Gulliver's Travels: Satire in Lilliput

In his social commentary Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift uses biting satire to relentlessly criticize politics, society, and the human race in each of Gulliver's four journeys. In Gulliver's first journey to Lilliput, the land of the six-inch tall humans, Swift describes their flawed society and misplaced pride, satirically comparing the Lilliputian society and political system to that of England, and alluding to its irrationality.

Of all the peoples Gulliver encounters on his journeys, the Lilliputians are the smallest, and ironically, the most arrogant. They are ignorant of their own insignificance and have misplaced pride in their own existence. This can be seen by the fact that they believe they can control Gulliver, despite the fact that he is twelve times their size, by imprisoning and then forcing him to sign a document of demands in order to gain his liberty. The preamble of the articles reads:

Golbasto Momarem Evlame Gurdilo Shefin Mully Ully Gue, most mighty Emperor of Lilliput, delight and terror of the universe, whose dominions extend five thousand blustrugs (about twelve miles in circumference) to the extremities of the globe; monarch of all monarchs, taller than the sons of men; whose feet press down to the centre, and whose head strikes against the sun; at whose nod the princes of the earth shake their knees; pleasant as the spring, comfortable as the summer, fruitful as autumn, dreadful as winter: his most sublime majesty proposes to the Man-Mountain, lately arrived at our celestial dominions, the following articles, which, by a solemn oath, he shall be obliged to perform. (Gulliver's Travels, p.43)

This article is evidence of the Lilliputians' excessive pride. They hyperbolize their self-importance in their emperor and the vastness of his domain, which in reality is tiny. Swift is using satire to say that England is similar to Lilliput. The English also have a skewed vision of their significance. They also believe their domains to "extend to the extremities of the globe," when they actually inhabit a relatively tiny island. They, like the Lilliputians, have too much reverence for their royalty, believing them to be part Divine, when they are mere mortals.

Swift ironically makes the Lilliputian society the one with the most corruption and back-stabbing of the four described. Gulliver aids them in their war with Blefuscu, but when he will not agree to decimate the Blefuscan society, the Lilliputian government conspires to charge him with high treason. They even pretend to be lenient with Gulliver in spite of his "crimes" by rejecting the idea putting him to a "most painful and ignominious death" (66) and deciding to merely blind him:

That if his Majesty, in consideration of your services, and pursuant to his own merciful disposition, would please to spare your life, and only give order to put out both of your eyes, he humbly conceived, that by this expedient, justice might in some measure be satisfied, and all the world would applaud the lenity of the Emperor, as well as the fair and generous proceedings of those who have honour to be his counselors. That the loss of your eyes would be no impediment to your strength, by which you might still be of use to his Majesty. (67)

The Lilliputians have a twisted vision of right and wrong; they believe themselves to be acting mercifully in only blinding Gulliver for his "crimes." They show their selfishness by stating that Gulliver would still be of use to them without his eyes. This is a representation of the corruption and selfishness of the English government. Because of the Lilliputians' size, their corruption is all the more ridiculous, and the corruption of the English society is also absurd due to its insignificance.

In his political satire, Swift describes the Lilliputian system by which governmental officials are appointed to office:

When a great office is vacant, either by death or disgrace (which often happens,) five or six of those candidates petition the emperor to entertain his majesty and the court with a dance on the rope; and whoever jumps the highest, without falling, succeeds in the office. Very often the Chief Ministers themselves are commanded to show their skill, and to convince the Emperor that they have not lost their Faculty. (39)

This arbitrary system awards offices to those who are good at jumping and dancing on a rope, not for political skill. Current ministers must also engage in this dangerous and trivial task to show they have not lost their political skill. Swift uses this as a tool