Gulliver's Travels

Author: (British) Swift / Zhao Yeh edited by Zhang Jian
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-01-01
Features: "Gulliver's Travels" not only has profound ideological content but also has a relatively perfect artistic form. Swift's artistic techniques have many aspects worth learning from. First, Swift uses fictional plots and fantasy techniques to portray the reality of England at the time. At the same time, he also creates a rich and colorful, fairy-tale-like fantasy world based on the reality of England at the time. Swift's fantasy world is grounded in reality, and the contradictions of reality are even more concentrated and prominent in the fantasy world. For example, after the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the Whigs and Tories struggled for power, attacking each other, but in reality, they both represented the interests of the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie. Swift grasped the essential characteristics of parliamentary factional struggles and created the High Heels Party and the Low Heels Party in the Lilliputian kingdom. These fictional plots made the reality more intense, more concentrated, more typical, and more universal. Although the early 18th-century England is over two hundred years away from us, today, after reading "Gulliver's Travels," we still deeply feel that many of its plots remain relevant. Nowadays, in capitalist countries, there are various bourgeois parties struggling for power. If you strip away their facade, aren't they all representing the interests of the ruling class against the people? Imperialism talks about peace on the surface but, in reality, is expanding its military buildup—what's the difference between this and the situation in the Lilliputian kingdom? The artistic charm of "Gulliver's Travels" lies here. Swift's fantasy and reality are harmonious and unified. Gulliver's experiences in the Lilliputian kingdom, the Brobdingnagian kingdom, the flying islands, and the land of the Houyhnhnms are all different, but they are all arranged plausibly and without any flaws. Every time he visits a fantasy land, he receives different treatment, vividly depicted, giving the work a sense of artistic realism. This realism has a tremendous appeal, thereby achieving a high level of satire.