Jonathan Swift is recognized as an unsurpassed master of utopia. The hero of his novel "Gulliver's Travels", the ship's doctor Lemuel Gulliver, moves from real cities to amazing countries where special laws and customs reign.
About the author of the book
Satirical writer Jonathan Swift was born in the Irish city of Dublin in 1667. The mother had to make a lot of efforts to give a decent education to her sick son. After graduating from the country's best gymnasium, he continued his studies at the university. The unrest that began in the country forced the young man to move to England and start a new life. He tried to build his career in the political arena, but he was really fascinated by literary activity.
Returning to his homeland, Jonathan took the priesthood and became rector of a small community near Dublin. All subsequent years, he did not forget about creativity, but for the first time Swift's works were published in 1704. Soon he headed the weekly and plunged into the creation of political pamphlets. When the Tories with whom he collaborated were in danger of being overthrown, he returned to Ireland and was appointed dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral. Here he created his most famous work, Gulliver's Travels, which was published in 1726.
What is the novel about
At first glance, it seems that the novel "Gulliver's Travels" simply tells the story of the adventures of the protagonist. He is a navigator and loves traveling to different countries. When a ship is in distress, fate brings it to amazing lands. And then his further destiny depends only on his own ingenuity and ingenuity. But Jonathan Swift is a great satire master. In the novel, he managed to reflect the state system of England of that time and tell about the life of his contemporaries. Morals and way of life are shown with irony, especially vividly he ridiculed the vices that most of his compatriots suffered. The writer really hoped that many of the heroes of the book would recognize themselves.
The book consists of four parts. Each of them tells about the adventures of Gulliver at different times.
The first part of "Journey to Liliput"
At the beginning of the work, the author introduces the main character to readers. Lemuel Gulliver graduated from Cambridge, then studied medical sciences in Leiden. Gulliver alternated between serving as a doctor on a ship and working on land, in London his wife was waiting for him.
In May 1699, the surgeon set off as part of the South Sea team. After a severe storm, the ship carried off to the north-west of Australia. In the fog, he crashed against coastal cliffs, none of the team escaped. Only Gulliver swam to the deserted shore, fell into impotence and was in a dream for nine hours. When Gulliver woke up, he felt that his arms and legs were tightly bound by ropes, and dozens of little men were moving along his body. When the sailor tried to shake them, arrows rained down on him. A platform was built near Gulliver, and an important dignitary climbed up to him. His language was not understood by the hero, so he had to speak in gestures. The traveler was fed, and sleeping pills were added to the wine. On a large cart, the bound prisoner was taken to the capital and placed in the temple, and his left hand was chained.
An unusual country was called Liliputia. Its inhabitants, a little more than Gulliver’s fingernail, called the man-mountain captive. The population reacted peacefully to the traveler, he answered them the same. Every day, dozens of people came to the temple to gaze at an unprecedented giant. The emperor provided him with food and allocated servants, teachers taught him the language.
Every day, the head of state gathered advice and resolved the same question: what to do with the captive? After all, he could run away or his presence could lead the country to hunger. Together with the emperor’s mercy for the liberation, the hero got the opportunity to walk around the country. Had to give up weapons, managed to conceal only a telescope and glasses. First he visited the capital of Mildendo and the main palace. On the rope he saw dancing people - so they tried to earn the position. On the seashore, the traveler found his hat, and was very happy about it. The sailor aroused trust among the Lilliputians, but he had an enemy - Admiral Bolgolam. Gulliver learned from the chief secretary that Liliputia is waging war with the neighboring country of Blefuscu. In gratitude for the warm welcome, he agreed to help his rescuers. Gulliver went on foot to a neighboring island, cut off the anchors of the enemy fleet and brought all fifty ships to the capital port of Liliput.
The next part of the story is like a fairy tale. The giant continued to study the features of state life. In the country of Lilliputians they wrote on the diagonal of the page, and the dead were put upside down in the grave. Ingratitude was considered a criminal offense, and judges were punished for false denunciations. Most of all, the Englishman was struck by the fact that the children were brought up far from their parents and believed that they did not owe them anything. Gulliver once got into an unpleasant story when the Lord Chancellor was jealous of his own wife. When a fire suddenly broke out in the imperial palace, the giant urinated on him, and for his salvation he received a high award and a new charge from Bolgolam.
After defeating Blefuscu with the help of Gulliver, who received the name "horror and joy of the universe, " the emperor wanted to completely subjugate the neighboring state. This time the giant refused, for which he fell out of favor. He was declared a traitor and forced to flee to a neighboring country. The hero considered his stay in Blefusku too burdensome, so he made a boat and went in search of a house. He was lucky when an English ship met on the path of a desperate daredevil, and it brought the traveler to his homeland.
The second part of "Journey to Brobdingneg"
The traveler's diary continued a new adventure. In less than two months, he went on a regular voyage. When the ship ran out of fresh water, the sailors landed on an unfamiliar shore. Gulliver and other team members began to pursue the giant, the hero was on a barley field. A local peasant saved him and brought him home. They treated the unprecedented creature with respect, sat at the common table and put them to bed on the bed. Gulliver enjoyed special love with the owner's daughter, she took care of him and gave a new name to Grildrig.
Two months later, the giant began to carry our hero to fairs and cities of the country, where he gave performances and entertained the public. So one day they ended up in the royal court. The court scholars tried to unravel the secret of its mechanism, but to no avail. The king and queen fell in love with Gulliver. They gave him new clothes and shelter, he became a regular guest at the royal dinners. The only one who was angry and envied the sailor was a dwarf. He constantly exposed the hero's life to dangers: dipped him in cream, shook apples on his head, put him in a cage to a monkey, which almost deprived the little man of his life. Around the ship's doctor every now and then danger arose in the form of huge rats, flies and wasps. Ordinary hair seemed to him the thickness of a log, and in the basin he could row.
The hero was struck by the ignorance of the head of state. He listened with interest to his stories about England, but was categorically against the appearance of something new, progressive in his country. Together with the royal family, Gulliver traveled a lot. An unexpected event changed the fate of the hero. An eagle grabbed his travel box and threw him down into the sea, where the traveler was picked up by English sailors.
The third part "Travel to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Laggnegg, Glabbdobdrib and Japan"
In the summer of 1706, the ship of the doctor during a new journey hit the pirates. Dutch villains were merciless, the team was captured. Gulliver regretted the Japanese and gave him a boat. A lone wanderer was noticed by the inhabitants of the island, soaring in the sky, which was held with the help of a large magnet. The population of the island was passionate about music and geometry, but it seemed unassembled and scattered. On a flying island, almost everyone was considered an academician. The professors were doing useless research, such as getting sunlight from cucumbers and gunpowder from ice, they tried to build a house, starting from the roof and use pigs to plow the land. They “reinvent the wheel” as if life had stopped in place. The country is in decline, poverty reigns around, and valuable "scientific discoveries" - only on paper. Taxes on the island depended on the presence of a person's shortcomings or advantages, and all thinkers were otherwise offered to exchange part of the brain.
The hero met wizards who knew how to summon celebrity spirits. Gulliver was able to communicate with Homer, Arstotel, Descartes. In Laggnegg, a traveler met good-natured people because they were immortal from birth. However, immortality was not as beautiful as the inhabitants dreamed about it. When old age and illness approached, eternal life seemed gloomy to them, and they increasingly recalled youth. After that, the ship's doctor came to Japan, and from there returned to Europe.
