Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift | Summary & Analysis

Jonathan Swift's Gulliver’s Travels explained with chapter summaries in just a few minutes!

Course Hero Literature Instructor Russell Jaffe provides an in-depth analysis of the plot, characters, symbols, themes, and motifs of Jonathan Swift's novel Gulliver's Travels.

Download the free study guide and infographic for Gulliver’s Travels here: https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Gullivers-Travels/infographic/

In Jonathan Swift's iconic satire Gulliver's Travels, the titular protagonist journeys to strange lands and interacts with their even-stranger inhabitants.

As he ricochets from one ridiculous adventure to the next, Gulliver's faith in humanity and its constructs is utterly dismantled.

His encounters with the minute Lilliputians, the gigantic Brobdingnagians, and the Houyhnhnms, a race of talking horses, among others, illustrate the absurdities of 18th century English society.

Through his depictions of bizarre social customs, tyrannical leaders, and arcane intellectual pursuits, he casts a gimlet eye on a country both fraught with conflict and revolutionized by the Enlightenment.

Irish writer Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels was first published in 1726. Despite holding various political positions and rising through the ranks of the Irish church, he used his writings to prod unrelentingly at the failings of politics, religion, and Enlightenment thinking in general. Full of both pointed observations and scatological humor, Gulliver’s Travels is a touchstone of narrative social commentary.

The satirical, adventurous novel Gulliver’s Travels contains many enduring themes, including abuses of power, as those who have power display intolerance, no matter how much Gulliver likes them. The cerebral versus the real world is also explored, as the most learned people Gulliver meets are often the least practical and compassionate. Another theme is society versus the individual, as each society Gulliver visits has practices everyone must conform to. Important motifs include bodies, language, and reversal.

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