Unità di apprendimento, a cura di Piazza Alessandro, Zazzi Matteo, Mancini Cristiano, Mancinelli Andrea, Butera Simone, Fantinelli Matteo - 1A scientifico 2013/14

2. INTRODUCTION
THE
WRITER
ARGUMENTS
THE
STORY
STYLE AND
LANGUAGE
ANALYSIS
OF THE
TEXTS
THE SATIRE IN
THE 17°-
CENTURY
PART I
PART IV
PART II
PART III

3. • English writer considered one of the
greatest exponents of English literature
• Lively satirical vein that he often turned
to the political and religious events of
society
• Son of english family in Ireland
• After studying he found work as secretary
working also the edition of his Memories
• He embraced the priesthood and
obtained small prebend of Kilroot
• He congreve and partecipated in literary
and political life
• He bought popularity with Drapier’s
letters
• After 1920 composition of his
masterpiece, Gulliver’s travels
• He used to regulate emotions in favour of
rationality

4. Part I: Voyage to Lilliput
On his first voyage Gulliver is shipwrecked in the empire of Lilliput, inhabited by a people so small they look like
insects. At first the Lilliputians hold him prisoner but they gradually trust him and use him in their wars against
the neighbour country. In the end Gulliver is allowed to leave the country,which he does on a boat.
Part II: A Voyage to Brobdingnag
On his second voyage Gulliver lands in the country of Brobdignag. This time he’s s surrounded by giants; he’s
used as a toy and he’s treated with great kindness by the Brobdignagians, who are civilized and tolerant people.
Gulliver lives the country by accident: the house-box where he lived is picked up by an eagle which lets it drop
in the open sea. Gulliver is then rescued by an english ship.
Part III: A Vojage to Laputa, Balnibarbi,Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib and Japan
On his third voyage Gulliver lands to a flying island: laputa. The inhabitants live in badly built and their fields are
badly worked. Finally their knowledge is all theorical and abstract.
Part IV: A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms
Gulliver’s final adventure takes him to the country of intelligents horses: the Houyhnhnms. This country i salso
inhabited by a race of monstruous creatures, the Yahoos. The Houyhnhnms are a rational and perfect civilization
whereas the Yahoos are cruel and filthy. Gulliver is painfully forced to admit that are very much like man, and he
decides to stay with the horses for ever. Unfortunately this creatures cannot tolerate the presence of a Yahoo
(Gulliver) and he has to leave the country.

5. Gulliver’s travels is a novel divided in 4
books. Gulliver is the narrator and
protagonist and he’s also an ordinary man,
who makes travel in remote regiond of the
world. Swift mixes the fantastic and the real:
his imaginary lands are all placed in known
oceans or continents and he’s also very
carefull about the geographical characteristcs.
From the point of view of the reader, the
novel bring him in contact with the worst
habits and defects of the human society.
Every book rapresents a different type of
voyage:
1) The first book tell the meanness of our
world.
2) The second book show all the physical
imperfections of men.
3) The third book is more direct to modern
to contemporary England.
4) The fourth book talk about the difference
between Yahoos and Hounhnhnms.

6. THE SATIRE IN THE 17°-
CENTURY CULTURAL
MOVEMENT
• REFORM SOCIETY WITH
REASON
•ADVANCE KNOWLEDGE
THROUGH THE
SCIENTIFIC METHOD
REVOLUTION
MOVEMENT
• CHALLENGE IDEAS
GROUNDED IN
TRADITIONS AND
FAITH
•GREAT REVIVAL OF
SATIRE FUELLED BY
PARTISAN POLITICS
LITERARY
MOVEMENT
• SATIRE OF INSTITUTION
BECAME A POPULAR
WEAPON
In the 17th-century the most important movement was the Age of
Enlightenment. It was a cultural movement of intellectuals and its
purpose was to reform society using reason, to challenge ideas
grounded in tradition and faith, and to advance knowledge through
the scientific method.
The Age of Enlightenment produced a great revival of satire in
Britain. This was fuelled by the rise of partisan politics, with the
formalisation of the Tory and Whig parties. The satirist focused their
attention on Martinus Scriblerus and in their hands astute and biting
satire of institutions became a popular weapon. The turn to the 18th
century was characterized by a switch from Horatian, soft, pseudo-satire
and to "juvenal" satire.

7. BELOVED HORSES, HATEFUL MEN
In chaper 11 IV Book of the novel, Gulliver concedes that
he owes all his Knowledge to the advices of his master.He is
very proud about it and he admires all horses qualities, like
their strenght,comeliness and speed and specially their
wisenes . He feels respect , love and gratitude towars them:
because he will distiguish him from the rest o his species .
When he sees his own reflex in a lake or a fountain , he feels
ashoned and his face is full of horror.
Also when he saw again his family, his wife and children,
gulliver felt a sentation of disgust towards them , because he
knows that he was like them. In the previus gears , while he
lived with the Houyhnhnms, he aquired lots of theirs
costumes : the way to talk , the gait and their uses and he he
is very proud about this. When he write, Gulliver is already
in England for five years and he says that during his first
year he didn’t support the presence of his family for their
bad smell.
ON POLITICS IN LILLIPUT
One morning Reldresal comes to Gulliver’s house for an Hour’s Audience with him.
Reldresal ordered his coach to wait at a distance . Gulliver offered to lie down that
Reldresal might conveniently reach his Ear, but Reldresal chose rather to let hold him in his
hand during the conversation. He began with compliments on Gulliver’s liberty. For as
flourishing a condition as they might appear to be in to foreigners they labour under two
mighty evils. At first Gulliver have to understood that in that empire, have been two
struggling parties under the names of TRAMECHSAN and SLAMECKSAN, from the high and
low Heels on their shoes, by which they distinguish themselves.
The high heels are most agreeable to their ancient constitution, but the Majesty hath
determined to make use of only low heels in the Administration of the Government. The
Animositys between these two Parties run so high, that they will neither talk with each
other. In the midst of these disquiets they are threatened with an Invasion from the Island
of BLEFUSCU, which is the other great Empire of the Universe.
They have heard Gulliver affirm that there are other Kingdoms and States in the world
inhabited by human creatures as large as him, while their Philosophers are in much doubt
and would rather conjecture that Gulliver dropt from the moon. Besides, their Historys
made no mention of any other regions, than the two great empires of LILLIPUT and
BLEFUSCU. Reldresal began to tell which two mighty powers have been engaged in a most
obstinate war for six and thirty moons past. The question was how to break Eggs before
eat them. The primitive way was upon the larger end, while the ancient Practice to break
eggs, was to cut one of the fingers. Many hundred large volumes have been published
upon this controversy. The Emperors commending all his subjects to break the smaller
end of their Eggs. The people were constantly fomented by the Monarchs of Blefuscu.
It is computed that eleven thousand people have suffered Death, rather than submit to
break their eggs at the smaller end. During the course of these troubles, the Emperors of
Blefuscu did frequently expostulate by their Embassadors, accusing them of making a
Schim in Religion. At last in Gulliver’s opinion “everyone shall break their eggs at the
convenient end”, which the convenient end seems to be left to every Man’s conscience or
in the power of the magistrate to determine.

8. • GULLIVER: he is protagonist of the passage and he tells
his own story. He tries to distingue himself from the
Yahoos. He learns the lessons of the master and in this
chapter he lives with the Houyhnhnms and he becomes
like them,in fact when he comes back home he can’t
tolerate his wife and his children that are Yahoos. At the
end Gulliver is a broken man: he refuses his own race and
his figure.
• YAHOOS: Gulliver shows them such as ugy and vicious
creatures. Gulliver admits that,however different he feels
from them,he is a Yahoo. The Yahoos rapresents the
humans in the story and they are stupid and uncivilized
and also the Yajoos are dominated by Houyhnhnms.
• HOUYHNHNMS: they are rapresented by superior horse
that dominated the Yahoos. The Houyhnhnms are
intelligent civilized. In the first part Gulliver looks back
with nostalgia to the happy days when he was the pupil of
the horses.
• GULLIVER: he is protagonist of the passage and he tells
his own story. Gulliver is enormous and the Lilliputians
are tiny, so obviously Gulliver is not literally a Lilliputian.
However, there are hints that Gulliver shares more with
the Lilliputians than he is fully willing to admit, infact
for all of his giant size, Gulliver's mind works
mechanically and in terms of profit, like a Lilliputian.
• LILLIPUTIANS: the Lilliputians inhabit the first island
Gulliver visits. They are about six inches tall, with
proportionally tiny buildings and trees and horses. The
Lilliputians are ruled by an Emperor who appoints his
high court officials according to their skills with rope
dancing rather than their actual abilities. In other words,
they're not exactly governed according to rational
principles. The court of Lilliput mostly seems to spend its
time plotting against their enemies. Gulliver,
unfortunately, forms one of the primary targets of these
plots. His enormous size makes him both expensive and
dangerous for the Emperor to keep, so, even though he
has made himself useful in Lilliput's wars against
Blefuscu, Gulliver eventually has to leave the country to
avoid having his eyes put out.
•

9. • Swift mixes the fantastic and the real: his imaginary lands
are all placed in know oceans or continents. Swift only
uses the from of the tale of travel and adventures to
submit civilized society to a complete criticism through
his sharp satire. It is centred on a voyage and it is set in
fantastic far-away island inhabited by strange races.
Gulliver is forced to examine his country's and his own
position in the light of the new realities he meets. Swift
may have intended to show an individual's alienation:
Gulliver alienation himself from his follow beings
because he is thoroughly disgusted by them. Gulliver' s
travels has alternately been considered as a children's
story a philosophical tale whose or an extended metaphor,
full of mysterious allusions
• Lilliput is a satirical portrait of the Kingdom of Great
Britain, and it's neighbour Blefuscu, a portrait of France.
Lilliput has two Political Parties: the Low-Heels, based on
the Whigs and the High-Heels, based on the Tories. The Low
and High Heels are based on the fashion of the Parliament
and the type of shoes members of the parties wear.
This is a reference to the position of the church in British
society (High Heels believed in the Church being supreme,
while Low Heels believed in the Parliament being supreme).
There is also a political quarrel between the Lilliput and
Blefuscu Kingdoms on how they break their eggs. In the past
both nations were Big-Endians, as in they broke their eggs at
the big end. But now Lilliputians are Little-Endians,
preferring to break their eggs at the little end.
This is a satirical reflection of the Catholic (Big) church and
the Protestant (Little) church. As France was Catholic, and
Britain was once Catholic and now Protestant (with a deep
fear of Catholic subversion).

10. THE END
AUTORI: Piazza Alessandro, Zazzi Matteo, Mancini Cristiano,
Mancinelli Andrea, Butera Simone, Fantinelli Matteo