GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
by JONATHAN SWIFT

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About This Project: Questions Answered

The Travels

Why do you like Gullible's Travels?
At different times, different things have struck me. Some days I feel like Gulliver tied down by thousands of little people. Some days I like the use of perspective as a tool. Some days I like Swift's fine anger at our inhumanity. Sometimes it is the tightness of the prose or the cleverness of the satire.

I am seeking a copy of gullivers travels which is broken down in a script format. Can you point me in the right direction.
I don't know of anything along these lines. At least I've never come across such an item - and there are quite a few oddities related to Gulliver - and when I tried several searches in online library catalogs (subject words "Swift Drama" and "Gulliver Drama) all I retrieved were plays about Swift.

I am looking for an animated feature of Gullivers Travels that was released in 1939. Do you know if this film is still in existence and is it available on video.
Some film sources for the Travels can be found at http://www.jaffebros.com/lee/gulliver/sources/gulliver.html#media

i am new to the net and new to teaching gulliver to ap english students...it seems rather difficult in the historical sense...what amount of history do students need to fully understand the satire?...any suggestions for effective teaching?
I recommend the essay Modes of Reading, and Modes of Reading Swift as a good source for teachers. In print, take a look at Approaches to Teaching Swift's Gulliver's Travels (MLA, 1988) a slender volume that discusses everything a teacher may need to know.

I am doing a research paper on satire in Gulliver's Travels, do you know where I can find some information on the internet?
I think you found it.

what do you think the theme of the Travels is?
Each episode of the Travels seems to have its own theme. However, you can say that the whole work is about the folly of mankind, starting with institutions such as governments and religions, then exposing even the "rational" arts, and finally skewering our very pretense of reason.

At the same time, I think that the literary theme of the Travels can be summed up by the line,

"nothing is great or little otherwise than by comparison"
meaning that only by comparing ourselves to others can we determine what we are. That would be the point of the travels, to allow comparing ourselves to others, and therefore seeing our true nature.

could you tell me the satirical purpose/significance of the concept, "The thing which is not"? I know it means lies, cheats, or falsehood, but what is Swift actually satirizing by using this phrase?
The essential idea is that the Houyhnhnms are so far removed from the idea of falsehood that they have no words to represent it. I believe there is a passage where Gulliver explains to the readers that they understand the point of rational speech is to communicate and therefore the idea of using speech to mislead someone is wholly inconceivable to them. Therefore, an elaborate phrasing is needed to convey the concept. By implication, you can say that Swift is satirizing his world where the idea of lying is so common that it doesn't need any such explanation.

i have to write an essay on the imprisoned life of gulliver and i would be very obliged if you would help me in writing the essay and in telling me about his trapped imprisonment.
He was tied down, then chained, and then constained by contract in Lilliput. In Brobdingnag he was caged. He wasn't a prisoner in either of the last two voyages. Perhaps it might be interesting to explore the second story, where the cage was also a safe haven. There are a lot of accounts of him being attacked or in danger when not in his cage.

Did Gulliver become a cannibal in Book IV?
I think Swift plays with us, raising the possibility with a couple of intriguing lines.
"My sail was likewise composed of the skins of the same animal; but I made use of the youngest I could get, the oldest being too tough and thick, and I likewise provided myself with four paddles."
I think he wants us to wonder or at least see that Gulliver had so truly come to detest his own kind that he had no qualms about using their hides for his needs. Did he kill them to that end? My own inclination is to respect Swift's intention and leave the questions raised but unanswered.

I would like to know what parts of the text were removed in the following editions (and for what reasons).
Actually, the opposite happened. Swift's earliest publisher (Motte) edited Swift's text to avoid being charged with sedition. Swift was furious and fought with him to restore it to the original version. He also arranged to have it published in Dublin, but that publisher inserted so many errors that it is generally dismissed as useless. The Faulkner edition, (from Dublin but not to be confused with the "Dublin edition") which appeared in a multivolume edition of collected works in 1735 is considered the only contemporary version of Gulliver truly reflecting Swift's words. No manuscript of Gulliver exists but there is a copy of the Dublin edition with corrections dictated by Swift which is considered the closest we have.

Swift added "A Letter from Capt. Gulliver..." to later editions to address his complaints with Motte, specifically changes to part of the section about the Academy of Projectors. There the restored text includes "...in the Kingdom of Tribnia, by the Natives called Langden, where I had long sojourned.." (Tribnia and Langden are anagrams of Britain and England and the description that follows is not flattering.) See my notes at http://www.jaffebros.com/lee/gulliver/notes/text3.html

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Updated : 14 April 1998