I Commentary

"Robinson Crusoe" not only tells us an exciting story but conveys a major sense of mankind and the world: mobilising all his faculties, Crusoe turns accidents into constructive form.

Though the form of this novel is loose, within that form Defoe tells excellent episodic stories; scene after scene stands out memo­rably, focussed on exactly those details which would strike one in real life, and presented with such effective timing as carries expec­tation spiritedly forward — the Yarmouth voyage, Sailee escape, shipwreck and salvage, ague attack and dream, barley raising, ocean peril, footprint, Spanish wreck, Friday's rescue, and the like. Repeatedly Defoe shows a masterly instinct for the living rhythm of action.

Robinson Crusoe. The charm of the novel lies in Robinson as a person. Defoe shows the development of his hero. At the beginning of the story we see an unexperienced youth, a rather frivolous boy, who then becomes a strong-willed man, able to withstand all the calamities of his unusual destiny.

Alone and defenceless Crusoe tried to be reasonable in order to master his despondency (loss of hope and courage). He knew that he must not give way to self-pity or fear,'or to lose himself in mourn­ing for his lost companions.

Robinson Crusoe's most characteristic trait is his optimism. His guiding principle in life became 1 never say die* and.'w trouble to be

47

troubled is to have your troubles doubled*. Sometimes of course, espe­cially during earthquakes or when he was ill, panic and anxiety over­took him, but never for along. He had confidence in himself and in man and believed it was within the power of man to overcome all difficulties and hardships. Another of Crusoe's good qualities which saved him from despair was his ability to put his whole heart into everything he did. He was an enthusiastic worker and always hoped for the best.

Friday. Friday is advantageously displayed, handsome, 'very agreeable1 In colour, attractive in expression, and exemplary in nature. Adaptable, he immediately abandons cannibalism, dons goatskin clothes, and soon complements a virtuoso command of explanatory gesture with serviceable English. He is so apt and cheer­ful that he reconciles Crusoe to island life. So 'faithful, loving, sin­cere1 does he prove, 'without passions, sullenness or designs1, that Crusoe comes to realise that the non-Christian compares well with the Christian. Friday's honesty, intelligence, and passionate attach­ments (to Crusoe and his rescued father — quite movingly described) contribute richly to Crusoe's experience. Admitting that Friday becomes a better Christian than he is himself, Crusoe is fairmind-edly generous about values to which Friday's admirable nature has led him.

PURITANISM

During the years of the Catholic reaction (in Mary Tudor's reign) many Protestants went into exile. On the other side of the Channel, they came into contact with the ideas of Calvin, the greatest of reformers who lived in Switzerland. When the English Protestants, came back during the reign of Elizabeth, they were very much disappointed that the English Protestant Church had retained much of Catholicism in form. The Puritans were a reli­gious sect of the Protestants that wanted to purify the English Church from Catholic rites.

In the 17th century the Puritans became more numerous. It was easy to distinguish them from the Cavaliers (or courtiers) by their plain dark-brown garments and-black hats. They cut their hair very close to the head (for which they were nicknamed "Roundheads"), while the Cavaliers wore flowing locks and their costumes were made of coloured velvet and silk and lace. The Puritans led earnest lives and condemned amusements as a sin­ful waste of time.

During the first years of Charles' reign there were no polit­ical parties as yet. Most of the people were illiterate and their ideology was formed by the Church. But the Church had become one of the king's offices. When Archbishop Laud and others went so far as to preach that all that the King had done was right, and that those who opposed the King were not only bad subjects but bad Christians as well, the people, who hated the monarchy, left the Church in multitudes and the Puritans became the leaders in resisting the King. Many new Puritan sects appeared among the poorer people which resembled political parties in their demands.

Ruthless were the trials and tortures inflicted upon them by Laud. Many Puritans migrated to America and the first English set­tlements appeared on the land which they called "New England". Laud was also hated by all the writers of the time, because any one who wrote for freedom was either branded with not irons, or had his ears pinned to the pillory, or when arrested was whipped all the way to prison.

Puritanism had always encouraged:

^ a) a practical attitude to world affairs. When Christianity lost some of its spiritual and emotional force, practical principles began to dominate religious thought. Writers were expected to inform, to be 'useful1 and to urge moral behaviour.

b) a belief in the individual conscience. Puritans followed the 'inner light1, the voice of God.

c) a spirit of self-enquiry. The spirit of Puritanism encouraged the development of the 'spiritual autobiography7, such as John Banyan's " Grace Abounding" (1666).

d) a love of truth. Stricter Puritans,, however, opposed the theatre, not only because they considered it acentre of immoral behaviour and disorder but because it put on works of fiction, which they equated with lies. Later Puritans, known as Dissenters, saw art as irrelevant to the serious busi­ness of living.

ASSIGNMENTS

1. Answer the questions on each chapter:

The Island

• Where did Robinson Crusoe sail from?

• Where did they want to sail to?

• When did the ship run on the shore?

■ Why did Robinson Crusoe climb a tree?

• How did he reach the ship?

• What did Robinson Crusoe use to make a tent?

• There was no door in the fence, so how did Robinson Crusoe get in and out? -

Making Things

• Where did he put his stores? *

• What did he burn in his lamp?

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Exploring the Island

" Why did he go up the stream?

• How did he keep his fruit going bad?

Making Pots and Growing Corn

• Why did Robinson Crusoe need pots, besides the one he had taken from the ship? .

• What did he find to make pots from?

• What grew where Crusoe had emptied a bag?

The Boat

• What did Crusoe make from a big tree?

• What mistake did he make?

The Mark of a Man's Foot

• Where was the footmark?

• Why did Crusoe make holes in his fence?

Cannibals

• What did Crusoe think he saw at a distance?

• What did he do when he had seen the men's bones?

• Why did he go out very early one morning?

• What did he want to do to the cannibals?

The Cannibals Come Again

• How many cannibals came to Crusoe's island?

• Whicji way did the escaping man run?

• How did Crusoe kill the second cannibal?

Friday

• How did the runaway show that he promised to be Crusoe's servant?

• How did the runaway hide the. bodies of,the cannibals?

• Why was the man's name to be Friday?

• Where did Crusoe sleep?

Friday's Father

• What did Friday see?

• What had the cannibals come to do?

• In what way was Friday more successful than Crusoe with a gun?

• Who was the prisoner they saved?

• Why did Friday go away?

• Why did he return to Crusoe?

Men on the Island

• How far from' the island was the ship?

• Who had their hands tied?

• What happened while the men were talking to the prison­ers?

• Who were the prisoners?

• How many men were asleep?

• What happened to them?

Good-bye to the Island

• How many men were still on the ship?

• What did Crusoe and his friends do to the first boat from the ship?

• What did Crusoe and his friends do with the second boat?

• How big was Crusoe's "army"?

• How many men did Jones say were with the captain?

• How did Crusoe know that the ship was taken?

• Why didn't Crusoe take Friday to his oyvn island?

2. Answer the questions on the whole story:

• Was Crusoe a brave man? Can you give two examples to sup­port your answer?

' Wais he a religious man? Give examples.

• In your opinion how well did he treat Friday?

• How many years did Crusoe spend on the island? Compare this with the time Alexander Selkirk spent alone on the island of Juan Fernandez.

• At the end of the story Robinson Crusoe says "/ am prepar* ing for a longer journey than any of these". What does he mean?

3. Make a list of the things Crusoe brought from the ship. Then add the use he made of them. (See the table).

Things brought from the ship	Use
An axe	To cut wood and to make a fence

4. Make a list of things he made for himself. Add the use he made of them. (See the table).

Things made on the island	Use
A ladder	To climb over the fence

5. Read the following extract from "Robinson Crusoe". Where can you see the influence of Puritanism?

ROBINSON CRUSOE

I have mentioned that I saved the skins of all the creatures that I killed — I mean four-footed ones — and і had them hung up, stretched out with sticks, in the sun, by which means some of them were so dry and hard that they were fit for little; but others, it seems, were very useful. The first thing I made of these was a great cap for my head, with the hair on the outside, to shoot off the rain; and this I performed so well that> after, I made me a suit wholly of those skins — that is tp say, a waistcoat, and breeches open at

50

the knees, and both loose; for they were rather wanting to keep me cool than to keep me-warm. I must not omit to acknowledge that they were wretchedly made; for if I was a bad carpenter, I was a worse tailor. However, they were such as I made a Yery good shift with, and when I was abroad, if it happened to rain, the hair of the waistcoat and cap being outermost, I was kept very dry.

After this, I spent a great deal of time and pains to make an umbrella. I was indeed in great want of one, and had a great mind to make one. I had seen them made in Brazil, where they are very useful in the great heats which are there, and I felt the heat every jot as great here, and greater too, being nearer the equinox; besides, as I was obliged to be much abroad, it was a most useful thing to me, as well for the rains as the heats. 1 took a world of pains at it, and was a great while before I could make anything likely to hold; nay, after I thought I had hit the way, 1 spoiled tyto or three before і made one of my mind. But at last 1 made one that answered indifferently well; the main difficulty 1 found was to make it to led down. I could make it spread, but if it did not let down too, and draw in, it would not be portable for me any way but just over my head, which would not do. However, at last, as I said, I made one to answer. I covered it with skins, the hair upwards, so that it cast off the rain like a pent­house, and kept off the sun so effectually that I could walk out in the hottest of the weather with greater advantage than I could before in the coolest, and when I had no need for it, 1 could close it, and carry it under my arm.

Thus I live mightily comfortable, my mind being entirely com­posed by resigning to the will of God, and throwing myself wholly upon the disposal of His providence. This made my life better than sociable, for when I began to regret the want of conversation, I would ask myself, whether thus conversing mutually with my own thoughts, and (as I hope I might say) with even my Maker, by ejaculations and petitions, was not better than the utmost enjoyment of human soci­ety, in the world?

1 cannot say that, after this, for five years, any extraordinary thing happened to me, but І lived on in the same course, in the same posture and place, just as before. The chief thing 1 was employed in, besides my yearly labour of planting my barley and rice, and curing my raisins — of both which I always kept up just enough to have suf­ficient stock of the year's provisions beforehand — I say, besides this yearly labour, and my daily labour of going out with my gun, 1 had one labour, to make me a canal, which at last 1 finished; so that, by digging a canal to it of six feet wide and four feet deep, I brought it into the creek, almost half a mile.

Glossary

I made a very good shift with — 1 made do with very well; was abroad — went out;

outermost — placed on the outside; jot — little bit; equinox — the equator;

answered indifferently well — served my purpose quite well; it would not be portable for me — I wouldn't be able to carry it; pent-house —• roof; composed — calm; providence — divine guidance;

ejaculations and petitions — emotional utterances and prayers;

curing — preserving by drying in the sun;

creek — narrow inlet of water coming from the sea.

. Think and answer

• Look at the paragraph beginning 'After this . . Л Underline the adjectives.

• What conclusions can you draw about Defoe's style?

JONATHAN SWIFT (1667-1745)

Ltteraiy scene Latin poets Horace and Juvenal gave early examples of the satirical mode of writing. But whereas Horace gently mocked and laughed at folly, not wishing to give pain, Juvenal, blasted corruption, and saw and damned evil in all about him. Many writers have been satirical, though we do not regard them primarily as satirists. Many of Chaucer's portraits of the Canterbury pilgrims are satirical; and many of Shakespeare's fools and villains are plainly types of social folly and villainy inviting laughter, if not ridicule. Jonathan Swift, 'among the great satirists of all litera­ture', wrote satire more in the manner of Juvelan. 'Reason and com­mon sense' were his highest goods, and he directed his satire at what­ever and whoever was without them.

Whether Swift hated humanity or whether he mocked people to reform them is still disputed. However, there are some things Swift clearly hated and loved. He hated those who attacked religion, par­ticularly when they pretended to be religious themselves. He also hated the tyranny of one nation over another nation. Above all, he hated false pride — the tendency of people to exaggerate their own accomplishments and overlook their own weaknesses. Swift loved lib­erty, common sense, honesty, and humility.

Ufa Swift was born in Dublin on November 30, 1667.

His parents were of English birth. Swift graduat­ed from Trinity College in Dublin, and moved to England in 1688 or 1689. He was secretary to the distinguished statesman Sir William Temple from 1689 until 1699, with some interruptions. In 1695, Swift became a minister in the Anglican Church of Ireland.

While working for Temple, Swift met a young girl named Esther Johnson, whom he called Stella. He and Stella became lifelong friends, and Swift wrote long letters to her during his busiest days. The letters were published after Swift's death as the "Journal to Stella ".

Temple died in 1699, and in 1700 Swift became pastor of a small parish in Laracor, Ireland. He visited England often between 1701 and 1710, conducting church business and winning influential friends at the highest levels of government. His skill as a writer became wide­ly known. In 1710, he became a powerful supporter of the new Tory government of Great Britain. Through his many articles and pam­phlets in defense of Tory policies, Swift became one of the most effective behind-the-scenes speakers of any British administration.

Queen Anne recognised Swift's political work in 1713 when she made him dean (head clergyman) of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin. Swift would have preferred a church position in England. The queen died in 1714, and George I became king. The Whig Party won control of the government that year. These changes ended the political power of Swift and his friends in England.

Swift spent the rest of his life — more than 30 years — as dean of St. Patrick's. In many ways, these years were disappointing. Swift was disheartened because his political efforts had amounted to so lit­tle. He -also missed, his friends in England, especially the poets Alexander Pope and John Gay. However, he served in Ireland ener­getically by taking up the cause of the Irish against abuses he saw in British rule. It was as dean that Swift wrote "Gulliver's Travels'''and the satiric pamphlets that increased his fame, "The Drapier's Letters" and "A Modest Proposal". Swift's health declined in his last years and finally his mind failed. He died on October 19, 1745. He left his money to start a hospital for the mentally ill.

Works "A Tale of a Tub" has been called 'perhaps

(Swift's) greatest work'. Most would accord "Gulliver's Travels" this honour. But his first satire, 'written for the

Universal improvement of Mankind, is less affected by his own disil­lusionment than the latter work. The satire is more truly comic, and therefore effective. On to a story about three brothers, Peter (Roman Catholicism), Martin (Anglicanism), and Jack (Dissent), quarrelling over the coats that their father has left them, Swift builds arguments against critics, Dissenters, 'enthusiasts', and defenders of contem­porary ' pseudoscience'.

"Gulliver's Travels" was attended by misunderstandings. There were those (now as then), who read it as a simple travel-story, more fantastic than most, but not altogether unbelievable in a world of pygmies and yellow men. There were those who read it as a chil­dren's story. There were, however, those who saw behind the dis­guise. Gulliver'is a ship's surgeon who is, in Book 1, shipwrecked on an island whose inhabitants are no bigger than his fingers. This is Lilliput. We laugh with Swift at the petty politics of the Lilliputians, and as we do so, we can recognise the follies of contemporary church and party politics in England. In Book 2, Gulliver is left ashore on Brobdingnag, where he is himself a Lilliputian compared to the Brobdingnagian giants. Book 3 is that in which Swift described the flying island of Laputa, and the Academy of Lagado, where scientists and inventors are engaged in developing all manner of devices, use­less and ridiculous. Later he is introduced to the Struibrugs, whose immortality brings them more misery than satisfaction, in Book 4 Swift's bitter case against all of mankind is brought to a head in the contrast between the rational horses, the Houyhnhnms, and the dis­gusting man-like apes, the Yahoos.

>fc Swift has gone down in literary history as the type of mocking satirist. To be 'Swiftian' is to be almost hurtful, bitter, caus­tic, even though Swift himself did not set out to be any of these things. He has been equally misunderstood by those who have traced the 'madness1 of his last years (no one has managed to prove that he died clinically insane) back into his earlier life and works, as by those who regard him as the author of one of our most famous 'children'sstories1. The fact that thousands of children have read abridged editions of "Gulliver's Travels" should not blind us to its merits as social-political satire. His contemporaries were under no illusions as to the power of his pen. They were just in their judgement of him as 'one of the greatest living writers in English1.

GULLIVER'S TRAVELS

A general summary

In appearance "Gulliver's Travels11 As the sole work of Captain Lemuel Gulliver, an educated seafaring man who has set down his memoirs of four voyages to remote countries of the world as a con­tribution to human knowledge.

I Fart 1

A VOYAGE TO LILLIPUT

The first book is about Gulliver's adventures in Lilliput. As the result of a shipwreck near Sumatra Gulliver finds himself in a strange country inhabited by a race of people about six inches high. Everything else is on a corresponding scale. By making them so small Swift stresses their insignificance, and makes the reader despise them as petty creatures and feel contempt for their ideas, customs, and institutions. Swift mocks at their Emperor who boasts that he is the delight of the universe while as a matter of fact he is no taller than the size of a nail, it is easy enough to understand that Swift meant this small country with its shallow interests, corrupted laws and evil customs to symbolize the England of the 18th century, the court with its atmosphere of hostility, hypocrisy and flattery where the author felt as lonely as his hero when among the Lilliputians. Swift com­pares the courtiers with rope-dancers: those who can jump the high­er get the higher office.

" This diversion is only practised by those persons who are candi­dates for great employments and high favour at court They are trained in this art from their youth, and are not always of noble birth or liberal education. When a great office is vacant, either by death or disgrace (which often happens), five or six of those candidates petition the Emperor to entertain his Majesty and the court with a dance on the rope, and whoever jumps the highest, without falling, succeeds in the office. Very often the chief ministers themselves are commanded to show their skill, and to convince the Emperor that they have not lost their faculty."

Describing the war between Lilliput and Blefuscu caused by dis­agreement concerning the methods of breaking eggs, the author wanted to express his indignation, his protest against the war waged by England and France for Spanish succession.

" Now, in the midst of these intestine disquiets, we are threatened with an invasion from the island of Blefuscu, which is the other great empire of the. universe, almost as large and powerful as this of his Majesty. Tor, as to what we have heard you affirm, that there are other kingdoms and states in the world, inhabited by human creatures as large as yourself, our philosophers are in much doubt, and would rather conjecture that you dropped from the moon or one of the stars; because it is certain, that a hundred mortals of your bulk would, in a short time, destroy all the fruits and cattle of his Majesty's dominions; besides, our histories of six thousand moons make no mention of any other regions than the two great empires of Lilliput and Blefuscu. Which two mighty powers have, as I was going to tell you, been engaged in a most obsti­nate war for six and thirty moons past. It began upon the following occasion. It is allowed on all hands, that the primitive way of break­ing eggs, before we eat them, was upon the larger end; but his present Majesty's grandfather, while he was a boy, going to eat an egg, and breaking it according to the ancient practice, happened to cut one of his fingers; whereupon the Emperor, his father, published an edict, commanding all his subjects, upon great penalties, to break the small­er end of their eggs. The people so highly resented this law, that our histories tell us, there have been six rebellions raised on that account, wherein one Emperor lost his life, and another his crown... It is com­puted, that eleven thousand persons have, at several times, suffered death, rather than submit to break their eggs at the smaller end. Many hundred large volumes have been published upon this controversy..."

As he describes the history and customs of Lilliputians they seem remarkably similar, at times, to the English, in the satirical pattern of the work, Book 1 presents a detailed political allegory of the reigns of Queen Anne and George 1 of England.

Part 2

A VOYAGE TO BROBDINGNAG

In Book 2, Gulliver is accidentally abandoned by his shipmates in an unmapped region of North America where the inhabitants are 12 times his size. Here Gulliver is adopted as a pet, and exhibited as a freak of nature. Both scale and plot are reversed. Brobdingnag, unlike Lilliput, bears little resemblance to England.

Brobdingnag is an expression of Swift's desire to find the ideal and escape from the disgusting world of the Lilliputians. The author idealizes an agricultural country ruled by an ideal monarch. Swift creates such a monarch in the king of Brobdingnag. He is clever, honest, and kind to his people. He hates wars and wants to make his people happy. However the king's character is not true to life. In this part we don't find the sharp and vivid satirical descriptions so typical of the story of the first voyage. The most interesting episode is Gulliver's conversation with the king, when Gulliver tells the king about the war policy of his native land.

"He wondered to hear me talk of such chargeable and expensive t, wars; that certainly we must be a quarrelsome people, or live among very

bad neighbours, and that our generals must be richer than our kings. He asked what business we had out of our own islands, unless upon the score of trade or treaty, or to defend the coasts with our fleet. Above all, he was amazed to hear me talk of a mercenary standing army in the midst of peace and among a free people. He said if we were governed by our own consent, in the persons of our representatives, he could not imagine of whom we were afraid, or against whom we were to fight; and would hear my opinion, whether a private man's house might not bet­ter be defended by himself, his children, and family, than by half a dozen rascals picked up at a venture in the streets for small wages, who might get a hundred times more by cutting their throats."

Then the king added: "My little friend... you have made a most admirable panegyric upon your country. You have clearly proved that Ignorance, idleness, and vice are the proper ingredients for qualifying a legislator. ...I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that Nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth"

Part 3 A VOYAGE TO LAPUTA

Book 3 opens with Gulliver captured by pirates and abandoned to his fate near some small islands in the vicinity of Japan. He is taken aboard the flying island of Laputa, inhabited by people who are obsessed by abstract sciences and speculations, yet are able, by their superior position, to tyrannise the land of Balnibarby beneath them. That we are back in the ill-governed Britain of George 1 is soon apparent, for Book 3 is full of contemporary detail. But the satire is less political than intellectual, examining man's claims to be a ratio­nal creature by showing us numerous examples of how man abuses his reasoning powers, and how absurd, irrelevant, and dangerously irre­sponsible an intelligentsia can be. Swift ridicules the scientists of the 18th century. The scientists are shut in their chambers isolated from all the world. They are busy inventing such projects as:

1) extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers;

2) building houses beginning at the roof and working downwards to the foundation;

3) converting ice into gunpowder;

4) softening marble for pillows and pin-cushions;

5) petrifying the hoofs of a living horse to preserve them from foundering;

6) preventing the growth of wool upon lambs, thus breeding naked sheep all over the kingdom;

7) ploughing the ground with hogs;

8) dying silk with the help of spiders;

9) simplifying the language by leaving out verbs and partici­ples. ...

Some bourgeois critics accuse Swift of contempt for science. But it goes without saying-that he criticized not science itself but parody on science. He shows that the academy of projects in Laputa has nothing to do with, real science, it does not serve any practical pur­poses and is alien to humanity as a whole.

Being disgusted with life around him Swift idealizes the ancient times when describing Gulliver's voyage to Glubbdubdrib — the island of sorcerers or magicians. The governor of the island has the power of calling whom he pleases from the dead and commanding their service for 24 hours.

"...his Highness, the governor, ordered me to call up whatever per­sons I would choose to name, and in whatever numbers among all the dead, from the beginning of the world to the present time, and command them to answer any questions I should think fit to ask;... And one thing 1 might depend upon, that they would certainly tell me the truth, for lying was a talent of no use in the lower world."

Swift compares the modern government with the senate of Rome. "/ desired that the senate of Rome might appear before me in one large chamber, and a modern representative in counterview in another. The first seemed to be an assembly Of heroes and demi-gods, the other a knot of pickpockets, highwaymen, and bullies"

But if Gulliver is under any illusion that real immortality would improve humankind his next excursion to Luggnagg, disillusions him. Here he meets the race of Struldbrugs, fated to everlasting senility, the most mortifying sight he ever beheld.

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Part 4

A VOYAGE TO THE COUNTRY OF THE HOUYHNHNMS

Book 4 completes the satirical argument by creating a Utopia of pure reason and measuring man against this impossible standard. On his first voyage as Captain he is the victim of a mutinity. Abandoned on shore he encounters a noble race of horses, the Houyhnhnms, and their cattle, the Yahoos.

Swift describes an ideal land where there is neither sickness, dis­honesty, nor any of the frivolities of human society. The human race occupies a position of servility there and a noble race of horses rules the country by reason and justice. The horses possess human virtues which are superior to those of men. Unlike the Houyhnhnms, the Yahoos are ugly, deceitful, greedy and vicious creatures. Having much in common with people in appearance, they possess all the evil qualities one can think of.

The Houyhnhnms appear to be the perfection of nature and Gulliver comes to love their way of life. The grace and dignity of the philosopher-horses is all the more effective for being preceded in the travels by a succession of humanoid races, the absurd and spite­ful Lilliputians, the grotesque Brobdingnagians, and the intellectual freaks of Book 3. But the Houyhnhnms regard Gulliver as a kind of Yahoo, a view which he is forced to share. Exiled from the land of these inimitable beings, Gulliver returns unwillingly to England, where he divides his time between talking to his horses and attempt­ing to reform the Yahoo race in this kingdom.

So Gulliver is not simply the amiable companion we first took him for. He is a man who has seen a vision of perfection: a man with a mission. That mission is to prepare us step by step to recognise our­selves, in the final book, as " Yahoos in shape and disposition".

TEST

1. Choose the correct answer from among those offered.

1. Gulliver arrived in Lilliput as the result of being ...

a) shipwrecked

b) abandoned by his companions

c) marooned by pirates

2. The Lilliputians overcame Gulliver by ...

a) using bows and arrows

b) stealing his weapons

c) tying him down

3. The Lilliputians believed that Gulliver's most important pos­session was his ...

a) pistol

b) watch

c) spectacles

4. Government officials in Lilliput were appointed as a result of...

a) favoritism

b) a written exam

c).exams in acrobatic rope and stick dancing

5. Blefuscu was ...

a) a province of Lilliput

b) the capital of Lilliput

c) an island whose navy Gulliver captured

6. Gulliver's stay in Lilliput was made uncomfortable because of...

a) political enemies

b) inadequate food

c) the common people's jealousy

7. In Brobdingnag, Gulliver enabled the farmer, his first mas­ter, to become wealthy by ...

a) allowing himself to be exhibited as a curiosity

b) teaching him British farming methods

c) urging the king to make the farmer a public official

8. A constant danger to Gulliver in Brobdingnag was the ...

a) cruelty of the population

b) gigantic animals and insects

c) jealousy of the rulers

9. Gulliver was made uncomfortable by the Brobdingnagians because their ...

a) faces were out of proportion

b) mild physical defects were monstrous and nauseating

c) ignorance of medicine kept them ill

10. The queen's dwarf became Gulliver's ...

a) most active enemy

b) staunchest friend

c) profoundest admirer

11. The king of Brobdingnag insisted that Gulliver keeps secret the ...

a) history of England

b) corruption of European politics

c) existence of guns and bullets

12. Gulliver left Brobdingnag when he was carried off by ...

a) an eagle

b) a passing Portuguese ship

c) a whale

13. Laputa was an island in the middle of...

a) the ocean

b) an inland sea .

c) the air •

14. The ruling classes of Laputa were interested rn ...

a) the sciences

b) literature

c) social problems

15. The people of Laputa were so intellectual that they were ...

a) able to read Gulliver's thoughts

b) not surprised by tales of England

c) in need of "flappers" to awaken them to reality

16. In Laputa, Gulliver was amazed that everyday tasks were performed with ...

a) efficiency

b) lack of efficiency

c) originality

17. The Laputians feared that...

a) their island would sink

b) they would float out of space

c) all the planets would be annihilated

18. The experiments at the Grand Academy of JLagado impressed Gulliver because of their ...

a) foolishness

b) scientific advancement

c) improvement of the inhabitants' lives

19. The Struidbrugs convinced Gulliver that immortality was ...

a) desirable

b) unattainable

c) a dreadful misfortune

20. In the land of the Houyhnhnms ...

a) men had domesticated horses

b) horses had domesticated men

c) Gulliver constantly sought to escape

21. The Yahoos filled Gulliver with a feeling of...

a) envy

b) admiration

c) loathing

22. A characteristic of the Houyhnhnms that impressed Gulliver was their sense of...

a) honour

b) humour

c) treachery

23. When a Houyhnhnm went riding, his carriage was drawn by...

a) horses

b) oxen

c) Yahoos

24. Gulliver in time began to regard the Houyhnhnm with which he lived as his ...

a) master

b) servant

c) pal

25. When Gulliver returned to England, he regarded the people

as ...

a) loathsome

b) blessed companion

c) truly civilized *

2. From the list givqn below, select the item that best completes each statement.

1. Gulliver's ... saved his eyes from the arrows.

2. Gulliver in his earlier sea voyages was employed as a ... .

3. The Lilliputians drew up a list of items found in Gulliver's....

4. Gulliver was once dropped in a bowl of cream by a.....

5. Gulliver wove backs and seats, for chairs from ....

6. To read a book in Brobdingnag, Gulliver needed a (an) ... .

7. Gulliver was almost killed when the ... tried to carry him of.

8. The garments of the Laputians were adorned with figures relat­ed to ....

9. Laputa floated over ... .

10. Laputa's motion was controlled by a (an)...

11. In the palace of the governor of Glubbdubdrib, Gulliver saw ....

12. After being marooned by his own men, Gulliver came to the land of the ... .

13. Gulliver developed an extreme loathing for the ....

14. Gulliver was flattered when asked to kiss, his Houyhnhnm mas­ter's ....

15. On returning to England from the land of the Houyhnhnms, Gulliver ... when his wife kissed him.

Balnibarbi, hoof, hair combings, magnifying glass, pockets, ghosts, fainted, hat, loadstone, spectacles, dwarf, cried, Houyhnhnms, grass, ape, brow, Yahoos, ladder, surgeon, science and music, money.

3. Topics for Reports and Class Discussions:

1. What was Swift's purpose in making Lilliput and Blefuscu enemy state? Both countries were prosperous. Both had enough land, enough food, enough of all the things people normally want. Why couldn't both countries live in peace with each other?

2. Gulliver couldn't understand why the king of Brobdingnag refused to acquire information that would make him 'absolute master of the lives, the liberties, and the fortunes of his people'. Do you, too, agree that the king was foolish?'Compare this king's attitude with that of other rulers you met in. the story.

3. How do you think the rulers of Lilliput, Laputa and the Houyhnhnms reacted to Gulliver's tales about England? Did Gulliver draw an accurate or unfair picture of the civilization of his day?

4. In Lilliput children were brought up in special nurseries and par­ents could visit them only several times a year. In the land of the Houyhnhnms adults 'have no fondness for their colts, but the care they take in educating them proceeds entirely from the dictates of reason'. What is your opinion about the theory that intelligent, systematic, careful nurture is preferable to parental love?

5. Because "Gulliver's Travels91 is full of all sorts of impossibilities — miniature human beings, giants, an island floating in the air, men serving horses as their masters, why does an intelligent reader not throw the book away? What is there about Swift's manner of telling the story — his tone, style, his attitude toward his materi­al that makes the intelligent reader continue to the end despite all the impossibilities?

6. About what did Swift want to inform and instruct mankind'! Support your answer with evidence from various sections of the book, indicating what Swift was trying to teach mankind at adven­tures to Lilliput, Laputa and Brobdingnag?

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