Jonathan Swift Passage Analysis

Gulliver’s Travels, is a novel written by Jonathan Swift in the early eighteenth century. Swift wrote Gulliver’s Travels about a man who goes on multiple voyages over the course of several years. It is a satirical novel with some fantasy included. Swift uses multiple techniques throughout the novel and shows his style in writing. In this essay Swift’s life and influences will be discussed, a short plot summary, themes, symbols, as well as Swift’s literary prose techniques and a prose analysis all retaining to the novel Gulliver’s Travels. To begin, Jonathan Swift was born on November 30th 1667, in Dublin, Ireland. He was raised by his uncle as his father died two months before he was born and his mother had a disease that affected her inner

In the exposition it is explained that Lemuel Gulliver went to study at a college at fourteen years old, and learned how to be a surgeon and learned navigation skills after being an apprentice for Mr. James Bates, a surgeon. Gulliver was a surgeon on a ship for three years, and then settled in London and opened a business where he worked as a doctor. The initial conflict arises when Mr. James Bates dies, and since Gulliver does not have many friends to aid him, his business began to fail. He thus decides to go back to sea and complete voyages once again. The rising action occurs when Gulliver goes on four voyages and encounters many events that change who he is as a person. He first goes to a place called Lilliput where the inhabitants are extremely small compared to him, he then goes to a place called Brobdingnag where the inhabitants are incredibly large, after that he travels to a floating island called Laputa, and his final voyage is to an unknown land inhabited by incredibly wise horses. The climax of the story is when Gulliver is residing in an unknown land inhabited by wise horses called Houyhnhnms. There he realizes that human society is inferior to Houyhnhnms and rejects it. The Falling action is when Gulliver unhappily returns to England and is completely disgusted by humans, therefore alienating himself. He has no interest in

Four important stylistic techniques used in the novel are point of view, imagery, irony, and satire. The point of view in the novel is first person throughout the entire story. Gulliver often talks about himself and his feelings, and talks to the readers directly. This enables the readers to understand better how Gulliver is feeling. Also, “Gulliver is clearly established as a self-conscious narrator…” based on some of the things he states; he is not always certain of his actions and often doesn’t add vast details so he doesn’t trouble the reader (Jacobe 122). Imagery is also used often to put an image into the readers head. Gulliver often describes things in great detail, and this helps the reader be able to actually imagine the situation and see it in their head. Irony is another stylistic technique that shows Jonathan Swift’s style, which is used to do something that is out of the readers expectation. An example of this would be when Gulliver encounters Yahoos, who are human human-like creatures that live with the Houyhnhnms, and are unexpectedly treated like horses would be regularly. The Houyhnhnms corral Yahoos like Humans would corral horses. “They were all tied by the neck with strong withes, fastened to a beam; they held their food between the claws of their forefeet, and tore it with their teeth” (Swift 231). The most important stylistic