Allusions in Gulliver’s Travels

• Gulliver’s Travels contains a large number of allusions to contemporary political personalities and events.
• Many figures which seem to be imaginary to us were based on real persons.
• In one of his earlier writings, Swift said: “In describing the virtues and vices of mankind, it is convenient to have some eminent person in our eye, from whence we copy our description.”

• Political allusions in this book are to the events of the end of Queen Anne’s reign, and to events during the reign of George I.
• In England the main events of the time were the South Sea Bubble (1720), the return to office of Walpole (1721), the return from exile of Bolingbroke (1723), the removal of Carteret from the English cabinet (1724), the supremacy of Walpole in it (1725). In Ireland during the same period the struggle over Wood’s patent began and ended (1722 to 25).

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• The voyage to Lilliput in Part I of the book contains the story of Gulliver’s shipwreck and his early adventures among the pigmies. In this part, as soon as Swift turns to describe the politics of Lilliput, that country ceases to be a kind of Utopia and becomes the England of Swift’s time.
• A Lilliputian lord refer to the two struggling parties, one party distinguished by its high-heeled shoes and the other by its low-heeled shoes.
• The reference obviously is to the High Church and Low Church parties, or the Tories and the Whigs

• The potent enemy from abroad is the island of Blefuscu which stands for France with whom England had been engaged in an obstinate struggle for a whole generation.
• Thus, the story of Gulliver’s first voyage becomes a kind of political allegory.
• The Emperor of Lilliput would in that case be a portrayal of George I who is a supporter of the Whigs by his determination to make use of only low-heels in the administration of the government, and himself wearing heels lower than any member of his court.

• The parallel is emphasized by making the heir to the throne show an inclination towards high-heels, as the Prince of Wales did to the Tories of the time.
• Finally, Swift adds an ironical passage on the leniency and mercy of the Emperor intended to remind his readers of the executions which had taken place after the rebellion in 1715, and the praises of King George’s mercy which the government had published.

• The incident of Gulliver’s extinguishing a fire in the apartment of the Lilliputian Empress relates to the circumstances in Swift’s own life.
• The Lilliputian Empress was filled with resentment at Gulliver’s action in extinguishing the fire by urinating upon it, and she decided never again to make use of that apartment.
• This incident is an allegorical representation of the fact that Queen Anne was so disgusted with Swift’s A Tale of a Tub that, in spite of Swift’s political services, she could never be prevailed upon to promote Swift to a higher office in the Church.

• The result of Queen Anne’s annoyance was that Swift failed to obtain the position of a bishop which he hoped to get in 1708; and it was with great difficulty that he got the office of a dean in 1713.
• Swift also believed that Queen Anne was “a royal prude”, and that her opposition to his promotion was due to the efforts of his enemies.
• In one of his poems, Swift names the Duches of Somerset, the Archbishop of York, the Earl of Nottingham, and Robert Walpole as his enemies.

• In Gulliver’s Travels, the principal enemy of Gulliver is a certain lord named Bolgolam.
• Another enemy is described by Gulliver as “a person well versed in affairs, but of a morose and sour complexion”. This person is clearly intended to represent the Earl of Nottingham.
• In 1711, when Nottingham had joined the Whigs in their attack on the foreign policy of the government, Swift had written two poems against him.
• Nottingham had retaliated by using his influence at the court to stop Swift’s promotion, and then had openly condemned him in parliament.

• Another statesman who figures in Gulliver’s account of the circumstances and conditions prevailing in Lilliput is Bolingbroke.
• Bolingbroke was very much in Swift’s mind in 1719 and 1720.
• Bolingbroke was at that time in exile, and Swift was in correspondence with him in 1719 when there was some hope of Bolingbroke’s pardon and his return to England, though the hope was not realized till 1723.
• During that period several long letters were exchanged between them. It was towards the end of 1721 that Swift mentioned his book to Bolingbroke who replied that he longed to see the book, namely Gulliver’s Travels.

• There is a close parallel between the fate of Bolingbroke and that of Gulliver.
• Like Gulliver, Bolingbroke had brought a great war to an end and concluded a peace upon conditions very advantageous to his country, but was denounced by his political opponents for not prosecuting the war to bring about the complete surrender of the enemy.
• Bolingbroke was accused of treasonable intercourse with French ambassadors, just as Gulliver in the book is accused of treasonable intercourse with the ambassadors of Blefuscu.

• Gulliver flees from Lilliput because he feels that he cannot obtain a fair trial, “having in my life perused many State trials which I ever observed to terminate as the judges thought fit to direct.”
• Gulliver is aware that powerful enemies in Lilliput seek to have him killed.
• Now, Bolingbroke had declared that he had fled from England because he had definite information that some powerful political opponents wanted to have him executed.

• Closely connected with the portrayal of Boling broke is that of Sir Robert Walpole who is represented in the book under the name of Flimnap.
• One of the important features of political life in Lilliput is that candidates for high offices have to compete by dancing on a tight rope.
• Flimnap, the Lord Treasurer of Lilliput, has himself to display his skill in this art (of dancing on a tight rope).

• Flimnap’s skill symbolizes Walpole’s dexterity in parliamentary tactics and political intrigues.
• When Flimnap, after an attempted 4igh jump, falls down, he is saved from breaking his neck by the King’s cushion.
• This cushion is intended to symbolize the Duches of Kendal who was one of King George I’s mistresses and by whose influence Walpole was restored to royal favour after his fall from power in 1717.

• Then there is the custom in Lilliput of awarding silken threads of green, red, and blue colours to those courtiers who showed the greatest agility in leaping over or creeping under a stick.
• The green thread represents the Order of the Thistle, which was revived by Queen Anne in 1703.
• The red thread represents the Order of the Bath, which was revived by George 1 in 1725. Its revival was due to Walpole’s initiative.
• The blue thread represents the Order of the Garter which was bestowed on Walpole himself in 1726, after which he became known to satirists by the title of Sir Blue-String.

• The scandal involving Gulliver and Flimnap’s wife aggravates Flimnap’s hostility to Gulliver.
• This episode in Part I of the book seems to be an ironical attack by Swift on Walpole whose first wife, Catherine, was not above suspicion, while Walpole’s indifference to her flirtations was notorious.
• But it is also possible that the episode in question is a veiled reference to Bolingbroke’s attempt to win the favour of the Duchess of Kendal, hitherto Walpole’s firmest ally, in order to utilize her influence with George I to Walpole’s detriment.

• Besides Flimnap, another minister of the Lilliputian court is Reldresal, Principal Secretary for Private Affairs.
• Reldresal is the lord who explains to Gulliver the intricacies of Lilliputian politics and proves himself throughout Gulliver’s true friend.
• It is clear that Reldresal is meant to represent Lord Carteret who was Secretary of State from 1721 to 1724 and who stood very high in King George I’s favour.
• It has been suggested that Townshend was the man represented by Reldresal, but as Carteret was Swift’s friend, he must be the person meant.

• The comments of the King of Brobdingnag express the political views of Swift’s party on many questions.
• The King is amazed to hear Gulliver talk of a mercenary army in the midst of peace and among a free people.
• Every year, over the Mutiny Act or the Estimates, the House of Commons resounded with denunciations of standing armies, and Lord Chesterfield recommended the issue to his son as the best subject for a young member’s maiden speech.
• In the same way the King of Brobdingnag echoes the criticisms of the Tories on the financial system and their alarm at the existence of the national debt.

• On most questions the King is not merely the mouthpiece of the Tory party but of Swift; and the opinions the King expresses are those which Swift had already stated in his pamphlets.
• Swift’s condemnation of gambling, his complaint of the neglected education of the upper classes, his theory of the best way of treating Dissenters and his rooted animosity to lawyers, all find expression through the King.

• There is another passage in Part II suggested by Irish conditions, and that is an incident in Gulliver’s visit to the capital of Brobdingnag.
• As the carriage, in which he and his nurse are being conveyed, stops at a shop, the beggars who were waiting for an opportunity crowd around the carriage and present “the most horrible spectacle that ever an European eye beheld”.
• Gulliver then describes with horrid minuteness the sores on their bodies. There can be no doubt that this piece of description was inspired by the beggars of Dublin about whom Swift had much to say in his pamphlets and sermons