Gulliver's Travels is an adventurous novel with lots of humour and satire within it. Explain.

Jonathan Swift's masterpiece satire Gulliver's Travels is written in the form of a travel story and details a sailor's journey to four very different fantastical societies. But the book is not a simple adventure story. It is a pungent satire on man. It is also a critical and insightful work satirizing the political and social systems of eighteenth century England. Through frequent and successful employment of irony, ambiguity and symbolism, Swift makes comments addressing such specific topics as current political controversies as well as such universal concerns as the moral degeneration of man.

 Ostensibly, Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels is adventure story detailing a sailor's journey to four fantastical lands. It tells the story of the various wonderful voyages undertaken by a man called Lamuel Gulliver. The narrative is in the form of an adventure story. To any young mind, Gulliver is an adventurer exploring various fantastic lands. To a child, both Lilliput and Brobdingnag are strange and wonderful lands full of fascinating events. The way the pigmies handle the man-mountain' Gulliver, the way they feed him, the way Gulliver visits the capital of Lilliput, the way he cripples the enemy fleet and the way he extinguishes fire in the Lilliputian royal palace by urinating on it are all exciting and amusing. In addition to their littleness, Lilliputians customs as well as sources of their conflicts are also sources of great amusement to any young and inexperienced mind. Again, Gulliver as a pigmy among the giant Brobdingnagians gives endless amusement tor the children. Gulliver meets several mishaps in the land of Brobdingnag and they are all bound to interest the young reader.

 Similarly, strange and surprising events take place in Laputa and Lagado. the Laputans with their strange behaviors in a flying island are very funny people. The experiments which are in progress in the Academy of Lagado are also very interesting. Gulliver's interviews with the ghosts and spirits of the great dead on the island of Glubbdubdrib are also a source of great interest. Gulliver's last voyage takes him to another fantastic land of the Houyhnhnms and the Yahoos. Here too the element of the marvellous predominates. That horses, the Houyhnhnms are perfectly rational animals and controls the human-like Yahoos and their way of governing the society as well as life-style are all parts of a fanciful story. Any young mind ravels in the narratives of the fantastic places, objects and events throughout Gulliver's Travels.

But, Gulliver's Travels is not a simply adventure story. It is more than a children book. It is a great satiric masterpiece. Swift’s purpose in writing the book is to 'vex' the world by exposing the evils, follies and absurdities of human life. The whole book is a direct and outspoken condemnation of the follies and faults of human beings. By presenting the Lilliputian society and court as corrupt Swift attacks his contemporary political institutions and the politicians. The diminutives in the fantastic island symbolically suggest human capacity of infinite pride and Corruption. The second book is also a bitter and pungent satire on English politics and society. Through Gulliver's account of English society and the giant king's subsequent reaction of his panegyrics Swift exposes the avarice, hypocrisy, perfidy, cruelty, madness, malice and lust of Englishmen. The third book is a satire on unrealistic philosophers and scientists in pursuit of useless knowledge and their intellectual pride. The last book contains the most scornful, the most incisive and the most corrosive satire on mankind. In the abominable and filthy Yahoos, who are brutal, un-teachable and mischievous, and by contrasting them against the ideal Houyhnhnms, Swift exposes the innate depravity of human beings.

Much of the humor in Part I comes from the visual imagery of the contrast in size between Gulliver and the Lilliputians. The image of their hundred arrows shot into his hand that feel like the sting of needles seems funny because such little people can be so fierce and yet cannot do much to damage such a huge visitor. Other instances of humor revolve around Gulliver's physical needs, and again, most of these relate to the size difference. The Lilliputians feed Gulliver plates of a meat that he takes to be something like mutton legs, yet they look like tiny bird legs to him. When the little people transport Gulliver during his sleep to their city, he wakes up with a violent sneeze. Only weeks later does he learn that two inquisitive guards had climbed onto his face and stuck their spears up his nose. Along with the humor about physical needs, the story contains scatological humor dealing with Gulliver relieving himself.

Thus, Gulliver's Travels is not a simple adventure story; it is rather a bitter satire on mankind. Every aspect of human life has been severely castigated and humor in the book