Gulliver's Travels

by Jonathan Swift

This novel is a very interesting political analysis and satire of various governments and societies. As the Author/title character travels throughout the world, he visits many different lands with varying forms of government and society. The Author compares each land to the government and society of his native England.

The Author, through his descriptions, contemplates different types of governments. Many of the governments he describes are depictions of governments in existence at the time in which the Author lived. The Author's own discontent with the English government and European society is the focus of this novel.

Through fanciful imaginings, the Author depicts chaotic and ridiculous lands that closely resemble the European countries of his time. Many of the conflicts in the novel correspond to actual events. Numerous characters actually represent members of European society. The Author uses this novel as a satire and criticism of English and European governments and societies. It is through this novel that the Author expresses his own political beliefs by favorable or disparaging descriptions of the different lands.

Towards the conclusion of the novel, the Author describes his total rejection of European Government and society. He longs for an ideal country to exist like the one he had seen in the land of the Houyhnhnms I would like to explore the historical background of this novel and define what Swift is actually criticizing in his novel. Swift was just one of the many Europeans who was unhappy with the political and social environment in Europe. This discontent was what caused many Europeans to leave and come to the New World, to America. This dissatisfaction is what founded our country today. The Land of the Houyhnhnms is what many of the unhappy Europeans hoped the New World to be.