Gulliver's Travels

Discuss the use of fantasy in Gulliver's travels

the elements of fantasy used in Gulliver's travels, by Jonathan Swift

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Certainly if we took Gulliver's Travels at face value one might think that Swift had discovered some early form of hallucinogen drug. Once we take a look at the sub-text it becomes clear that the work is a satirical view of the state of European government, and of petty differences between religions. This is exactly why it is so famous. Swift uses fantastical elements like floating islands, tiny people, and enlightened talking horses to criticize of European society.

Fantasyland ( Gulliver's Travels)
The English dictionary defines fantasy a genre of literature that generally deals with themes of magic, and the supernatural, imaginary world and creatures from ones imagination. Jonathan Swift employs the use of fantasy in his novel Gulliver's Travels. Gulliver is on an adventure in the mind of the author. Swift makes these fantasies to appear real to the reader through his charmed story telling, and fusion of facts and fantasy. Gulliver's adventures are imaginary. He sets journey to explore on real islands but comes to find himself on island with strange and unusual characters. Swift uses fantastical elements like floating islands, tiny people, Giants, and enlightened talking horses to criticize European society.
In part one of the novel, Gulliver's ship is destroyed in a storm. Hi crew perish and he comes to find himself in a land of short men of about six inches hight. Despite their small fingure, they manage to tie giant Gulliver to the ground and he is bound to conform to their demand in exchange for freedom. The only building that can accommodate Gulliver is an forsaken temple. Gulliver helps the Lilipitians win a war which they have been fighting with their neighbor island of Blefuscu. The Lilipitian emperor wants Gulliver to help them slave the Blefuscudians. Seeing that Gulliver is not interested in enslaving the Blefuscudians, he falls out of favour of the emperor and flees to Blefuscu. The ways of life of the Lilipitians their humerus, and dispositions ,the account of their learning, the reception they offer to Gulliver, and their subject to fear reflect to the real life the England.
Swift's fantastical world is as good as a real one. He has introduced some realistic events in his story as we find in Part three of the novel. The inhabitants of the flying island of Laputa are very much obsessed with science, philosophy, music, and mathematics. As taught to Gulliver, we come to find the they used the magnetic forces of the earth to fly the island up and down.They have made mathematics an aspect of their daily life. If they want ,for instance, to praise the beauty of a woman or any other animal , they describe it by rhombus , circles, parallelogram, ellipsis, and other geometrical terms or by words of art drawn from music. This includes to the very minute such as the snacks served to ggulliever, which are of the shapes of geometrical instruments. The folies of their obsession manifests in the results turning vulgar in construction. Their houses sufferer defects which arises from the contempt they bear to practical geometry which occasion perpetual mistakes. These houses are very ill built and the wall bevil without one right angle in any apartment. Swift sartirices this great experiment that are carried out in this accademy to expose futility of similar scientific experiment in England.

Gulliver encounters humanoid creatures which he comes to learn that they are Yahoo's. These humanoid creatures have the physic of a normal human being but presented to have lost reasoning, humanity and without clothes.they are being tamed by a race of intelligent talking Horses, the hounyhnhns.the master horse and Gulliver get to an immense discussion about the Yahoo the humans of Gulliver and the hounyhnhns. The hounyms appear to be More intelligent and reasonable . Gulliver is fascinated by the behaviors of the hounyhnhns and seek to embrace their gentility . When he gets back home to London and his family denounce him , Gulliver chooses to rare horse and identify himself with them . Gulliver's attempt to become an hounyhnhns Marks the climax of the storie's satire where the author mocks the every day lives of the Europeans.

Source(s)

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift