Gulliver’s Travels as a Minippean satire.
A Menippean Satire is a work that uses fictional elements to satirize mental attitudes instead of people or things By using the structure of a fictional story, the writer is able to demonstrate satire without preaching or lecturing, instead allowing the reader to understand the satire through fictional events and places. Gulliver's Travels is an excellent example of a Menippean Satire, placing the everyman Gulliver into increasingly strange situations and having him try to explain his own society in a positive light.
This form is named after the Greek cynic menippus [3rd century B.C] of Godara, his work, which are all lost were and important influence. on Varro and Lucian. The menippean satire genre is named after him. His works, now lost, influenced the works of Lucian and Marcus Terentius Varro [116 B.C - 27 B.C]. Such satires are sometimes also termed Varronian satire.
Swift attacks intectuality of human beings. He shows the bitter truth of the society in a satirical way. Though his stories full of fiction but the real intent is different. Swift attacks man's wickedness and stupidity.
In the four parts of Gulliver's travels. Lilliputians as insignificant corrupt politician, to Brobdingnagians as epitome of moral giants, lived in the land of Utopia where human pride was insignificant to Laputians as the mad scientists and lastly Houyhnhnms were animals and they represented the perfection of nature. The general theme of the satire is that serious defects affinity society. .
In the first voyage, Swift tells us that the people were very tiny which indicates their narrow mind. We also come to know about the selection of government officials through rope-dancing. That is totally arbitrary and ridiculous. The description of the emperor, the court and the ministers of Lilliput give a realistic picture of English political life under George I.
There was a war going on between Whigs and Tories and the reason was about breaking an egg. Lilliputians argued, "That all true believers shall break their eggs at the convenient end, here the convenient and could be interpreted as the small end. People choose death rather than to surrender.
In the First Book Gulliver meets with storm and suddenly his spin break . By swimming he reached near beach but in faint situation. When he wake up he found his self on an island and he want to get up but he couldn’t. He feels that he tied with a rope. All around him was the hum of little voice- . Suddenly he feels that large insect moving on his body so he try to see and he found that there was a little man who walk on his body his height is not more than six inch. Six inch little man indicate there physical and mental power it means they have not strength to do any work that is the menippean satire.
For the indirect satire Swift uses tiny things like vegetables, food and also the people who belonged to that island. Finally Gulliver keeps in to capital of Lilliput. There is a king whose behavior is friendly with Gulliver and next day so many people come from village to see him. some of them say that Gulliver will use his strength and destroyed Lilliput so it is necessary to think about him that he has to alive or kill.But the king and all people behave with him as he is a friend of them.They are always ready for Gulliver’s help like give him food, cloth, water and all kind of help Gulliver think that Lilliputians believe that Gulliver is guest for them .In short we find menippean satire in first part of Gulliver’s travels. Lilliputians are not taller than six inch and their things are also too small. For ex- Glass of waterA, Sheep, camel food.
In the second voyage in Brobdingnag Gulliver is smaller than all people. They all are using Gulliver as an entertainment weapon whenever they want to enjoy.
After hearing the stories of England, the king of Brobdingnag comments: "...I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl open the surface of the Earth"
They are very tall so Gulliver every time afraid by them but he feels happy because there is no chance to limit because he has no power to rule over this world due to his smallness. This is another instance of satire that huge or big is connected to power to rule.Once he afraid from taller therefore he run away from that place to another place (direction). It indicates that they have not physical and mind power. Beyond this hill he saw that the ground was cultivated and properly farmed. But this was not the farmland of his home. The grass itself was twenty feet high and other crops were even higher in short they and their things are higher but they have not knowledge. The people are look like giant so he is trying to find some hole in the fence through which he could go. Here we also find satire that their voice like thunder high above him.
Menippean satire lacks the focus, of the primary target rather than a single target, menippean satire is also more psychological. Gulliver's travels as a whole, qualifies as a menippean satire as it satirised various aspects of the society all at once, having no fixed target.
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