Great Summary of Gulliver’s Travels With Analysis And Examples

Summary of Gulliver’s Travels is being discussed in this article.Gulliver’s Travels is the masterpiece of the Irish writer Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), one of the greatest satirists in English. The book, is originally published anonymously in 1726.It tells the sea missions of a physician on board, Lemuel Gulliver, who meets fantastic beings and populations on imaginary islands. Gulliver’s adventures, reveals the miseries of human nature , often resulting in a real black and sarcastic humor.

The novel consists of four parts , each journey is undertaken by the protagonist, English Lemuel Gulliver, a physician who takes the sea when his land activity fails.we notice the author’s contempt for the animal man. Jonathan Swift wants to demonstrate the contradictions of the civilization of his time to condemn false values ​​and prejudices . The book focuses on Gulliver, the man of the road that is being separated from everyday life. This allows the author to draw from the fantasy.

Each of the journeys lived by Gulliver becomes the story, from time to time, the judicial system, the mechanisms of power or the warlike politics of that European period. The adventure takes place in remote parts of the world. Here, the main character performs various journeys in different parts of the world where the author makes the metaphor to reveal the corruption in the most real world. The book is a kind of moral teaching to keep and consider. Say goodbye to false values ​​and prejudices to acquire new, more real and continuous ones, this is the magnificent goal that Swift likes.

Summary of Gulliver’s Travels Is Good Insight For English Literature Students

Lilliput In  Gulliver’s Travels

The first trip (from 1699 to 1702) is also the most well-known, and tells how Gulliver, sacked by the British city of Bristol, finds, after a shipwreck, on the beach of the unknown land of Lilliput. Here the protagonist is surrounded by so many tiny little men (whose stature is fifteen centimeters) that have tied him with a thousand nets.In fact, the Lilliputians are a very hospitable people: they lead him to the city, offer him hospitality and feed him. Gulliver also has a very friendly meeting with Lilliput Emperor, who decides to use it as a weapon against the island of Blefuscu, inhabited by the acrobatics of the Lilliputians. The two peoples are divided mainly by a controversy: from what end exactly splitting an egg .Soon, Gulliver, who was very intelligent, begins to learn the language of the Liliputianos.But unfortunately he is used by the Emperor as a secret weapon against another realm, making Gulliver a cruel and unwanted beast.In this part of the book, Swift criticizes the futile motives England (and Europe in general) waged, and also demonstrated how easy it is to subjugate others when one is ‘superior’ to others (physically or economically).

Journey to Brobdingnag In Gulliver’s Travels

The second voyage (1706-1710) is somewhat opposite and mirrored at first: Gulliver embarks again but after a storm, the protagonist is abandoned on an island while his comrades are looking for food and water. Here Gulliver meets giants, Brobdingnag .Two months after arriving in his homeland, Gulliver embarks again on his second trip this time bound for Surat. Due to a storm, it is accidentally taken to the island of “Broddingnog, inhabited by a race of giants. Frightened by the size of the giants he fears being swallowed by them. However, Grilbrig, a farmer, takes him to his house and, with the intention of making profits and also to boast, he shows everyone his “find”: a strange animal that speaks and imitates all his acts.

At the invitation of Captain William Robson, Gulliver embarks on a voyage to the East Indies as commander of a sloop.Gulliver  learns that the island’s name was Laputa “Flying or Floating Island”. The inhabitants of Laputa lived on a ship and were connoisseurs of logic (Mathematics) and harmony (music), not interested in any other branch of knowledge.

Third Trip Laputa  In Gulliver’s Travels

But adventures are not over yet: in fact, Gulliver decides to board again for what is his third trip (1706-1710). Traveling to the East Indies and fortunately escaped the pirates, Gulliver ends up in the floating land of Laputa , inhabited by music scholars and maths who are completely inactive on the practical plane. Laputa’s scientists at the Lagado Academy dedicate themselves to absurd experiments and very unlikely searches (such as extracting sunshine from pumpkins or building homes from the roof), which demonstrate that theoretical knowledge is completely useless if it does not have real  Practices.

Tired of dying in this place, Gulliver thinks about returning to England, but the lack of a ship makes him visit an island called Glubboubdrib, which means “Island of sorcerers or magicians.” On this island, the governor has the power to call among the dead what he wants and to demand services for 24 hours (no more). At first Gulliver was frightened, but soon became familiar with the environment and took the opportunity to call the spirits of many personalities like Alexander the Great, Caesar, Pompey, Brito, Homer, Aristotle, Descartes, Gassendi, with the intention of clarifying some doubts about the old and modern stories.

Houyhnhnms And Yahoo In Gulliver’s Travels

During the fourth and final voyage (1710-1715), Gulliver is again in the grip with a maritime misfortune: the mutiny of his crew. He comes so fortunately to the land populated by the Houyhnhnms , horses with rationality, and their servants, the Yahoo , who are humans in appearance but abrupt in body and spirit. Gulliver soon becomes friends with the courteous and evocative Houyhnhnms, learns their language and explains to them the English Constitution. The society of Houyhnhnms is based on the principles of the purest values: they have no religion and do not know the pain of death (even that of their loved ones), their social structure is based on family. There were no terms to define feelings, falsehood, hypocrisy . Their disdain for Yahoo explains that when they want to express a concept or a negative opinion, they postpone what they call the word “yahoo”.

Conclusion of Gulliver’s Travels:

In “Travels of Gulliver,” Swift seeks to reveal the reality, the political and social life of England in the seventeenth century through satire. His satire is especially aimed at mankind.  “A Modest Proposal” a satire that criticizes the social situation of Ireland, with the idea that the poor of that country sold their small children to the wealthy classes to eat. In the book, the author divides the voyages into Four Parts and in each of them he makes a critique of eighteenth-century England, English colonialism and humanity in general.

Certainly! “Gulliver’s Travels” by Jonathan Swift is a classic satirical novel divided into four parts, each detailing a different voyage of the protagonist, Lemuel Gulliver. Here’s a summary in a tabular format:

Each voyage in “Gulliver’s Travels” serves as a vehicle for Swift to critique various aspects of society, politics, science, and human nature