Swift’s Satire in Gulliver’s Travels: Part 1

A lone intellectual man, who washes up on an island known as Lilliput due to a tragic shipwreck, has awakened to find himself surrounded by tiny people bound by ropes and targeted with arrows. When the Lilliputians relinquish their hostility towards the man, they bring him to their city where he will be given a bed, food, drinks, entertainment provided by the emperor, and a chance to earn his freedom. The man then travels on to Mildendo where he will learn of the two factions and the posing threat of war with the Blefuscus. With this information, he returns back to the Lilliputians where he will become more acquainted with their customs and will save one’s life from a fire by fighting it with his urine. But when a court official shows up to charge the man with treason by opposing forces in the government, he comes face-to-face with the possibility of execution.

Swift continues to use political satire by comparing the Lilliputians ridiculous customs to Europe’s bewildering practices they used. The man never criticizes the Lilliputians or judges them on their size. He observes that some of their traditions are impractical, but he remains patient enough to learn more about them and its relevance that make their society function in a way that makes sense to them. For instance, the fact that members of the community have to literally rope dance to withhold a powerful position is absolutely absurd; but Swift insinuates that Europe ranked their political leaders judging by their skill and use of their hands and mind at the given task. It could be that Swift was on to something when he chose to create two factions separated solely by the heels of their feet. Maybe that was his way of telling us that there is no right or wrong way to believe. Or maybe he was hinting that we shouldn’t be concerned about the practices of others and what anyone else is doing because if it works for them, it shouldn’t matter to us.