Gulliver’s Travels

Gulliver's Travels, most famous work of Jonathan Swift is a misanthropic anatomy of human nature. Each of the four books has a different theme, but all are attempts to deflate human pride. It may be a politico-sociological treatise in the form of a satire; a protest against Imperialism and Colonialism; an attack on the corrupt Whig oligarchy which had displaced the Swift's Tories in London — a defence of Tory policies, an attack on the Prime Minister, Robert Walpole, and on the expensive and bloody trade wars which had accompanied the twelve years of Whig government — but it is also, on a deeper level, a satire on the universal human tendency to abuse political power and authority, to manipulate others and deceive ourselves.