Chapter I. Jonathan Swift’s and politics

2.2. Irony and Satire in Gulliver's Travels as a tool of expressing political dissatisfaction.
Irony is a technical literary term which implies a contrast between appearance and reality or saying one thing while meaning another. Jonathan Swift is the master of irony, both verbal irony and the irony of situation and it is an essential and integral part of his outlook on life embodied in his works of art. In Gulliver's Travels irony is fused with allegory. In his first voyage Gulliver finds himself in Lilliput which is inhabited by people who are six inches tall. The verbal irony lies in the contrast of the size of the Emperor and the high sounding majestic adjectives used for him. The physical size of the Lilliputians represent their moral and intellectual size as they indulge in their malice, conspiracy, hypocrisy and ingratitude. They are like toys or dolls to Gulliver. But the little doll-like men act exactly as the full-size men do. They are a reflection of the English people as well as mankind. He calls the Lilliputians "small men" as they are not only physically small but their size represents their moral size. Gulliver's voyage to Lilliput is full of topical allusions to contemporary England., but they are transmuted into the symbolic allegorical caricature of the institutions of mankind and provides a mirror to man with all his smallness and pettiness. The voyage to Brobdingnag presents a contrast not only between the physical size of Lilliputians and Brobdingnagians but also their moral and spiritual size. The Brobdingnagians are just the reverse of what the Lilliputians were. In sharp contrast with the malicious, hypocritical, ungrateful attitude of the Lilliputians, the Brobdingnagians are magnanimous. Swift concentrates on the superiority of the giants and the insignificance of Gulliver. While the Lilliputians attacked Gulliver with spears and arrows at first sight, the Brobdingnagians take care of him and are amused at the sight of the toy-like man in the form of Gulliver. When Gulliver tells the king about arms and ammunition which can destroy houses and cities in no time, he is struck with horror that such a tiny creature could entertain ideas of blood and destruction. The king forbids him to mention such obnoxious things again in his presence. The moral superiority and the intellectual clarity of the king of Brobdingnag is far greater than that of Gulliver. Gulliver's pride is a common failing of man which needs to be humbled. The king rightly observes that the history of Gulliver's country is one of frauds and deceits [8, 165].
The voyage to Laputa has an ironic framework. Here men are engaged in strange scientific and philosophical speculations and experiments like extracting sunbeams out of cucumber. They are more interested in hypothetical speculations than facts, and as a result, the practical side of their life is clumsy and neglected. Here Swift reflects the opinion of the contemporary wits and scholars who found much of the work of the Royal Society intellectually contemptible. The voyage to the land of the Houhyhnhnms is the climax of the book. The land is populated by horses who are perfectly reasonable and Yahoos who are human beings in their irrationality. Swift has adopted the technique of reversal in this book. The horses or the Houyhnhnms are noble and lead life according to laws of reason and nature., while the Yahoos, human in form, are filthy brutes. The irony is again emphasised when at the time of his departure, Gulliver feels the pangs of parting, while the Houyhnhnmns are completely unmoved by it. Swift manipulates the three elements, Gulliver, the Houyhnhnm and the Yahoo for his satiric effects. Gulliver finds savages (horses) noble and Yahoos savage. Gulliver's Travels is a satire on the English as well as on mankind. It is a satire on the politics and administration of England, as well as the smallness of man, his vanity, illusions, rivalries, malice and hypocrisy. Gulliver himself is Swift's most important device of irony. His narration is apparently innocent of malice, and his manner is polite and agreeable. These are the cause of the reader's confusion because he is caught unawares.