Write a critical note on Gulliver’s
Travels (Book II) as a satire.
Answer: In "Gulliver's Travels" by Jonathan Swift, the
titular traveler learns much about the follies of mankind as he sails around
the world, discovering new land. Gulliver visits four places, each interesting
and strange in their own way. Swift uses each experience to satirize
government, human pride, religion, philosophy, scientific conceit, among other
things. In the land of Brobdingnag, Gulliver encounters a race of giants, and
their size and their views on government prove to be effective satirical tools.
Human
Pride
Just as Swift used the size of the
Lilliputians in Gulliver's previous travels to mock their pettiness, so too
does he use the size of the Brobdingnagdians to mock their pride and
pretension. Swift satirizes their desire to have a large government and to
assert their own importance. Though Gulliver is of smaller stature, Swift also
uses this setting to satirize his own pride and, by extension, the pride of the
English people. When the king asks Gulliver to tell him about the English
government, Gulliver happily complies with the idea that he will impress the
king with the accomplishments of his native land. However, the king concludes
they are a "pernicious race of little odious vermin."
Modern
Warfare
Of note in the exchange between Gulliver and the
king about the English government is his reaction to its ideas about warfare.
Gulliver expects the king to be impressed with the large English army, but the
king was amazed at the idea the government would have a standing army when they
were at peace and lived in a free country. 