18th century literature

18th century called the age of reason or Enlightenment. Characteristics of this period include
observing human nature and nature itself which were considered unchanging and constant.
In the 18th century, the novel became established as a popular literary form all over Europe.
 the age is also known as the Neoclassical period. Writers of the time placed great emphasis on the
original writings produced by Classical Greek and Roman literature.
 Satire is the way in which author uses dark humor. Satire was popular in the 18th century English
writings, because writers wanted to promote reason and rationality over tradition and religion.
Therefor making fun of the traditional ways of thinking.
 Satire was very popular in eighteenth century. This century is called the golden age of satire,
including Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift. The 18th century was dominated by satiric poetry,
prose, and drama.

Jonathan swift (1667-1745)

Master of Satire in the 18th Century
Jonathan swift was an Anglo-Irish priest, essayist, political writer, and poet, considered the
foremost satirist in the English language. Swift’s fiercely ironic novels and essays, including world
classics such as Gulliver’s Travels and The Tale of the Tub, were immensely popular in his own
time for their ribald humor and imaginative insight into human nature.
Gulliver’s Travels theme
Gulliver’s Travels published in 1726.
It is a satire disguised as a fantastic novel, with each journey Gulliver is delivered to a different
country, race, and culture.
Swift uses each country to satirize some aspect of politics, religion or human nature.
Book 1
Lilliputian politics:
Gulliver visits Lilliput first, where tiny citizens employ him as a war machine against their enemy
Blefuscu; when he refuses to enlarge their empire, he is found guilty. The political satire is
inescapable, as well as the sinister message that “ those not for us are against us”.
Book 1 summary
chapter 1
The novel begins with Lemuel Gulliver recounting the story of his life, beginning with his family
history. He is born to a family in Nottinghamshire, the third of five sons. Although he studies at
Cambridge as a teenager, his family is too poor to keep him there, so he is sent to London to be a
surgeon’s apprentice. There, under a man named James Bates, he learns mathematics
and navigation with the hope of traveling. When his apprenticeship ends, he studies physics at
Leyden
He then becomes a surgeon aboard a ship called the Swallow for three years. Afterward, he settles
in London, working as a doctor, and marries a woman named Mary Burton. His business begins to
fail when his patron dies, so he decides to go to sea again and travels for six years.
Although he has planned to return home at the end of this time, he decides to accept one last job
on a ship called the Antelope.
In the East Indies, the Antelope encounters a violent storm in which twelve crewmen die.
Six of the crewmembers, including Gulliver, board a small rowboat to escape.
Soon the rowboat capsizes, and Gulliver loses track of his companions.
They are never seen again. Gulliver,
however, swims safely to shore.

Gulliver lies down on the grass to rest, and soon he falls asleep. When he wakes up, he finds that
his arms, legs, and long hair have been tied to the ground with pieces of thread. He can only look
up, and the bright sun prevents him from seeing anything. He feels something move across his leg
and over his chest. He looks down and sees, to his surprise, a six-inch-tall human carrying a
bow and arrow. At least forty more little people climb onto his body. He is surprised and shouts
loudly, frightening the little people away. They return, however, and one of the little men cries out,
“Hekinah Degul.”

Gulliver struggles to get loose and finally succeeds in breaking the strings binding his left arm.
He loosens the ropes tying his hair so he can turn to the left. In response, the little people fire a
volley of arrows into and violently attack his body his hand and face. He decides that the safest
thing to do is to lie still until nightfall. The noise increases as the little people build a stage next to
Gulliver about a foot and a half off the ground. One of them climbs onto it and makes a speech in a
language that Gulliver does not understand.

Gulliver indicates that he is hungry, and the little people bring him baskets of meat. He devours it
all and then shows that he is thirsty, so they bring him two large barrels of wine. Gulliver is
tempted to pick up forty or fifty of the little people and throw them against the ground, but he
decides that he has made them a promise of goodwill and is grateful for their hospitality. He is also
struck by their bravery, since they climb onto his body despite his great size.

An official climbs onto Gulliver’s body and tells him that he is to be carried to the capital city.
 Gulliver wants to walk, but they tell him that that will not be permitted. Instead, they bring a frame
of wood raised three inches off the ground and carried by twenty-two wheels. Nine hundred men
pull this cart about half a mile to the city. Gulliver’s left leg is then padlocked to a
large temple, giving him only enough freedom to walk around the building in a semicircle and lie
down inside the temple.

Chapter 2
 Once the Lilliputians chain Gulliver to the building, he is finally allowed to stand up and view the
entire countryside, which he discovers is beautiful and rustic. The tallest trees are seven feet tall,
and the whole area looks to him like a theater set
Gulliver meticulously describes his process of relieving himself, which initially involves walking
inside the building to the edge of his chain. After the first time, he makes sure to relieve himself in
open air, and servants carry away his excrement in wheelbarrows. He says that he describes
this process in order to establish his cleanliness, which has been called into question by his
critics.

The emperor visits on horseback from his tower. He orders his servants to give Gulliver food and
drink. The emperor is dressed plainly and carries a sword to defend himself. He and Gulliver
converse, though they cannot understand each other. Gulliver tries to speak every language he
knows, but nothing works. After two hours, Gulliver is left with a group of soldiers guarding him.
Some of them, disobeying orders, try to shoot arrows at him. As a punishment, the brigadier ties up
six of these offenders and places them in Gulliver’s hand. Gulliver puts five of them into his
pocket and pretends that he is going to eat the sixth, but then cuts loose his ropes and sets him
free. He does the same with the other five, which pleases the court.

After two weeks, a bed is made for Gulliver. It consists of 600 small beds sewn together. News of
his arrival also spreads throughout the kingdom and curious people from the villages come to see
him. Meanwhile, the government tries to decide what to do with him. Frequent councils bring up
various concerns: that he will break loose, for instance, or that he will eat enough to cause a
famine. Some suggest that they starve him or shoot him in the face to kill him, but others argue that
doing so would leave them with a giant corpse and a large health risk.

Officers who witnessed Gulliver’s lenient treatment of the six offending soldiers report to the
council, and the emperor and his court decide to respond with kindness. They arrange to deliver
large amounts of food to Gulliver every morning, supply him with servants to wait on him, hire
tailors to make him clothing, and offer teachers to instruct him in their language.
Every morning Gulliver asks the emperor to set him free, but the emperor refuses, saying that
Gulliver must be patient. The emperor also orders him to be searched to ensure that he does not
have any weapons. Gulliver agrees to this search, and the Lilliputians take an inventory of his
possessions. In the process, all of his weapons are taken away.

Chapter 3
Gulliver hopes to be set free, as he is getting along well with the Lilliputians and earning their
trust. The emperor decides to entertain him with shows, including a performance by Rope-Dancers,
who are Lilliputians seeking employment in the government.

For the performance, which doubles as a sort of competitive entrance examination, the candidates
dance on “ropes”— slender threads suspended two feet above the ground. When a vacancy occurs,
candidates
petition the emperor to entertain him with a dance, and whoever jumps the highest earns the office.
The current ministers continue this practice as well, in order to show that they have not lost their
skill.

As another diversion for Gulliver, the emperor lays three silken threads of different colors on a
table. He then holds out a stick, and candidates are asked to leap over it or creep under it. Whoever
shows the most dexterity wins one of the ribbons.

Gulliver builds a platform from sticks and his handkerchief and invites horsemen to exercise upon
it. The emperor greatly enjoys watching this new entertainment, but it is cut short when a horse
steps through the handkerchief, after which Gulliver decides that it is too dangerous for them to
keep riding on the cloth.

Some Lilliputians discover Gulliver’s hat, which washed ashore after him, and he asks them to
bring it back. Soon after, the emperor asks Gulliver to pose like a colossus, or giant statue, so that
his troops might march under Gulliver.

Gulliver’s petitions for freedom are finally answered. Gulliver must swear to obey the articles put
forth, which include stipulations that he must assist the Lilliputians in times of war, survey the land
around them, help with construction, and deliver urgent messages. Gulliver agrees and his chains
are removed.
Chapter 4
After regaining his freedom, Gulliver goes to Mildendo, the capital city of the Lilliputians. The
residents are told to stay indoors, and they all sit on their roofs and in their garret windows to
see him. The town is 500 feet square with a wall surrounding it, and can hold 500,000 people.

The emperor wants Gulliver to see the magnificence of his palace, which is at the center of the
city, so Gulliver cuts down trees to make himself a stool, which he carries around with him so
that he can sit down and see things from a shorter distance than a standing position allows.

About two weeks after Gulliver obtains his liberty, a government official, Reldresal, comes to
see him. He tells Gulliver that two forces, one rebel group and one foreign empire, threaten
the kingdom. The rebel group exists because the kingdom is divided into two factions, called
Tramecksan and Slamecksan. The people in the two factions are distinguished by the heights of
their heels.

Reldresal tells Gulliver that the current emperor has chosen to employ primarily the low-heeled
Slamecksan in his administration. He adds that the emperor himself has lower heels than all of
his officials but that his heir has one heel higher than the other, which makes him walk unevenly.

At the same time, the Lilliputians fear an invasion from the Island of Blefuscu, which Reldresal
calls the “Other Great Empire of the Universe.” He adds that the philosophers of Lilliput do not
believe Gulliver’s claim that there are other countries in the world inhabited by other people of his
size, preferring to think that Gulliver dropped from the moon or a star.

Reldresal describes the history of the two nations. The conflict between them, he tells Gulliver,
began years ago, when the emperor’s grandfather, then in command of the country, commanded
all Lilliputians to break their eggs on the small end first. He made this decision after breaking
an egg in the old way, large end first, and cutting his finger.
The people resented the law, and six
rebellions were started in protest. The monarchs of Blefuscu fueled these rebellions, and when
they were over the rebels fled to that country to seek refuge. Eleven thousand people chose
death rather than submit to the law. Many books were written on the controversy, but books
written by the Big-Endians were banned in Lilliput.

The government of Blefuscu accused the

Lilliputians of disobeying their religious doctrine, the Brundrecral, by breaking their eggs at the
small end. The Lilliputians argued that the doctrine reads, “That all true believers shall break their
eggs at the convenient end,” which could be interpreted as the small end.

Reldresal continues that the exiles gained support in Blefuscu to launch a war against Lilliput and
were aided by rebel forces inside Lilliput. A war has been raging between the two nations ever
since, and Gulliver is asked to help defend Lilliput against its enemies. Gulliver does not feel that
it is appropriate to intervene, but he nonetheless offers his services to the emperor.

Chapter 5
Gulliver spies on the empire of Blefuscu and devises a plan. He asks for cables and bars of
iron, out of which he makes hooks with cables attached. He then wades and swims the channel
to Blefuscu and catches their ships at port. The people are so frightened that they leap out of
their ships and swim to shore.
Gulliver attaches a hook to each ship and ties them together. The
Blefuscu soldiers fire arrows at him, but he keeps working, protecting his eyes by putting on the
spectacles he keeps in his coat pocket. He tries to pull the ships away, but they are anchored too
tightly, so he cuts them away with his pocketknife and pulls the ships back to Lilliput.
In Lilliput, Gulliver is greeted as a hero. The emperor asks him to go back to retrieve the other
ships, intending to destroy Blefuscu’s military strength and make it a province in his empire.
Gulliver dissuades him from this action, saying that he does not want to encourage slavery or
injustice. This position causes great disagreement in the government, with some officials turning
staunchly against Gulliver and calling for his destruction.
Three weeks later, a delegation arrives from Blefuscu, and the war ends with Blefuscu’s
surrender. The Blefuscu delegates are privately told of Gulliver’s kindness toward the Lilliputians,
and they ask him to visit their kingdom. He wishes to do so, and the emperor reluctantly allows
it.
As a Nardac, or person of high rank, Gulliver no longer has to perform all the duties laid down in
his contract. He does, however, have the opportunity to help the Lilliputians when the emperor’s
wife’s room catches fire. He forgets his coat and cannot put the flames out with his clothing, so
instead he thinks of a new plan: he urinates on the palace, putting out the fire entirely.
He worries
afterward that since the act of public urination is a crime in Lilliput he will be prosecuted, but the
emperor tells him he will be pardoned. He is told, however, that the emperor’s wife can no longer
tolerate living in her rescued quarters.

Chapter 6
Gulliver describes the general customs and practices of Lilliput in more detail, beginning by
explaining that everything in Lilliput— their animals, trees, and plants—is sized in proportion
to the Lilliputians. Their eyesight is also adapted to their scale: Gulliver cannot see as clearly
close-up as they can, while they cannot see as far as he can.
The Lilliputians are well educated, but their writing system is odd to Gulliver, who jokes that they
write not left to right like the Europeans or top to bottom like the Chinese, but from one corner
of the page to the other, “like the ladies in England.”
The dead are buried with their heads pointing directly downward, because the Lilliputians believe
that eventually the dead will rise again and that the Earth, which they think is flat, will turn upside
down. Gulliver adds that the better-educated Lilliputians no longer believe in this custom.

Gulliver describes some of the other laws of Lilliput, such as a tradition by which anyone who
falsely accuses someone else of a crime against the state is put to death. Deceit is considered
worse than theft, because honest people are more vulnerable to liars than to thieves, since
commerce requires people to trust one another. The law provides not only for punishment but
also for rewards of special titles and privileges for good behavior.
Children are raised not by individual parents but by the kingdom as a whole. They are sent to live
in schools at a very young age. The schools are chosen according to the station of their parents,
whom they see only twice a year. Only the laborers’ children stay home, since their job is to farm.
There are no beggars at all, since the poor are well looked after.

Chapter 7
Gulliver goes on to describe the “intrigue” that precipitates his departure from Lilliput. While he
prepares to make his trip to Blefuscu, a court official tells Gulliver that he has been charged with
treason by enemies in the government.
He shows Gulliver the document calling for his execution:
Gulliver is charged with public urination, refusing to obey the emperor’s orders to seize the
remaining Blefuscu ships, aiding enemy ambassadors, and traveling to Blefuscu.
Gulliver is told that Reldresal has asked for his sentence to be reduced, calling not for execution
but for putting his eyes out. This punishment has been agreed upon, along with a plan to starve
him to death slowly. The official tells Gulliver that the operation to blind him will take place in
three days. Fearing this resolution, Gulliver crosses the channel and arrives in Blefuscu.

Chapter 1 quiz
 How many brothers does Gulliver have?
 Two
 Three
 Four
 Five
Where does Gulliver study before being sent to his apprentice ship in London?
Oxford
Harvard
Cambridge
Eton

What is the name of the ship that Gulliver escapes during a violent storm?
Swallow
Antelope
Amazon
Adventure

What are the Lilliputians armed with when Gulliver first wakes up to see them on the beach?
Bows and arrows
Guns
Knives
Tiny attack dogs

After being brought to the capital city of Lilliput, Gulliver is restrained with ___.
A padlock
A rope
Glue
A cage

Chapter 2.3

 How many Lilliputian beds are sewn together to make one bed for Gulliver?
 100
 300
 600
 1,000
 What article of clothing does Gulliver use to build an exercise platform for the Lilliputian
 horsemen?
 His jacket
 His hat
 His handkerchief
 His pants
What missing article of Gulliver's clothing do the Lilliputians find washed ashore and bring to
him?
His jacket
His hat
His handkerchief
His pants

Before the Lilliputians award Gulliver his freedom, Gulliver must agree to ___.

Assist the Lilliputian army

Leave Lilliput immediately
Eat the emperor's enemies
Marry a Lilliputian woman

Chapter 4.5
 The Tramecksans and Slamecksans are distinguished from each other by their respective
___.
 Weight
 Hat size
 Heel height
 Trouser lengthA
According to Reldresal, where do the philosophers of Lilliput think Gulliver came from?
England
America
The moon
The sea

The war between Lilliput and Blefuscu began with a

disagreement over ___.
How to break eggs
Whose dog was best
Flat earth theory
A woman

What does Gulliver do to help the Lilliputian emperor defeat Blefuscu?

Steals their ships
Stomps on the army
Carries the kingdom away
Eats the Blefuscan emperor

What does Gulliver use to put out the fire in the Lilliputian emperor's wife's
room?

Water
Spit
Urine
Coffee