Fantastical Comparisons - Gulliver in Laputa - Essay Example

Gulliver spends some time there but is dismayed by the blinkered views of the inhabitants, who are good with technology, astronomy, mathematics, and music, but have not developed practical skills and are not sociable. His time there is spent chatting with servants and women, who he considers less important. He lumps women of all times and places together as being ‘not limited by any climate or nation, and ... are much more uniform, and can be easily imagined.’ (Swift 2003)

But they are ‘less valid’ than the ones who matter: the scientists and thinking men, who have no time for him. Thinking them rude, he decides to leave. He is allowed to go with a gift of ‘about two hundred pounds English’ a sum which indicates not only the time Swift writes in, but also his inability to break out of the English mold: perhaps because he thinks of his audience, or perhaps because he is caught within that scope. All the fancy imaginings he uses are a conscious departure from the customs, politics, costumes, and language he knew.

Descending to the lower static island, Gulliver is appalled by the lack of development he witnesses during a tour of the capital, Lagado. Compared to the place he has just come from, it is backward, unkempt, disorganized, and in disrepair: a real Dystopia, even though the Laputians had strange ways of doing things. In a place about ‘half the bigness of London’, the people below appear so strange, and the soil so uncultivated, that he asks questions of his guide, lord Munodi. It turns out the reason behind the sorry state of Lagado is that laws were put in place to ensure everything was done the wrong way around, by the divergent government.

Munodi takes Gulliver to his estate, which in comparison, is extremely well-run. ‘... in three hours traveling, the scene was wholly altered; we came into a most beautiful country; farmers’ houses, at small distances, neatly built; the fields enclosed, containing vineyards, corn-grounds, and meadows.’ (Swift 2003). It is Utopian, which is an ideally perfect place, especially in its social, political, and moral aspects (Your Dictionary 2009). One must note how closely this resembles Swift’s impression of England. Munodi’s realm, however, is not liked by the government, and criticized by the rest of the population of Lagado: it is ridiculed with contempt, and considered barbarous. Read More