Gulliver’s Travels
Топик Путешествия Гулливера рассказывает о сатирико-фантастическом романе Джонатана Свифта, в котором ярко и остроумно высмеиваются человеческие и общественные пороки. Первое издание вышло в 1726-1727 годах в Лондоне, и вскоре книга стала классикой нравственно-политической сатиры. В первой части книги читатель смеется над нелепым самомнением лилипутов. Во второй, в стране великанов, меняется точка зрения, и выясняется, что человеческая цивилизация заслуживает такого же осмеяния. В третьей высмеивается, с разных сторон, самомнение человеческой
In 1726 Swift’s masterpiece “Gulliver’s Travels” appeared. This work made a great sensation in Ireland as well as in England, it equally stirred the interests of those in politics as well as the readers of novels.
In this work Swift intended to satirise the evils of the existing society in the form of fictional travels. It tells about the adventures of a ship surgeon, as related by himself and divided into four parts of four voyages:1. A voyage to Liliput.2. A voyage to Brobdignag.3. A voyage to Laputa.4. A voyage to the country of Houyhnhnms.
1. The first voyage was to a strange country Lilliput. As the result of a shipwreck Gulliver finds himself in a country, inhabited by a race of people about six inches high. Everything else in this country is on a correspondent scale. Swift meant this small country with it’s shallow interest, corrupted laws and evil customs to symbolize the England of the 18’th centure, the court with it’s atmosphere of hostility, hypocrisy and flattery where
the author felt as lonely as his hero when among the liliputians.2. Before long Gulliver undertakes another voyage. The ship anchors near the land of the giants to take in a supply of water. While on shore Gulliver is captured by the giants. They are good-natured creatures and treat Gulliver kindly, though they are amused by his small size and look upon him as a plaything.
Brobdingnag is an expression of Swift’s desire to find the ideal and escape from the disgusting world of the Liliputians. The author idealizes an agricultural country ruled by ideal monarch. Swift creates such a monarch in the king of Brobdingnag. He is clever, honest and kind to his people. He hates wars and wants to make his people happy.
3. The third voyage is to Laputa, a flying island Laputa. Swift’s imagination the bitterness of his satire reach their climax in the third part where he shows the academy of sciences in Laputa (the author touches upon all the existing sciences). It is easy enough to understand that in ridiculing the academy of Laputa. Swift ridicules the scientists of the 18’th century. The scientists are shut in their chambers isolated from all the world.
4. In the 4’th part Swift describes Gulliver’s adventures at the Heuyhnhnms – a ideal land where were is neither sickness, dishonesty, no any of the frivolities of human society. The human race occupies a position of servility there and a noble race of horses rules the country by reason and justice.
“Gulliver’s travels” was one of the greatest works of the period of the Enlightment in world literature. Swift’s democratic ideas expressed in the book had a great influence on the English writers who came after Swift.
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