A detailed commentary on the opening of Chapter V Part I of “Gulliver's Travels“ by Jonathan Swift

This paper aims to give a detailed analysis, a comment on the excerpt representing the opening of the fifth chapter in Part One of the book „Gulliver's Travels“ written by Jonathan Swift in 1726. The literary work is a novel about a shipwrecked voyager, Lemuel Gulliver, “first a Surgeon, and then a Captain”1 telling the story of his travels on sea “into several Remote Nations of the World” (C.f. handout 5.11.2010). Prior to any interpretation of the text, the social and political circumstances of its creation must be mentioned. The historical background, which J. Swift experienced, shaped intensively his way of thinking and had as well great influence on his literary work. The events presented in his travel journal are reflecting the political and religious conflicts of his time during the reign of King George I, a time of “War”, “pain of Death” and “Embargo” (C.f. handout 5.11.2010) as he mentioned at the very beginning of the fifth chapter, a time when unethical political conspiracies, religious plots, social class conflicts, loss of faith, famine, disease, decay of morals and human virtues culminate. These gradually affected Swift's life to a very profound point where he expresses his irony to the real world by means of writing fantastic stories about voyages, perhaps only modality for him to escape the unbearable reality. The first feature of a travel book found at the very beginning of the chapters, is the brief enumeration of events to happen; the short sentences are meant to raise the curiosity of the reader and to give a taste of adventures to come: “The Author by an extraordinary 1Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels, ed. Robert Demaria Jr., London: Penguin (2003).

Stratagem prevents an Invasion. “[...] (C.f. handout 5.11.2010) Swift has chosen a vocabulary rich in verbs depicting actions specific to a travel story, and superlative adjectives such as