Gulliver's travels Flashcards
(26 cards)
themes
(gullivers travels)
The abusive power
Cerebral vs Real world
Society vs individual
Perspective
How does the theme The abusive power come forward in Gulliver’s Travells?
=> king of lugnag, Gulliver has to lick the floor, Houyhnhnms exploit the yahoos etc.
How does the theme Cerebral vs Real world come forward in Gulliver’s Travells?
=> take practicalicy to an extreme or are very abstract thinkers, laputans are very scientificly advanced but cannot make clothes. The houynhmhns are to rational and miss out on the emotionall experiences of live, mis out of love. What is knowledge without actions
How does the theme Society vs individual come forward in Gulliver’s Travells?
=> society puts rules on the people
How does the theme Perspective come forward in Gulliver’s Travells?
=> nothing is objective, everything is through the lens of the people Gulliver meets.
Symbols
(gullivers travels)
Lilliputians
Brobdingnagians
Laputans
Houyhnhnms
Yahoos
What do the Lilliputians symbolise in Gulliver’s Travels?
=> represents the human urge to think they are sooo important, but because they are so tiny this shows the error in thinking in that way
What do the Brobdingnagians symbolise in Gulliver’s Travels?
=> humans have the ability to do extreme good and extreme bad, in the farmers village there goes on extreme kindness and extreme greed.
EXAMPLE: very kind, but then money => imediate sell
What do the Laputans symbolise in Gulliver’s Travels?
=> resemble the need to seek knowledge without wanting to put it to use, or don’t know how to put it to use.
What do the Houyhnhnms symbolise in Gulliver’s Travels?
=> resemble the rational thinking, and the benefits of collective living, but also the lack of identity that comes with extreme devotions to rational thinking, hold to much to the rules of their safe and good culture.
What do the Yahoos symbolise in Gulliver’s Travels?
=> symbolize the lack of rational thought, show how ongoing oppression can drive this loss rational thought, are they violent because they’ve been rejected or all they rejected because they are violent
Author
(gullivers travels)
Jonathan Swift, Published during a time of political and social upheaval, Gulliver’s Travels is a masterpiece of political and social satire. Swift’s sharp wit and allegorical storytelling have made the novel a classic that continues to be studied and enjoyed for its multifaceted critique of humanity.
published
(gullivers travels)
1726
What happends in the first part of Gulliver’s Travels?
The first part depict Gulliver’s encounters with tiny Lilliputians, he flees and gets picked up by an English ship
What happends in the second part of Gulliver’s Travels?
The second part he encounters giant Brobdingnagians, serving as a commentary on human pettiness and arrogance. In an outing to the beach a bird picks up his carrying cart and drops him in the ocean and gets picked up by an English ship
What happends in the third part of Gulliver’s Travels?
The third part explores the absurdities of scientific pursuits and intellectualism through the floating island of Laputa. And goes to Glubbdupdrip and talks to dead figures of history, gets home via Japan and holland
What happends in the fourth and final part of Gulliver’s Travels?
In the final part, Gulliver captains his own crew but gets mutinied, and gets dropped off on an island. Thee he encounters the rational and horse-like Houyhnhnms, highlighting Swift’s criticism of human behaviors by presenting an idealized alternative. Ther are also the primitive humans yahoos, he hates his yahoo heritance and vows never to go back to England, but the Houyhnhnms decide that a yahoo cannot live among them.
What happends at the very end of Gulliver’s Travels?
He returns home and spends years readjusting to his live among the yahoos, and he prefers the company of horses over the company of his wife
Lemuel Gulliver
(gullivers travels)
=> adventurer, surgeon on a ship, taken prisoner by the Lilliputians, becomes a pet to the Brobdingnagians, visits a floating island in the sky named Laputa, and visits, lives with horses named the Houyhnhnm, has learned how bad humans are and doesn’t want to go home, is really good in languages.
round
Emperor of lilliput
(gullivers travels)
=> treats Gulliver well, expects respect and obedience from everyone, disobedience=a death sentence
flat
Glumdalclitch
(gullivers travels)
=> farm girl, Gulliver’s caretaker, devoted to Gulliver, giant
flat
King of Laputa
(gullivers travels)
=> absorbed with the abstract contemplations of thought, monarch, abuses power
flat
Houyhnhnm master
(gullivers travels)
=> treats Gulliver kindly, is a horse, sees Gulliver as a lesser creature
flat
Governor of Glubbdubdrip
(gullivers travels)
=> mysterious figure, a necromancer (can raise people from the dead to serve him), shows Gulliver hospitality, offers Gulliver to speak with the dead scholars and legends of the past.
flat
