Scarica Sintesi "Gulliver's Travels" e più Schemi e mappe concettuali in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! Now I'm going to talk about Gulliver's Travels. Gulliver's Travels is a prose satire of the English manners, institutions and politics and also the religious controversy of the time. The book was published in 1726 but it was written between 1721-1725. The novel narrates 4 imaginary journey by a doctor, Lemeul Gulliver to fantastic far parts of the world (Liliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa and the land of Houyhnhnms). At the end of each book Gulliver returns to England just to leave once again. He remains in England forever only at the end of book 4. Gulliver is the object of Swift's satire, as a representative of mankind and also of a British man, convinced of the perfection of his culture. 1 book: Gulliver is shipwrecked on the island of Lilliput, he helps the Lilliputians, the 6-inch high inhabitants of the island, in the war against the enemy island of Blefuscu. Now I'd like to show you a scene taken from the film …. 2 book: Gulliver sails for India but he is set on a shore by his crow on Brobdingnag, a land where the people are giants. First he becomes a pet for children, then he is sold to the Queen. He talks to the king who asks about manners, governments and culture of Europe. 3 book: after an attack by pirates, Gulliver visits the floating island of Laputa and in the capital Lagado, he meets philosophers and scientists who work on absurd research without any results. 4 book: Gulliver is abandoned in the land of the Houyhnhnms, a race of intelligent horses who are served by a race of beasts in the shape of men called Yahoos. He tries to become like the horses but they refuse him and he returns to his wife and children but he can't accept them because they look and smell like Yahoos. Now I'd like to show you another scene from the film …. Gulliver, the protagonist, is a round character; he is increasingly disgusted by the human race and he changes completely. Before his first journey Gulliver is a sensible, well-educated, middle-aged doctor looking after his family and certain that English society is the best. In his journeys Gulliver loses his faith in humankind and in the ability to build a moral society. Now I'd like to talk about the themes. In book 1 Lilliputians history parallels European history. Lilliput and Blefuscu represent England and France; there is also the reference to the Wing and the Tories of English politics. Book 2 satarises Gulliver's belief about himself as the representative of a superior culture. In book 3 science and philosophy are only silly subjects: history can't teach man anything. In book 4 the wild horses manage their lives according to their perfect reason. They accept death, they never lie and don't have opinions. Their servants are beasts and they are very similar to the protagonist's homeland inhabitants. Book 4 reflects Swift's satire of the 18th century. But if the Yahoos are beastly, the noble horses are slaves to reason and they don't know love, friendship, affection, history or literature. This is typically human and it is absent when reason has no control. The message is that if you put your faith in rationalism and not in common sense society may suffer moral consequences. Swift's book can be interpreted in different ways: it can be read as a tale for children because of Gulliver's strange adventures. It can be read as a political allegory of Swift's time as a reflection on the mistakes of human reason. The most frequent interpretation was that his idea was to criticize the political, social and religious conflict of the time.
