One of the most prominent motifs in Gulliver's Travels is the theme of relative perspective, with Jonathan Swift consistently demonstrating how different physical and social circumstances can lead to different perspectives on reality. In order to advance this argument, Gulliver undergoes literal changes in perspective as well as more theoretical ones. He goes from being a giant in Lilliput to being smaller than a dwarf in Brobdingnag, and his perspective on the relative size of objects changes accordingly.
In order to illustrate these changes in visual perspective, Swift frequently uses simile to describe the size of particularly small or large objects. In Book 1, Chapter 1, for example, he uses several similes to describe Lilliputian food:
There were Shoulders, Legs, and Loins, shaped like those of Mutton, and very well dressed, but smaller than the Wings of a Lark. I eat them by two or three at a mouthful, and took three Loaves at a time, about the bigness of Musket Bullets.
These similes provide a visual aid for the reader, making the relative sizes of things easier to understand, and also demonstrate the sort of things that Gulliver, an Englishman, finds important. The images he chooses show a preoccupation with food (mutton), nature (lark), and warfare (musket bullets).
Gulliver returns to this motif in Book 2 to describe the massive size of objects in Brobdingnag. When he returns to England in Book 2, Chapter 8, he has a hard time visually adjusting, showing how his perspective has changed:
As I was on the Road, observing the Littleness of the Houses, the Trees, the Cattle and the People, I began to think myself in Lilliput.
Gulliver's change in visual perspective paves the way for other, more substantial changes. When he returns from the land of the Houyhnhnms, for example, his perspective on humanity is so fundamentally altered that he is unable to readjust to life in England, demonstrating the extraordinary influence of circumstance on one's point of view.
At numerous points throughout Gulliver's Travels, Gulliver describes the fantastical places he visits by comparing and contrasting them with England and other European nations, often using similes to fully illustrate his points. On one hand, these descriptions reflect a lack of imagination on Gulliver's part—he is only able to describe things in terms of what he already knows. But Jonathan Swift also uses these descriptions to satirize aspects of European culture and encourage readers to view their society with a new perspective.
One notable set of similes appears in Book 1, Chapter 1, when Gulliver is captured by the Lilliputians:
I felt above an hundred Arrows discharged on my left Hand, which pricked me like so many Needles; and besides they shot another Flight into the Air, as we do Bombs in Europe.
The first simile in this passage compares arrows (objects of warfare and violence generally associated at the time with masculinity) to needles (domestic items associated with creation and feminine industry). These arrows "prick" rather than pierce, but even though they cause no real injury, Gulliver still decides to stop resisting the Lilliputians and comply with their demands. This episode emphasizes the distinction between moral and physical power and suggests that tools of creation are just as (if not more) effective than tools of destruction.
The second simile compares arrows (a primitive technology) to bombs (a more recent invention). In addition to demonstrating that Lilliput is not as technologically advanced as England, this simile also serves to trivialize English warfare. If English technologies of war can be compared to objects the size of needles, Swift argues, then perhaps those wars are not as important as they may seem.
One of the most prominent motifs in Gulliver's Travels is the theme of relative perspective, with Jonathan Swift consistently demonstrating how different physical and social circumstances can lead to different perspectives on reality. In order to advance this argument, Gulliver undergoes literal changes in perspective as well as more theoretical ones. He goes from being a giant in Lilliput to being smaller than a dwarf in Brobdingnag, and his perspective on the relative size of objects changes accordingly.
In order to illustrate these changes in visual perspective, Swift frequently uses simile to describe the size of particularly small or large objects. In Book 1, Chapter 1, for example, he uses several similes to describe Lilliputian food:
There were Shoulders, Legs, and Loins, shaped like those of Mutton, and very well dressed, but smaller than the Wings of a Lark. I eat them by two or three at a mouthful, and took three Loaves at a time, about the bigness of Musket Bullets.
These similes provide a visual aid for the reader, making the relative sizes of things easier to understand, and also demonstrate the sort of things that Gulliver, an Englishman, finds important. The images he chooses show a preoccupation with food (mutton), nature (lark), and warfare (musket bullets).
Gulliver returns to this motif in Book 2 to describe the massive size of objects in Brobdingnag. When he returns to England in Book 2, Chapter 8, he has a hard time visually adjusting, showing how his perspective has changed:
As I was on the Road, observing the Littleness of the Houses, the Trees, the Cattle and the People, I began to think myself in Lilliput.
Gulliver's change in visual perspective paves the way for other, more substantial changes. When he returns from the land of the Houyhnhnms, for example, his perspective on humanity is so fundamentally altered that he is unable to readjust to life in England, demonstrating the extraordinary influence of circumstance on one's point of view.
