INTRODUCTION

ARGUMENTS

THE WRITER

THE STORY

STYLE AND LANGUAGE

THE SATIRE IN THE 17°-CENTURY

ANALYSIS OF THE TEXTS

PART IPART II

PART IV

PART III

• English writer considered one of the greatest exponents of English literature

• Lively satirical vein that he often turnedto the political and religious events of society

• Son of english family in Ireland

• After studying he found work as secretaryworking also the edition of his Memories

• He embraced the priesthood and obtained small prebend of Kilroot

• He congreve and partecipated in literaryand political life

• He bought popularity with Drapier’sletters

• After 1920 composition of hismasterpiece, Gulliver’s travels

• He used to regulate emotions in favour of rationality

Part I: Voyage to Lilliput

On his first voyage Gulliver is shipwrecked in the empire of Lilliput, inhabited by a people so small they look likeinsects. At first the Lilliputians hold him prisoner but they gradually trust him and use him in their wars againstthe neighbour country. In the end Gulliver is allowed to leave the country,which he does on a boat.

Part II: A Voyage to Brobdingnag

On his second voyage Gulliver lands in the country of Brobdignag. This time he’s s surrounded by giants; he’sused as a toy and he’s treated with great kindness by the Brobdignagians, who are civilized and tolerant people. Gulliver lives the country by accident: the house-box where he lived is picked up by an eagle which lets it dropin the open sea. Gulliver is then rescued by an english ship.

Part III: A Vojage to Laputa, Balnibarbi,Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib and Japan

On his third voyage Gulliver lands to a flying island: laputa. The inhabitants live in badly built and their fields are badly worked. Finally their knowledge is all theorical and abstract.

Part IV: A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms

Gulliver’s final adventure takes him to the country of intelligents horses: the Houyhnhnms. This country i salsoinhabited by a race of monstruous creatures, the Yahoos. The Houyhnhnms are a rational and perfect civilization whereas the Yahoos are cruel and filthy. Gulliver is painfully forced to admit that are very much like man, and he decides to stay with the horses for ever. Unfortunately this creatures cannot tolerate the presence of a Yahoo (Gulliver) and he has to leave the country.

Gulliver’s travels is a novel divided in 4

books. Gulliver is the narrator and

protagonist and he’s also an ordinary man,

who makes travel in remote regiond of the

world. Swift mixes the fantastic and the real:

his imaginary lands are all placed in known

oceans or continents and he’s also very

carefull about the geographical characteristcs.

From the point of view of the reader, the

novel bring him in contact with the worst

habits and defects of the human society.

Every book rapresents a different type of

voyage:

1) The first book tell the meanness of our

world.

2) The second book show all the physical

imperfections of men.

3) The third book is more direct to modern

to contemporary England.

4) The fourth book talk about the difference

between Yahoos and Hounhnhnms.

THE SATIRE IN THE 17°-CENTURYCULTURAL

MOVEMENT

• REFORM SOCIETY WITH REASON

• ADVANCE KNOWLEDGE THROUGH THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

REVOLUTION MOVEMENT

• CHALLENGE IDEAS GROUNDED IN TRADITIONS AND FAITH

LITERARY MOVEMENT

• GREAT REVIVAL OF SATIRE FUELLED BY PARTISAN POLITICS

• SATIRE OF INSTITUTION BECAME A POPULAR WEAPON

In the 17th-century the most important movement was the Age of

Enlightenment. It was a cultural movement of intellectuals and its

purpose was to reform society using reason, to challenge ideas

grounded in tradition and faith, and to advance knowledge through

the scientific method.

The Age of Enlightenment produced a great revival of satire in

Britain. This was fuelled by the rise of partisan politics, with the

formalisation of the Tory and Whig parties. The satirist focused their

attention on Martinus Scriblerus and in their hands astute and biting

satire of institutions became a popular weapon. The turn to the 18th

century was characterized by a switch from Horatian, soft, pseudo-

satire and to "juvenal" satire.

BELOVED HORSES, HATEFUL MENIn chaper 11 IV Book of the novel, Gulliver concedes that

he owes all his Knowledge to the advices of his master.He is

very proud about it and he admires all horses qualities, like

their strenght,comeliness and speed and specially their

wisenes . He feels respect , love and gratitude towars them:

because he will distiguish him from the rest o his species .

When he sees his own reflex in a lake or a fountain , he feels

ashoned and his face is full of horror.

Also when he saw again his family, his wife and children,

gulliver felt a sentation of disgust towards them , because he

knows that he was like them. In the previus gears , while he

lived with the Houyhnhnms, he aquired lots of theirs

costumes : the way to talk , the gait and their uses and he he

is very proud about this. When he write, Gulliver is already

in England for five years and he says that during his first

year he didn’t support the presence of his family for their

bad smell.

ON POLITICS IN LILLIPUTOne morning Reldresal comes to Gulliver’s house for an Hour’s Audience with him. Reldresal ordered his coach to wait at a distance . Gulliver offered to lie down that Reldresal might conveniently reach his Ear, but Reldresal chose rather to let hold him in his hand during the conversation. He began with compliments on Gulliver’s liberty. For as flourishing a condition as they might appear to be in to foreigners they labour under two mighty evils. At first Gulliver have to understood that in that empire, have been two struggling parties under the names of TRAMECHSAN and SLAMECKSAN, from the high and low Heels on their shoes, by which they distinguish themselves.

The high heels are most agreeable to their ancient constitution, but the Majesty hath determined to make use of only low heels in the Administration of the Government. The Animositys between these two Parties run so high, that they will neither talk with each other. In the midst of these disquiets they are threatened with an Invasion from the Island of BLEFUSCU, which is the other great Empire of the Universe.

They have heard Gulliver affirm that there are other Kingdoms and States in the world inhabited by human creatures as large as him, while their Philosophers are in much doubt and would rather conjecture that Gulliver dropt from the moon. Besides, their Historysmade no mention of any other regions, than the two great empires of LILLIPUT and BLEFUSCU. Reldresal began to tell which two mighty powers have been engaged in a most obstinate war for six and thirty moons past. The question was how to break Eggs before eat them. The primitive way was upon the larger end, while the ancient Practice to break eggs, was to cut one of the fingers. Many hundred large volumes have been published upon this controversy. The Emperors commending all his subjects to break the smaller end of their Eggs. The people were constantly fomented by the Monarchs of Blefuscu.

It is computed that eleven thousand people have suffered Death, rather than submit to break their eggs at the smaller end. During the course of these troubles, the Emperors of Blefuscu did frequently expostulate by their Embassadors, accusing them of making a Schim in Religion. At last in Gulliver’s opinion “everyone shall break their eggs at the convenient end”, which the convenient end seems to be left to every Man’s conscience or in the power of the magistrate to determine.

• GULLIVER: he is protagonist of the passage and he tells

his own story. He tries to distingue himself from the

Yahoos. He learns the lessons of the master and in this

chapter he lives with the Houyhnhnms and he becomes

like them,in fact when he comes back home he can’t

tolerate his wife and his children that are Yahoos. At the

end Gulliver is a broken man: he refuses his own race and

his figure.

• YAHOOS: Gulliver shows them such as ugy and vicious

creatures. Gulliver admits that,however different he feels

from them,he is a Yahoo. The Yahoos rapresents the

humans in the story and they are stupid and uncivilized

and also the Yajoos are dominated by Houyhnhnms.

• HOUYHNHNMS: they are rapresented by superior horse

that dominated the Yahoos. The Houyhnhnms are

intelligent civilized. In the first part Gulliver looks back

with nostalgia to the happy days when he was the pupil of

the horses.

• GULLIVER: he is protagonist of the passage and he tells

his own story. Gulliver is enormous and the Lilliputians

are tiny, so obviously Gulliver is not literally a Lilliputian.

However, there are hints that Gulliver shares more with

the Lilliputians than he is fully willing to admit, infact

for all of his giant size, Gulliver's mind works

mechanically and in terms of profit, like a Lilliputian.

• LILLIPUTIANS: the Lilliputians inhabit the first island

Gulliver visits. They are about six inches tall, with

proportionally tiny buildings and trees and horses. The

Lilliputians are ruled by an Emperor who appoints his

high court officials according to their skills with rope

dancing rather than their actual abilities. In other words,

they're not exactly governed according to rational

principles. The court of Lilliput mostly seems to spend its

time plotting against their enemies. Gulliver,

unfortunately, forms one of the primary targets of these

plots. His enormous size makes him both expensive and

dangerous for the Emperor to keep, so, even though he

has made himself useful in Lilliput's wars against

Blefuscu, Gulliver eventually has to leave the country to

avoid having his eyes put out.

•

• Swift mixes the fantastic and the real: his imaginary lands

are all placed in know oceans or continents. Swift only

uses the from of the tale of travel and adventures to

submit civilized society to a complete criticism through

his sharp satire. It is centred on a voyage and it is set in

fantastic far-away island inhabited by strange races.

Gulliver is forced to examine his country's and his own

position in the light of the new realities he meets. Swift

may have intended to show an individual's alienation:

Gulliver alienation himself from his follow beings

because he is thoroughly disgusted by them. Gulliver' s

travels has alternately been considered as a children's

story a philosophical tale whose or an extended metaphor,

full of mysterious allusions

• Lilliput is a satirical portrait of the Kingdom of Great

Britain, and it's neighbour Blefuscu, a portrait of France.

Lilliput has two Political Parties: the Low-Heels, based on

the Whigs and the High-Heels, based on the Tories. The Low

and High Heels are based on the fashion of the Parliament

and the type of shoes members of the parties wear.

This is a reference to the position of the church in British

society (High Heels believed in the Church being supreme,

while Low Heels believed in the Parliament being supreme).

There is also a political quarrel between the Lilliput and

Blefuscu Kingdoms on how they break their eggs. In the past

both nations were Big-Endians, as in they broke their eggs at

the big end. But now Lilliputians are Little-Endians,

preferring to break their eggs at the little end.

This is a satirical reflection of the Catholic (Big) church and

the Protestant (Little) church. As France was Catholic, and

Britain was once Catholic and now Protestant (with a deep

fear of Catholic subversion).

THE END

AUTORI: Piazza Alessandro, Zazzi Matteo, Mancini Cristiano, Mancinelli Andrea, Butera Simone, Fantinelli Matteo