Throughout the four parts of Gulliver's Travels, Swift employs all eight types of satire - parody, euphemism, invective, irony, hyperbole, sarcasm , inversion/reversal and wit - to add historical and thematic depth to Lemuel Gulliver's fantastical journey. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Explaining the tensions between Liliput and Blefusco in Part 1, for example, Swift writes: What are the two mighty powers, as I was going to say? you, engaged in a most obstinate war for thirty-six moons... During these troubles, the emperors of Blefusco frequently protested through their ambassadors, accusing us of making a schism in religion, by offending against a fundamental principle . doctrine of our great prophet Lustrog, in the fifty-fourth chapter of the Brundecral (which is their Alcoran). However, it is believed that this is a simple constraint on the text: for the words are these; Let all true believers break their eggs at whatever end suits them. (Swift 85) Here, Swift uses parody to ridicule the religious schism between the Catholic and Protestant Church that permeated Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. Swift's mockery lies in the fact that his narrator first validates the arguments put forward by Blefuscu against Lilliput's preferred way of breaking eggs - at the smallest end - by citing the authority of the Brundecral, equivalent of the "Alcoran ", or, more likely, from the Bible. However, the reader recognizes without doubt that the momentous religious divide created by the egg-breaking is pure nonsense. By parodying the English ecclesiastical system, namely the split between Catholics and Protestants, through the Big-Ender/Small-Ender split, he wants the reader to recognize the ridiculousness of disputes over religion, particularly when the dispute is over a divergence as minor as which end of the egg to break, or, he infers, the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist (which is the cause of the division between Catholics and Protestants). Although he was a Catholic minister himself, Swift viewed the situation critically. By imitating the vague world of theological interpretations in the form of a concrete yet ridiculous dispute between two empires, Swift reveals to the reader the ridiculousness of the religious battles of the British Isles. The passage above both exaggerates and undermines the Catholic-Protestant schism by drawing an analogy between a seemingly formidable disunity and a trivial problem of dietary habits, thereby reinforcing the satire in Gulliver's Travels. To expand the satirical value of the novel, Swift uses parody once again to imitate and mock not only religious, but also political aspects of England and Ireland (the two being notoriously linked in 17th century Europe). and 18th centuries). For example, he writes: I have not been entertained by any other entertainment than that of the rope dancers, performed on a thin white thread, extended about two feet and twelve inches from the ground... This entertainment is not practiced only by persons who are candidates for great employment and great favor at Court... Flimnap, the treasurer, is permitted to cavort on the right rope at least an inch higher than any lord throughout the Empire. (73-74) In describing the jokes of the “rope dancers,” Swift is in effect parodying the antics of the would-be candidates for the English Court. He underlines the great mastery involved in performing rope jumps and somersaults in order to highlight the intrigues and deceptions carried out by the candidates in order to win thefavors of the king and thus access a position of power. Swift uses the name "Flimnap" to perhaps cleverly allude to George II's prominent Whig prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole, who at one point in his political career served, fittingly, as first lord of the Treasury within the government1. Although the Lilliputians' Games seem bizarre and laughable, Swift's aim is to expose the corruption and fraud that was rampant in the English monarchy, particularly during the reign of George II. 2 For example, the term "caper" carries connotations of theft and deception, and this precisely explains Walpole's - and many other British officials' - ability to gain and retain power by resorting to essentially political contortions. In fact, despite George II's allegiance to the Conservatives, he never dismissed Walpole, a proud Whig, due to strong favoritism; thus, Swift mocks the political institution in this way. Also in the first part, Swift uses the satirical device of euphemism. In presenting his account, Gulliver takes note of the political structure of Lilliput, at one point mentioning tyrannical monarchs. The reader cannot help but recognize the similarities between Lilliput and Gulliver's homeland, England, when he informs him that the Emperor of Lilliput proposes the punishment of removing Gulliver's eyes, a belief considered by the Lilliputians as minor and in reality merciful. It is an understatement when a member of the king's court comes to warn Gulliver of his upcoming indictment for treason, revealing to Gulliver that: [His] majesty, in consideration of [Gulliver's] services, and in accordance with his own merciful disposition, please spare [his] life, and only give the order to pluck out both his eyes... to signify the great indulgence and favor of His Majesty... which His Majesty does not remit not in question, [he] will submit with gratitude and humility to; and twenty of His Majesty's surgeons will be present, in order to see the operation well performed, shooting very sharp arrows into the ball of [his] eyes while [he] lay on the ground. (106-107). The secretary informs Gulliver without passion or particular surprise, and in fact rather nonchalantly, suggesting that such a sentence constitutes a banal, even lenient, punishment. To this, Gulliver then satirically states: "...I was so bad a judge of things, that I could not discover the clemency or favor of this phrase, but I conceived it (perhaps wrongly) more like rigorous than gentle." 109) and later: “[If] I had then known the nature of princes and ministers... I should have submitted with great alacrity and promptitude to such an easy punishment” (110). It is obvious that the loss of eyes cannot be taken lightly; the threat of not being able to see, not to mention the physical torment of having one's eyeballs pierced by sharp objects, would cause indignation and panic in anyone. However, the Lilliputians consider such punishment without protest. This can be attributed to the fact that in the land of Lilliput, just like in England, tyranny reigns. Swift implies that irrational monarchs, fueled by their own whims, restrain the masses with the threat of violence and at the same time assume that their subjects will submit "with gratitude and humility." By employing such euphemism, he comments not only on the brutality, but also on the sense of divinity that tyrannical monarchs generally indulge in, thus satirically criticizing English politics. In Book II, A Voyage to Brobdingnag, Swift employs the satirical element of invective. to express disapproval of the British Empire. AfterHaving explained the history of Britain to the king of Brobdingnag, Gulliver explains that the king: [Was] perfectly astonished...the protest was nothing but a pile of plots, rebellions, murders, massacres, revolutions, banishments and the worst effects. which could be produced by avarice, faction, hypocrisy, perfidy, cruelty, rage, madness, hatred, envy, lust, malice and ambition. (172) Swift relays his criticism through the king's extreme impression of England, an impression he expresses using a barrage of words with negative connotations. Although the king's harsh opinion comes from a man unfamiliar with the country, Swift intends to show precisely that from the point of view of an objective observer, England appears to be a historically corrupt country. At another point in chapter six, the king states: "[From] what I have gathered from your own account...I can only conclude that the greater part of your natives, as being the most pernicious of little odious vermin that nature has ever permitted to crawl on the surface of the earth” (173). Through the king's assertion, Swift communicates quite blatantly that despite the facade of greatness and dignity that the British uphold in their history and affairs, they remain to him a generally abject and dishonorable people. Through the king's reaction to Gulliver's account of his homeland and people, Swift points out that just as the Lilliputians seem unpleasant to Gulliver, so too do Gulliver and his race to the Brobdingnagians. Furthermore, by showing how people of different sizes perceive England, Swift implies that despite the perception of superiority of a nation like Britain (as created by its political or military prowess, its successful expansion or its general assertion of power), it can nevertheless be perceived as rather "obnoxious" or morally flawed, when viewed from the sidelines by others such as the Irish or the poor. Although subtle, the irony of A Voyage to Brobdingnag surfaces in several notable examples, one of which occurs when Swift states: [The] beggars, seeking their opportunity, gathered around the sides of the car and presented the most horrible spectacles that a European eye has ever seen. There was a woman with breast cancer, swollen to a monstrous size, full of holes, two or three of which I could have easily slipped into and covered my entire body. There was a guy with a wen in his neck, bigger than five bundles of wool, and another with two wooden legs, each about twenty feet high. But the most odious sight of all was the lice crawling on their clothes... (151-2). The irony of the situation in this passage presents itself in the size of these beggars and the other inhabitants of Brobdingnag. However, the beggars depict the idealized and seemingly perfect existence of the Brobdingnagians. By describing the miserable beggars as immense and grotesque creatures, Swift comments on the pervasiveness of poverty in England and Ireland. But this statement becomes even more ironic because the king of Brobdingnag condemns the English as "reducing insects", refusing to recognize that his kingdom also has many ills to cure, like the beggars in the streets. Additionally, the beggars ambush the coach, shamelessly showing their gross abnormalities and nauseating illnesses in Gulliver's face - there is no way he will miss them. In this way, Swift intends to etch into the reader's consciousness the horrible reality of poverty plaguing the cities of England and Ireland, something that the educated person reading Gulliver's Travels in the 18th century may have been too far away toto understand. Some verbal irony occurs during Gulliver's conversation with the king, in which Gulliver states that "[large] allowances should be made to a king who lives completely isolated from the rest of the world and must therefore be totally unknown to the manners and customs which for the most part prevail in other nations: want of knowledge will always produce many prejudices and a certain narrowness of thought, from which we and the more polite countries of Europe are entirely exempt. (174) This statement comes off as verbal irony because the sheer size of Britain and "the most polite countries in Europe" makes it impossible for them to be "totally free" from prejudice and narrow-mindedness. On a broader level, the passage above illustrates verbal irony, because in making such a rash generalization about Europeans, the narrator is in fact guilty of the very ignorance he claims Europeans possess not. Thus, Swift satirically alludes to the ignorance and perceived superiority of the British. Book III, entitled A Journey to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Glubbdubdrib, Luggnagg and Japan, contains hyperbole, characterized by the use of exaggeration for emphasis or effect, to satirize both the European way of thinking and the stifling nature of Britain. . It exaggerates the absurd theories that permeated English culture throughout the era of rationalism. For example, Gulliver takes note of how the floating island of Laputa punishes other rebellious islands, stating: [The] king has two methods of reducing them to obedience. The first solution is to keep the island floating above such a city and the lands surrounding it, thereby depriving them of the benefit of sun and rain, and thereby distressing the inhabitants of famine and diseases: and if the crime merits it, they are at the same time bombarded from above with large stones against which they have no defense [sic]... while the roofs of their houses are put in pieces. But if they still persist... he proceeds to the last remedy, by dropping the island directly on their heads, which causes universal destruction of houses and men. (214) Swift intentionally gives the island of Laputa the special ability to float, thereby suggesting that the Laputians and their king – who has never been to the world he rules from below – are disengaging from society . Thus, Swift emphasizes the idea that by focusing only on the abstract and theoretical aspects of problems and investing their energies in unnecessary scientific advances, they are ignoring the practical concerns of the wretches below. The author expresses his disgust at European governments neglecting poverty and social ills in his fantastic account of the island of Laputa. Precisely, England's treatment of the Irish surfaces in Laputa's excessive punishment of Balnibarbi; Just as Laputa prevented sunlight and rain from reaching Balnibarbi, England also restricted Irish trade, leaving the country barren and the population impoverished. In this example of hyperbole, Swift exaggerates the physical extremity of Balnibarbi's punishment by describing, in detail, the resulting overkill on Laputa's part - the island descends, as if to signal the apocalypse, physically crushing the revolting masses. The image evoked by Swift's embellishment, that of intense suffering, echoes the struggle of the Irish to rid themselves of the oppressive presence of England. Another example of hyperbole occurs when Swift expresses that "When the parties in a state are violent, [a professor] proposed a wonderfuldevice to reconcile them... Let the occiputs thus cut [of the party leaders] be interchanged, applying each to the other. leader of his opposing party" (234). Obviously, the professor's proposal to unite with the half-brains to settle the political divisions, among others mentioned, seems simply scandalous. However, Swift's intention, in exposing the ridiculous schemes of scientists and philosophers through exaggeration, lies in the satire of the European preoccupation with theory in the 18th century Although the combination of two minds may, in theory, work, in practice such an act will kill. probably both men involved The reader recognizes this as extreme and excessive, hence the hyperbole. In addition to hyperbole, Swift uses sarcasm liberally in Book III. many legendary men such as Homer and Alexander the Great, he realizes that the history of these notable figures is often manipulated and falsified in an attempt to maintain an illusion of grandeur Disenchanted by this new information, Gulliver remarks: [But. ] when someone admitted that he owed his greatness and wealth to sodomy or incest; others to the prostitution of their own wives and daughters; others to the betrayal of their country or their prince; some to poisoning, others to the perversion of justice in order to destroy the innocent: I hope I can be forgiven if these discoveries have inclined me a little to diminish that deep veneration which I am naturally inclined to pay to people of high rank, who must be treated with the greatest respect because of their sublime dignity, by us their inferiors. (245-246) Here the reader witnesses Swift's use of biting sarcasm, as presented in a situation in which the protagonist denounces the follies of historical documents and the sense of superiority that these "heroes" possess on the common man. Swift depicts an array of terrible characters revered by a society unaware of how these characters became famous. Gulliver lists some of these men's sordid crimes, such as "sodomy or incest" and "perverting justice in order to destroy the innocent" (125). When he then mockingly apologizes for his disgust, stating that all high-ranking figures "must be treated with the greatest respect because of their sublime dignity, by us, their inferiors", the reader can clearly detecting the bitterness in his tone. Undoubtedly, Swift's reproach regarding the demand on commoners to honor glorified, arrogant - and too often corrupt - superiors and, at the same time, the misperceptions of these commoners, can be seen in his harsh sarcasm. Sarcasm also presents itself in Swift's mockery of women. When discussing the habits of women in Laputa, Gulliver reveals that "[they] might perhaps pass to the reader rather as a European or English story than as that of a country so distant." But it will please him to consider that the caprices of women are not limited by any climate or nation, and that they are much more uniform than can easily be imagined” (208). The narrator first shows sarcasm by mentioning that his reader could confuse such a description of women "more with European or English history", thus mocking English society. Additionally, Swift intends to use his humorous displeasure with what he perceives as the fickle and volatile nature of women to please his reader - primarily a male reader - as evidenced by his playful statement that "he may want to consider" ( this female character "[is] not limited by any climate...")..