Metaphorically Speaking

In Gulliver's first voyage he ends up on the shores of Lilliput; a metaphorical land that represents 18th century England. Lilliput's society is divided into high heels and low heels; high heels representatives of the tories and low heels representatives of the whigs. The senseless arguments between the various heel factions is emblematic of the religious and political disputes between the two political parties at the time - exemplified by the line "All true believers shall break their eggs at the convenient end."

The fact that Gulliver is a prisoner of the Lilliputians is symbolic of Swift's feelings of being trapped by British society.

The Lilliputians themselves symbolize humankind's excessive pride and puny existence. It is ironic that Swift has the tiniest race that Gulliver visits be the most vain and smug. These characteristics are personified in Skyresh's attitude towards Gulliver's liberation and his general hostility for no apparent reason.

There is plenty of back stabbing and conspiracies afloat in Lilliput and Gulliver is gullible enough to fall for some of the grandiose imagings of the Lilliputians. Gulliver is naive enough to be flattered by the attention the royal family gives him and to feel threatened by them even though they have no real physical power over him.

The Lilliputians show off for Gulliver and for themselves. They feel they must display their patriotic glories and boast their collective egos. Swift shows the reader how silly England's notions of grandeur truly are through the silly actions of the Lilliputians.


In part two of his travels, Gulliver is once again cast onto a strange shore. Here, he encounters a race of giants and he learns of their culture which is used to mock 18th century European views. During the Enlightenment people tended to overlook the routines of everyday life but when these routines are larger than life, they are hard to ignore. Swift also uses the Brobdingnagians to symbolize the private, personal, and physical side of humans when examined up close and in great detail. Swift has Gulliver enter into the domestic sphere and gives him glimpses into family relations, private affairs, and the sexual lives of women. Because of Swift's obsession with bodily functions and his negative views on feminine bodies, the reader is presented with an unpleasant dipiction of the domestic sphere. Swift's over-the-top passages on urine and excrement may shock some readers but he may have intended to illustrate to his readers that even figures that are larger than life have the same physical side as any human; or many Swift is just being Swift.