The satire of Jonathan Swift Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own The satire of Jonathan Swift

satire “satire” is a poem, or prose composition, in which prevailing vices and follies are held up to ridicule” (the Oxford Companion to English Literature) "a literary manner which blends a critical attitude with humor and wit to the end that human institutions or humanity may be improved. " (Thrall, et al 436).

Satire The best satire does not seek to do harm or damage by its ridicule. It seeks to create a shock of recognition and to make vice repulsive so that the vice will be expunged from the person or society.

Gulliver’s Travels This novel written by Swift in 1726 and amended in 1735 is a satire on human nature and a parody on the “Travellers’ tales” as a subgenre. The protagonist of the story is Lemuel Gulliver. As it was the custom at the time, Lemuel tells about his life prior to the voyage and then about the shipwreck.

Voyage to Lilliput Gulliver is washed ashore after a shipwreck and awakes to find himself a prisoner of a race of people one-twelfth the size of normal human beings (6 inches/15cm tall). The countries of Lilliput and Blefuscu are rival countries, probably representing England and France in real life.

Voyage to Lilliput After giving assurances of his good behavior, he is given a residence in Lilliput and becomes a favourite of the court. The king of the court probably represents George I, the King of England when the novel was written. Gulliver assists the Lilliputians to subdue their neighbours the Blefuscudians (by stealing their fleet).

Voyage to Lilliput Gulliver refuses to reduce the country to a province of Lilliput, displeasing the King and the court. Gulliver is charged with treason and sentenced to be blinded. With the assistance of a kind friend, Gulliver escapes to Blefuscu.

Part II: Voyage to Brobdingnag The ship goes off course and Gulliver is abandoned by the rest of the crew. He arrives into a country where a people are giants. He is rescued by a farmer who is about 12 meters tall and is looked after his daughter. The farmer treats him as curiosity and exhibits him for money. He becomes favourite with the queen.

Part III: A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Glubbdubdrib, Luggnagg and Japan The island of Laputa, a kingdom devoted to the arts of music and mathematics but utterly unable to use these for practical ends. The device described simply as The Engine is possibly the first literary description in history of something resembling a computer

Part IV: A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms There are two sort of creatures: The Horses (in their language Houyhnhnm or "the perfection of nature") who are the rulers and the deformed creatures ("Yahoos") who are human beings in their basest form. Gulliver becomes a member of the horse's household, and comes to both admire and emulate the Houyhnhnms and their lifestyle, rejecting humans as merely Yahoos.