Satires of Gulliver's Travels

Voyage to Lilliput -
Three satires exist in this voyage story to Lilliput. Firstly, the political parties of the English government are represented by the conservative High Heels who depict the Tories, and the progressive Low Heels, or Whigs. Thus the rebellion between high and low heels is a satire of Whigs and Tories.It shows that in a country, when there are two parties fighting against each other because of frivolous matters, the unity of the country would come to harm in the end.

Next, the conflict and fight between Lilliput and Blefuscu is a satire. It is a satire of the conflict between France and England over a frivolous matter.

Lastly, another satire about the religions, which are namely the Protestants and Catholics. It is compared to how the people of Lilliput and the people of Blefuscu cut their eggs, which side of it should be cut. And due to their different beliefs, they have conflicts with each other.

Voyage to Brobdingnag -
Two satires exist in this voyage to Brobdingnag. The first Satire is about the values of the giants in Brobdingnag. It describes that although the giants have small flaws and make mistakes, they possess the much needed values. This is a satire of Jonathan Swift's (the author) impression of rulers who have great power, but does not rule without considering the well-fare of his people, but have ethics.

Secondly, the satire is describing how in life, a person's point of view could change his claims to power in the society. Gulliver now becomes the smallest in Brobdingnag, the exact opposite happening as when he was in Lilliput. This time, it shows how he must look at things from a different angle.

Voyage to Laputa -
Again, there are two satires in this voyage. The first satire satires the open rebellion of Ireland against England. It is the event of the rebelling of the Lindalino against Laputa.

The second satire described about the people of Laputa being very knowledgeable about Music and Mathematics but do not know how to use the knowledge of it practically. It shows how Jonathan Swift dislikes theories and ideas that are abstract, that do not benefit.

Voyage to Houyhnhnms -

This voyage put emphasis on one topic, which is the nature of human. Swift makes a satire with the Houyhnhnms and Yahoos. The Houyhnhnms are considered the reasoned horses, as they have morally good characters, while the Yahoos are considered degraded humans as their moral characters are bad. This displays that in the process of dealing with our flaws and even recognising them, our pride would stop us as we would have too much pride to even admit that we are in the wrong or have mistakes. If this continues on, we would be like the Yahoos, having bad characters.