Online Study Guide

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

Study Guide/Overview/Quizzes/Author Biography

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.