Sunday, February 22, 2015

How can Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift be related to George I?

The emperor of Lilliput is representative of George I, the king on the throne when Gulliver's Travels was published.  The pro-Whig George I persecuted the High Church Tories.  When Gulliver details the conflict between the two warring parties in Lilliput, the Tramecksans and Slamecksans, those who wear high heels and low heels on their shoes, respectively, Swift is satirizing the conflict between the Tories and Whigs, respectively.  He says that the emperor has determined to "make use of only low Heels" in his administration, and this parallels King George's favor of the Low Church Whig party.  The Whigs were the more liberal party; the Tories more conservative. 


Further, the Lilliputian emperor is highly susceptible to influence and manipulations by his administration's ministers, and this parallels the belief that George I was too easily influenced by those people that he trusted (and, perhaps, that those people were not altogether reliable). 

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