Jonathan Swift “Gulliver’s Travels” (1726) Study Questions Millennium I p. 175

STUDY QUESTIONS 1.On what different levels may “Gulliver’s Travels” be read? Explain On two levels: on a first level the book reads like a travel story, a children’s book in which fantasy and reality are mixed; on a second level it reveals a philosophical tale in which Swift expresses his pessimism towards contemporary society. 2.To what narrative tradition does “Gulliver’s Travels” belong ? It belongs to the tradition of utopian narratives being centred on voyages to unknown utopian lands. The fantastic, faraway world Gulliver comes in touch with exposes, by contrast, the faults of European society. 3.Briefly describe the vanities and errors of European society depicted in “Gulliver’s Travels” four books? Book 1: the Lilliputians exemplify the meanness and pettiness of our world and man’s thirst for power; Book 2: the giant people at Brobdingnag condemn the English civilization as barbarous. Book 3: through the people of Laputa he satirizes modern philosophies and science for their presumptuousness in claiming to be able to solve mankind’s problems. Book 4: he is disgusted by the human race and praises the superior intelligence of the horses.

STUDY QUESTIONS 4.What narrative technique does Swift make use of? Swift uses a first – person narrator. This means that the reader lives Gulliver’s adventures through the main character’s eyes, which makes the reader feel emotionally involved in the story but this allows him/her a fairly limited point of view.