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Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

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Essay

Prompt: A critic has said that one important measure of a superior work of literature is its ability to produce in the reader a healthy confusion of pleasure and disquietude. Select a literary work that produces this "healthy confusion." Write an essay in which you explain the sources of the "pleasure and disquietude" experience by the readers of the work.

 

Essay

            In Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift has the ability to produce a healthy confusion of pleasure and disquietude within the reader. He is successful at this in many ways in his stories of Gulliver's adventures. Many scenes and actions of Gulliver are questionable and may give the reader an abundance of emotions from humorous to even uneasiness, anxiety or disgust.

          As Gulliver awakens on the island of the Lilliputians, he realizes he is tied down to the ground from his head to his feet with tiny strings. As he is trying to release himself, he is attacked by an array of arrows by the little civilians. The disquietude of this situation is the fact that the giant Gulliver did not get up and harm the little people that were shooting arrows at him. This may be due to his curiosity and obligation towards them. He confesses, "I was often tempted, while they were passing backwards and forwards on my body, to seize forty or fifty of the first that came in my reach, and dash them against the ground." (6) Gulliver is the obvious powerful figure in this situation and the healthy confusion here is that he is the giant that is being attacked and held down by such small people. It does not seem realistic for Gulliver to not be portrayed as the stronger character. A question the reader may ask is why Gulliver didn't get mad and just break the strings to immediately get up.
         Nature's bodily functions are not always a comfortable topic for readers to visualize, although it is a natural body function that everyone experiences. An example of one of these scenes is when Gulliver respects and enjoys the empress and her castle, but when there is a fire in the castle, he "makes water" on it to put out the fire. After watching all of the Lilliputians carrying several buckets of water trying to put out the fire, Gulliver feels that his idea of "making water" on the castle is the fastest solution. This scene seems amusingly funny, yet leaves the reader as well as the little people disgusted. There is also another scene in which Gulliver discharged his body of the "uneasy load" that the Lilliputians had to carry off with wheelbarrows. This, again, leaves the reader amusingly disgusted in an odd sort of way. Do we laugh or be disgusted by the details of excrement? Swift creates this "healthy confusion" in order to express that going to the bathroom is a universal human action, part of our everyday lives, yet we rarely express it publicly.
         The Lilliputians create "pleasure and disquietude" for the reader with their dual motives. They are using Gulliver as if he was a toy. They lack emotion, are highly intelligent, and obsessed with science and math. They play in Gulliver's  beard, giving the reader the impression that they are pleasant to be around. However, they have a sociopathic streak because their main motive is to kill Gulliver. Gulliver is  playful with the Lilliputians but we are confused as readers as to why he would want to stay on their island if his life is in danger.          
         Jonathan Swift has definitely produced a healthy confusion and disquietude within the reader. From Gulliver's first encounter with the Lilliputians to the bodily function descriptions to the real motives of the people, the reader is left with a plethora of emotions as to whether feel confusion, a sense of humor or even disgust.

Forever Young

“Every man desires to live long, but no man wishes to be old”
― Jonathan Swift,  Gulliver's Travels


     This is one of my favorite quotes from Gulliver's Travels that stood out to me as I read. I think this is a completely true statement, saying that everyone wants a good and long life, but nobody wants to get old. I would love to stay young forever if it were an option. If only everyone could live forever in the physical form that they wish. I could relate this quote to many pieces of literature I have read recently including Journey to the West and even Tithonus in which they involve a character who wishes for immortality. This quote from the story just reminds me of these works by other authors that I have read.

Time Traveler

“The tiny Lilliputians surmise that Gulliver's watch may be his god, because it is that which, he admits, he seldom does anything without consulting.”
― Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels

        I find it interesting that the Lilliputians make this reference about Gulliver's watch. Swift makes a reference that Gulliver is apparently always looking at his watch which brings the Lilliputians to come to think that it is his "god" just because he looks at his watch ever so often. Gulliver says it "pointed out the time for every action in his life." The Lilliputians were fascinated by "his globe". This gives me the impression that these people may look to a god of their own for guidance and are religious enough to make this assumption.

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

        I find it weird that after each adventure, Gulliver will return home to England for a short amount of time. After he gets restless at home, he then will embark for another adventure. After his encounter with the Lilliputians, Gulliver returned home for only two months until he set sail for the Cape of Good Hope in Madagascar when again, he was battled with another monsoon storm. After returning from the land of little people, he was home for only ten days until he sets out again, this time for the West Indies. I just find this repetition that Swift has made very odd. Gulliver has an adventure, goes home, adventure, goes home, and then another adventure.

It's A Small World

        I find it interesting how the Lilliputians act around and the way they care for Gulliver after he has washed up on their land. I find it funny how they think they have complete control over Gulliver and that they think by shooting him with little arrows or tying him up will really hurt or stop him. Since Gulliver is the giant, he should be the more powerful figure that could defend himself against the miniature people at any time. While reading, every time the Lilliputians attack Gulliver with arrows or tiny weapons, it reminds me of the movie Night at the Museum in which the little soldiers use their weapons upon the guard which are actually harmless to him.

Pick An Adventure

        I have known of the story Gulliver's Travels for a long time but was unaware that Jonathan Swift had written several stories of Gulliver's "mis-adventures." I only knew of the story in which Gulliver had been exposed to a world of little people, but not of the ones where he had encountered a world of giants and even pirates. Of the three adventures that I had read, my favorite one would be when he is in the land of miniature people, mainly because it is the one that is most popular and exposed to people today through movies.

 

Lost At Sea

      Since Jonathan Swift's novel, Gulliver's Travels, was first published in 1726, it has come to be known as one of the most famous collection of stories of all time. Gulliver washes up onto the land full of little people after a boat crash and storm. This scene reminded me of several modern day movies I have been exposed to that seem to have the same concept involving a storm, boat crash, and a person who washes up to an unknown land in the midst of finding adventure. It seems that maybe this was the beginning of a trending scene that is used in many other stories and movies.

Movie Trailer:2010

 

Gulliver's Travels Movie Trailer: 2010

 

 

Publication

First published in October of 1726, Gulliver's Travels probably took at least five years to write. From the day of publication it was popular with both adults and children. Many different editions of the work have since been published including many significantly abridged children's imprints. Owing to its immediate popularity, booksellers quickly sold out of the work necessitating several re-prints in the first few months.

Book2Media

Music

• The band Soufferance based and themed their 2010 album on the book, as "Travels Into Several Remote Nations of the Mind".
• In 1728 the Baroque composer Georg Philipp Telemann composed a 5-movement suite for two violins based on Swift's book. Telemann's piece is commonly known as Gulliver's Travels, and depicts the Lilliputians and the Brobdingnagians particularly vividly through rhythms and tempos. The piece is part of Telemann's Der getreue Musik-meister (The Steadfast Music Teacher).

Film, Television and Radio
Gulliver's Travels has been adapted several times for film, television and radio. Most film versions avoid the satire completely.

• Gulliver's Travels (1939): Max Fleischer's animated feature-length classic of Gulliver's adventures in Lilliput. This was the first full-length animated cartoon after Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and was intended mostly for children.
• The Three Worlds of Gulliver (1960): a loose adaptation starring Kerwin Matthews and featuring stop motion effects by Ray Harryhausen.
• Case for a Rookie Hangman (1970): A satirical movie by the Czech Pavel Juráček, based upon the third book, depicting indirectly the Communist Czechoslovakia, shelved soon after its release.
• Gulliver's Travels(1977): Part live-action and part-animated. Stars Richard Harris.
• Gulliver's Travels (1996): Live-action, 2 part, TV miniseries with special effects starring Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen, also featuring a variety of film stars in cameo roles.Of all film versions, this one is the most faithful to the novel, although it still makes significant changes.
• Crayola Kids Adventures: Tales of Gulliver's Travels (1997): Live-action Direct-to-video film starring children with Adam Wylie as Gulliver.
• Jajantaram Mamantaram (2003): Live-action Indian children's film, starring Javed Jaffrey.
• Gulliver's Travels (2010): Modernized, Live-action version of Gulliver's adventures in Lilliput, starring Jack Black, also featuring Billy Connolly, James Corden, Amanda Peet, Chris O'Dowd, Catherine Tate, Jason Segel, Emily Blunt and Olly Alexander.

Author Biography

JONATHAN SWIFT

 

Irish author and satirist Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin, Ireland on November 30, 1667. At age 14, Swift commenced his undergraduate studies at Trinity College in Dublin. In 1686, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree, and went on to pursue a master's. What became known as the Glorious Revolution of 1688 spurred Swift to move to England and start anew. For 10 years, Swift worked in London's Moor Park and acted as an assistant to Sir William Temple. On a trip to Ireland in 1695, he took all necessary requirements to become an ordained priest in the Anglican tradition. Under Temple's influence, he also began to write, first short essays and then a manuscript for a later book. In 1742, Swift suffered from a stroke and lost the ability to speak. On October 19, 1745, Jonathan Swift died. He was laid to rest next to Esther Johnson inside of Dublin's St. Patrick's Cathedral.

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