Study Questions

1. How does Swift use language and style for the purpose of satire? How does his
style change as the story progresses?
Scattered among the standard narrative style of most of Gullivers travels are legal
documents and reports, such as the inventory of Gullivers possessions and the list
of obligations presented to him by the Lilliputians. There are also brief passages in
which Swift, by his style alone, ridicules the linguistic excesses of various
specialists. A good example is at the beginning of Part II, Chapter I, where Gulliver
uses complicated nautical jargon. The effect is so overdone that, instead of coming
off as a demonstration of Gullivers in-depth knowledge of sailing, the passage
works as a satire of sailing language and, more generally, of any kind of specialist
jargon. A similar passage occurs in Part III, Chapter III, where Gullivers painstaking
description of the geometry of Laputa serves as a satire of philosophical jargon.
Over the course of the novel, there are several changes in Swifts style. In the first
two voyages, the style is constant: it is a relatively lighthearted but still biting satire
of European culture and politics, framed as an adventure among dwarves and
giants. In the third voyage, the tone shifts. Gulliver becomes less of a personality
and more of an abstract observer. His judgments of the societies he encounters
become more direct and unmediated, and the overall narrative becomes less of an
adventure and more of a scattered satire on abstract thought. In the fourth voyage,
the tone becomes, for the most part, much more serious than in the first three
adventures. Gulliver too is more serious and more desperate, and his change in
personality is reflected in a style that is darker, more somber, and more cynical.
2. Does Gulliver change as the story progresses? Does he learn from his
adventures?
Gulliver is somewhat more tranquil and less restless at the end of the story than he
is at the beginning. In desiring first to stay with the Houyhnhnms, then to find an
island on which he can live in exile, Gulliver shows that his adventures have taught
him that a simple life, one without the complexities and weaknesses of human
society, may be best. At the same time, his tranquility is superficiallying not far
below the surface is a deep distaste for humanity that is aroused as soon as the
crew of Don Pedro de Mendez captures him. From our point of view, after we have
looked at the world through Gullivers eyes for much of the novel, Gulliver
undergoes several interesting transformations: from the nave Englishman to the
experienced but still open-minded world traveler of the first two voyages; then to
the jaded island-hopper of the third voyage; and finally to the cynical, disillusioned,
and somewhat insane misanthrope of the fourth voyage.
3. Is Gulliver an everyman figure or does he have a distinctive personality of his
own?

In many ways, Gullivers role as a generic human is more important than any
personal opinions or abilities he may have. Fate and circumstance conspire to lead
him from place to place, while he never really asserts his own desires. By
minimizing the importance of Gulliver as a specific person, Swift puts the focus on
the social satire itself. At the same time, Gulliver himself becomes more and more a
subject of satire as the story progresses. At the beginning, he is a standard issue
European adventurer; by the end, he has become a misanthrope who totally rejects
human society. It is in the fourth voyage that Gulliver becomes more than simply a
pair of eyes through which we see a series of unusual societies. He is, instead, a
jaded adventurer who has seen human folliesparticularly that of prideat their
most extreme, and as a result has descended into what looks like, and probably is, a
kind of madness.
Suggested Essay Topics
1. Why is Gulliver so eager to assert his own countrys importance to the
Brobdingnagians? How does this desire compare to the Lilliputians desire to assert
their importance to Gulliver?
2. What is the significance, if any, of the order in which Gullivers journeys take
place? How does each adventure build on the previous one?
3. What is the allegorical significance of the floating island of Laputa?
4. Why does Gulliver keep traveling despite his many misfortunes?
5. Why does Gulliver want to stay with the Houyhnhnms? Does his desire make
sense in light of the other societies he has visited?
6. How do the Lilliputians view the threat that Gulliver represents?