Gulliver's Travels

Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels follows a ship’s surgeon whose voyages become an unsettling examination of human society. Fantastic adventures provide a fresh perspective on political power, the pursuit of knowledge and the pride people take in their own civilisation. Shipwreck brings Lemuel Gulliver to Lilliput, where tiny inhabitants conduct wars and court intrigues with the seriousness of great powers. Among the giants of Brobdingnag, the traveller becomes the vulnerable miniature, and his accounts of European customs meet with uncomfortable questions. The flying island of Laputa and misguided scholarly projects expose a widening distance between abstract ideas and practical needs. An encounter with rational horses and the humanlike Yahoos challenges his assumptions still further. As the scale of the world changes, familiar ambitions, cruelties and prejudices come into focus. Gulliver’s confident observations gradually raise doubts about his own judgement as well as the societies he describes. Swift’s satire invites readers to question who has the authority to define reason, progress and a civilised way of life.