Gulliver's Travels as a Political Satire

Whether, How and Why Sir Robert Walpole Is Represented in the Novel

Andreas Raab

• Publisher: GRIN Verlag
• Year: 2009
• eBook ISBN: 9783640309429
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: English Language
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 1, University of Vienna, course: 18th Century Satire and Satirical Literature, language: English, abstract: In this term paper I focus on Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, first published in 1726, as a political satire, a book rich in its topics and possible interpretations. However, the novel's function as a political satire – which I exemplarily examine in this paper – is one of its most discussed and obvious ones. Thus, I have a close look at whether, why and how the politician Sir Robert Walpole, a contemporary of Jonathan Swift, is – satirically – represented in Gulliver's Travels.In order to fully grasp this issue, I start with a summary and comparison of both Jonathan Swift's and Robert Walpole's (political) backgrounds, beliefs, values and ideas, embedded in the historical context of the early 18th century. Then I continue with a discussion that mainly focuses on the following questions: Does the character Flimnap merely represent Robert Walpole or does it rather stand for politicians in general? What could have been Jonathan Swift's (political) intentions to do so? And, finally: How does satire as such then function in this case?