very powerfully makes the point
that the reader who dismiss the pettiness and corruption of the Lilliputians as
those of a little and imaginary people cannot escape when he sees his own kind
of European people taking place of Lilliputians; for Gulliver staunchly insists
upon the European character of his conscience and exists European ways of
acting and thinking precisely when he makes his sorry appearance by contrast
against the great Brobdingnag.
So we can say that no human
beings are perfect. When there will be more developed and idealistic world,
there we will be able to find our own limitations, smallness and our problems. Both
the goodness and badness is necessary –as well as they are complementary. So,
in that sense, and analyzing all points we can come in this conclusion that
first two voyages of Gulliver’s Travel are complementary
to each other.
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