Gulliver's Travels

Gulliver’s Travels: The British Satire of Society

Gulliver’s Travels, by Jonathan Swift, is an exceptional example of the attempts writers have made to bring about social reform. Jonathan Swift’s stories of Lilliput and Brobdinag are placed on two extremities of culture, putting human frailty up to ridicule. Through the unassuming eyes of Gulliver, the astute reader can pick up on ideas used to delineate the troubles of British law and society. To accomplish his task, Swift threads throughout his novel creative imagery, allusion, and symbolism.
Imagery is applied in Gulliver’s Travels very carefully to capture the reader’s attention and play on the absurdity of the situation Gulliver finds himself in. Gulliver is in a different world, a land of beings only one inch tall and the sights, feelings, and sounds of the Lillipution’s daily life is shown to be a true microcosm of British life. Swift writes,“I heard one of them cry Tolgo phonac; when in an insta...