Literary Devices and its function used in 'Gilliver's Travels'

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NAME : DHARMA J. GOHEL

MA : SEM – 1

ROLL NO : 09

ENROLLMENT NO : 2069108420180014

BATCH : 2017-2019

EMAIL ID :                        

SUBMITTED : SmT. S.B.GARDI DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, MKBU.

PAPER-2 : THE NEO-CLASSICAL LITERATURE

TOPIC : LITERARY DEVICES USED IN GULLIVER’S    TRAVELS

Mentor : Poojaba Jadeja madam

Q. What is Literary Device?

A.     ➤Literary Devices refers to the typical structures used by writers in their works to convey his or her messages in a simple manner to the readers.  When employed properly, the different literary devices help readers to appreciate, interpret and analyze a literary work.

Afer getting idea about Literary Device, let us have a look one by one used in Gulliver’s Travels:
➤ Allegory:

➥Definition :

“Allegory is a figure of speech in which abstract ideas and principles are described in terms of characters, figures and events”.

It can be employed in prose and poetry to tell a story with a purpose of teaching an idea and a principle or explaining an idea or a principle. The objective of its use is to preach some kind of a moral lesson.

Although an allegory uses symbols, it is different from symbolism. An allegory is a complete narrativewhich involves characters, and events that stand for an abstract idea or an event. A symbol, on the other hand, is an object that stands for another object giving it a particular meaning. Unlike allegory, symbolism does not tell a story. For example, Plato in his “Allegory of Cave” tells a story of how some people are ignorant and at the same time, some people “see the light” – stands for an idea and does not tell a story.

➥Examples of Allegory in Everyday Life :

Allegory is an archaic term and used specifically in literary works. It is difficult to spot its occurrence in everyday life, although recently, we do find example of allegory in political debates. The declaration of an ex-US president G.W Bush was allegorical when he used the term “Axis of Evil” for three countries and later the term “allies” for those countries that would wage war against the “Axis”.

➥Allegory Examples in Literature :

Below are some famous examples of Allegory in Literature:

1. “Animal Farm”, written by George Orwell, is an allegory that uses animals on a farm to describe the overthrow of the last of the Russian Tsar Nicholas II and the Communist Revolution of Russia before WW I. The actions of the animals on the farm are used to expose the greed and corruption of the revolution. It also describes how powerful people can change the ideology of a society. One of the cardinal rules on the farm for the animals is:

“All animals are equal but a few are more equal than others.”

The animals on the farm represent different sections of Russian society after the revolution.

For instance, the pigs represent those who came to power following the revolution; “Mr. Jones” the owner of the farm represents the overthrown Tsar Nicholas II; while “Boxer” the horse, represents the laborer class etc. The use of allegory in the novel allows Orwell to make his position clear about the Russian Revolution and expose its evils.

2. “Faerie Queen”, a masterpiece of Edmund Spenser, is a moral and religious allegory.

The good characters of book stand for the various virtues, while the bad characters represent vices. “The Red-Cross Knight” represents holiness while “Lady Una” represents truth, wisdom and goodness. Her parents symbolize the human race. The “Dragon” which has imprisoned them stands for evil. The mission of holiness is to help the truth, fight evil, and thus regain its rightful place in the hearts of human beings. “The Red-Cross Knight” in this poem also represents the reformed church of England fighting against the “Dragon” which stands for the Papacy or the Catholic Church.

3. John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress” is an example of spiritual allegory. The ordinary sinner “Christian” leaves the City of Destruction and travels towards Celestial City, where God resides, for salvation. He finds “Faithful”, a companion who helps him on his way to the City. On many instances, many characters “Hypocrisy”, “Apollyon”, “Mr. Worldy Wiseman” and “Obstinate and Pliable” try to discourage or stop him from achieving his aim. Finally, he reaches the Celestial City carried by Hopeful’s faith.

The moral learnt through this allegory is that the road to Heaven is not easy and it is full of obstacles. A Christian has to be willing to pay any price to achieve salvation. A man is full of sins, but this does not stop him from achieving glory.

➥Function of Allegory :

Writers use allegory to add different layers of meanings to their works. Allegory makes their stories and characters multidimensional, so that they stand for something larger in meaning than what they literally stand for. Allegory allows writers to put forward their moral and political point of views. A careful study of an allegorical piece of writing can give us an insight into its writer’s mind as how he views the world and how he wishes the world to be.

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➤  Satire  :

➥ Definition: 

"Satire is a technique employed by writers to expose and criticize foolishness and corruption of an individual or a society by using humor, irony, exaggeration or ridicule. It intends to improve humanity by criticizing its follies and foibles. A writer in a satire uses fictional characters, which stand for real people, to expose and condemn their corruption."

A writer may point a satire toward a person, a country or even the entire world. Usually, a satire is a comical piece of writing which makes fun of an individual or a society to expose its stupidity and shortcomings. In addition, he hopes that those he criticizes will improve their characters by overcoming their weaknesses.

➥Examples of Satire in Everyday Life:

Most political cartoons which we witness every day in newspapers and magazines are examples of satire. These cartoons criticize some recent actions of political figures in a comical way.

  Some shows on television are satire examples like The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and The Larry Sanders Show. These shows claim to target what they think are stupid political and social viewpoints.

Let us see a sample of Stephen Colbert’s social satire:

“If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we’ve got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don’t want to do it.”

➥Satire Examples in Literature:

 

There are numerous examples of satire in Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. He uses satire as a tool to share his ideas and opinion on slavery, human nature and many other issues that afflicted American society at that time.

Below are a few citations from the novel that demonstrate satire:

• “What’s the use you learning to do right, when it’s troublesome to do right and isn’t no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same?” (Chap 16)
• “There warn’t anybody at the church, except maybe a hog or two, for there warn’t any lock on the door, and hogs likes a puncheon floor in summer-time because it’s cool. If you notice, most folks don’t go to church only when they’ve got to; but a hog is different.” (Chap 18)
• “The pitifulest thing out is a mob; that’s what an army is–a mob; they don’t fight with courage that’s born in them, but with courage that’s borrowed from their mass, and from their officers. But a mob without any man at the head of it is beneath pitifulness.” (chap 22)

Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock is an example of poetic satire in which he has satirized the upper middle class of eighteenth century England. It exposes the vanity of young fashionable ladies and gentlemen and the frivolity of their actions. For example, Pope says about Belinda after losing her lock of hair:

“Whether the nymph shall break Diana’s law,
Or some frail china jar receive a flaw,
Or stain her honor, or her new brocade”

The line mocks at the values of the fashionable class of that age. The trivial things were thought of as equal to significant things. For Belinda, the loss of her virtue becomes equal to a China jar being cracked.

Jonathan Swift’s 'Gulliver Travels' is one of the finest satirical works in English Literature. Swift relentlessly satirizes politics, religion, and Western Culture. Criticizing party politics in England, Swift writes,

“that for above seventy Moons past there have been two struggling Parties in this Empire, under the Names of Tramecksan and Slamecksan from the high and low Heels on their shoes, by which they distinguish themselves.”

During Swift’s times, two rival political parties, the Whigs and the Tories, dominated the English political scene. Similarly, “The Kingdom of Lilliput” is dominated by two parties distinguished by the size of the heels of their boots. By the trivial disputes between the two Lilliputian parties”, Swift satirizes the minor disputes of the two English parties of his period.

➥Function of Satire:

     The role of satire is to ridicule or criticize those vices in the society, which the writer considers a threat to civilization. The writer considers it his obligation to expose these vices for the betterment of humanity. Therefore, the function of satire is not to make others laugh at persons or ideas they make fun of. It intends to warn the public and to change their opinions about the prevailing corruption/conditions in society.

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➤Utopia:

➥Definition:

"The literary term utopia denotes an illusionary place that projects the notion of a perfect society to the reader. Here, the “perfect society” refers to ideal conditions achieved within the material world as opposed to the expected idealism of afterlife in Christianity or other religions. Further, the citizens presiding in such utopias are bearers of a perfect moral code, or at the least, every violator of the moral code is harshly punished. A utopian society is one where all social evils have been cured."

     An important distinction to be appreciated is that between imaginary utopias and live heterotopias. However, the terms should not be treated as opposites of each other. They denote a midway experience referring to instances that are real as well as unreal. Most of the examples that Foucault provides of heterotopias include several utopian aspects. However, the relationship between these two notions has tended to be ignored in the interpretation of heterotopia.

➥Description of Utopian Literature:

     A piece of writing that concerns itself with the description of a perfect society in the physical world as opposed to the perfection of afterlife is termed as Utopian literature. However, the original motives behind utopian novel were political, social and philosophical. Plato’s Republic, is usually considered the first in history among the examples of utopia.

➥Functions of Utopia :

     Over the time, the vision encapsulating the notion of utopia has suffered radical transformations. Events as war, church reform, revolution and economic changes have contributed towards the construction of a new type of utopia.

The term utopia formulated new shapes and new prefixes, each type having its own function and its own use. They are generally employed as a means of constructing an organized society in the reader’s mind. The writer makes use of the tool to highlight the discrepancies prevalent within an existing political and legal framework.

     A utopian society is framed in a manner, which presents to the reader an ideal sociopolitical culture. The writer is presenting his audience with a standard example of a socially and morally fit society with the use of utopia to make them realize the various deficiencies of their existing societal framework. It is a tool for exposing the flaws prevalent within an existing political structure. Further, the tool has been widely employed in writings where the writers have intended to make an impact on the conscience of the reader. The writer uses utopia in order to portray a scenic picture in the eyes of the reader, in an attempt to make him fully appreciate the various diverging factors contributing towards the failings of the existing society. It deals with constructing a standard sociopolitical society in the reader’s mind in order to criticize the prevalent legal norms.

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Works Cited

(n.d.). Retrieved from https://literarydevices.net/allegory/

(n.d.). Retrieved from https://literarydevices.net/satire/

(n.d.). Retrieved from https://literarydevices.net/?s=utopia