**Satirical Technique in the First Two Books of "Gulliver’s Travels":**

Jonathan Swift is one of the greatest satirists of English literature. He had a sort of political background in his early career. He worked as the Chief Publicity Agent and Adviser to the Tory Ministry of Harley and St. John from 1710 to 1713. He, therefore, saw at close quarters the working of the courtiers and the politicians and he was filled with disgust. This disgust is reflected in his famous prose "Gulliver’s Travels".

Part I of "Gulliver’s Travels" is largely a satire on English politics, English politicians, English monarch and theological disputes which prevailed in England in Swift's time. In the land of the Lilliputians we find all the intrigues and treachery of the courts of England. Lilliput is England on a miniature scale, and Blefuscu is France. In Lilliput we see the English court after the peace of Utrecht. (The Tories signed a treaty of peace with France at Utrecht in 1713 during their reign in England.) George I was then the king of England and the corrupt Whigs was in power. The Tories who had brought peace to the country had been thrown out in disgrace. Harley (the Earl of Oxford) was in prison and St. John (Bolingbroke) was exiled in France.

In Part 1, we find Swift satirizing the manner in which political offices were distributed among the candidates by the English King in

Satirical Technique in the First Two Books of Gulliver’s Travels

Swift's time. In the land of the Lilliputians we find all the intrigues and treachery of the courts of England. Lilliput is England on a miniature scale, and Blefuscu is France. In Lilliput we see the English court after the peace of Utrecht. (The Tories signed a treaty of peace with France at Utrecht in 1713 during their reign in England.) George I was then the king of England and the corrupt Whigs was in power. The Tories who had brought peace to the country had been thrown out in disgrace. Harley (the Earl of Oxford) ‘,,is in prison and St. John (Bolingbroke) was exiled in France.

In Part I, Gulliver also satirized another aspect of political situation of England. Once the palace of the Queen of Lilliputians caught fire and Gulliver extinguished it by urinating over it. Though Gulliver saved the Queen, she became angry with him instead of being satisfied or grateful. Actually this incident reminds us Swift's publication of his “Tale of a Tub”. In this book Swift satirized the Catholics and Dissenters that is, he wrote in favour of Queen Anne. But she misunderstood him and deprived him of the post of the Bishop.

In the first hook Swift satirized the political parties in England. Among the tiny people of Lilliput, there are two parties distinguished by high-heels (corresponding to the Tories) and low-heels (corresponding to the Whigs). There were also differences regarding the end at which they broke the boiled eggs between the Big-Indians (corresponding to the Roman Catholics) and the Little-Indians (corresponding to the Protestants). We are told that the Emperor favoured the low-heels and the Little- Indians, and thousands of the high-heels and the Big-Indians had taken refuge in Blefuscu. This is a satire on the Jacobites, Tories and Roman Catholics who had sought refuge in France.

In Part II Swift's satire becomes a little more pungent and bitter. The satire here becomes somewhat corrosive and takes on the character of invectiveness. When Gulliver gives to the King of Brobdingnag an account of the political institutions of England, the King observes that the history of Gulliver's country is only a heap of conspiracies, rebellions, murders, massacres, revolutions, and banishment. According to the King, all these are the result of the avarice, hypocrisy, perfidy, cruelty, rage, madness, hatred, envy, lust, malice, and ambition of the people of Gulliver's country. The King's final judgment on the political judicial systems of England is:

"You have clearly proved that ignorance, idleness and vice are the proper ingredients for qualifying a legislator; that laws are best explained, interpreted and applied by those whose interest and abilities lie in perverting, confounding and eluding them."

The King goes on in this vein and then pronounces his final judgment on human nature:

"I cannot but conclude the bulk of your nation to be the most pernicious race of little vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth."

To conclude we may say that Swift exposes the pride and cruelty and the corrupt and unscrupulous nature of politicians. In this book Swift has diagnosed the politics of England of the then society.

You Can also Read: