Utopia in Gulliver's Travels

Utopia, as you all may know, is the representation of an ideal world, alternative to the real world. This perfect world is a kind of criticism of the real world, is a improvement of it. This term was applied by Thomas More in his work “ De Optimo Republicae Statu deque Nova Insula Utopia”, where utopia was a term given to a fictional community which politic, economic and cultural organization is far from the human societies of his time. Although Thomas More was the creator of the term, the concept was older. It belongs to the “Res Publicae” from Plato, which Thomas More mentioned in his work.

Related to Gulliver's Travels, I want to stand out that the concept of Utopia in the sense of perfect organization of a society can be seen in book IV, which says that Houyhnhnms have a strict familiar plan, which dictates that if a family has two males or two females, one of the sons must be changed with other family to be always male and female.

Another thing I want to stand out is that Houyhnhnms work altogether, they are perfectly educated and it doesn't mind their identities. Here, we can make a contract with Gulliver that is well showed in the fourth book. While Gulliver doesn't have any sense of belonging to a nation, because he doesn't agree with his nation's situation; the Houyhnhnms are fused. I also want to mention that Gulliver doesn't feel like a native because he has spent almost his entire life at sea as an individual. I think that's why Gulliver doesn't want to leave this society, because it is the first time he feels like part of a society and he likes it.

I think that what Swift is trying to show with that attempt of feeling integrated into a society is a kind of mockery of that concept of Utopia and he showed his opinion by demonstrating that utopia is not possible in the sense that if there is a new individual that wants to enter this utopia it cannot. I think Swift also includes the concept of alienation in the sense that if Gulliver wants to enter the Houyhnhnms' society, he has to change his mind. 

Lilliputians as a symbol in The Gulliver's Travels.

As you all know, Gulliver's Travels is a novel written by Jonathan Swift, an Irish writer that is a kind of satire on human nature and also a parody of the “traveler's tales” as a literary sub-genre. This novel is a classic of English Literature. The book became popular as soon as it was published.

I am going to deal with a theme treated in the first book, which we have already read. The theme is the Lilliputians as a symbol in that novel. Swift uses them to make a criticism of the politics of England.

Swift makes England physically tiny to introduce a new perspective on its politics and partisanship in the Lilliput chapters of Gulliver's Travels.

I think with that distinction Swift makes reference to the Tories and the Wigs, in his country, England. These are the most prominent political parties in the early eighteenth century. The Tories ere political conservatives and supported a consolidation of royal authority and the restriction of the power of English Parliament. The Whigs were liberal and wanted more power to go to the Parliament. After the 1689' Glorious Revolution, the Parliament installed a new king on the throne and the Whigs were really important. The king George was pro-Whig, and his parliament was entire dominated by the Whigs. The Whigs are represented by the Low Heels, the only ones that have power in the Lilliputian government.

As Jonathan Swift was a Tory, he had to return from England to Ireland when George I came to power. The emperor's son described as one Low Heel and one High Heel is referring to the Prince of Wales, the future George II and his political opposition during the reign of his father. During his own reign, he became a favorer of the Whigs as his father.

The other distinction that Swift makes in the novel is between the Big-Endians, for those who break boiled eggs on the larger end and Little-Endians for those who broke their eggs in the smaller end. This distinction reflects the quarrels over religion in England. Big-Endians represented the Catholics and the Little-Endians represented the Protestants. England has always been a Catholic country, but the reforms made by King Henry VIII and Queen Elisabeth I had converted most of the country to Protestantism. At that time, there were lots of conflicts between the different sectors of religion: between Catholics and Protestants and also between the different sectors of the Presbyterians.

To finish up, I think that Gulliver's Travels is a novel made in order to criticise the political situation that England was living at that time and because the party to which Swift is an opponent was governing. I think it is a kind of revolt. 

Social impact of The Beggar's Opera

Hi guys!
This time I am going to deal with the social impact that The Beggar's Opera had in the society of the eighteenth century.

The main form of wealth in the eighteenth century was owning land. Political power and influence was in the hands of rich landowners. At the top of the society were the nobility. Below them, there was a class of nearly rich landowners called the gentry. At the beginning of the century, there was another class of landowners called yeomen between the rich and the poor. During the century, this class became less numerous. Other middle class people such as merchants and professional men became richer and more numerous, especially in the towns. Below them, there was a great mass of the population, craftsmen and labourers. At that time, half of the population lived as subsistence or bare survival level.

During this century towns grew. Most towns still had populations of less than 10,000. At the end of the century the population of the towns grew, such as in London, that grew to nearly one million

Opera was essential in the development of one of the drama's obsessions: the nature of class limits and the consequences of their disintegration. In his opera, Gay turns stereotypical treatments of economic and gender-based structures upside-down. The middle-class background and insignificant social rank shows his empathy and values the common folk. In The Beggar's Opera, he pays homage to his origins.

John Gay did comparisons between the vices of his characters with some political figures, and even Prime Minister Robert Walpole. Gay' s message is really a Christian one: “humanity is depraved, rich and poor alike”

The play is one part of a larger movement of Literature characterised by “social, political satire and literary burlesque”. This movement is born out and driven by a deep concern over the state of the nation and the corruption of its government. Gay considered that the vice around the government is the common disease of all classes. The modern concept of distinct socio-economic and gender-based classes was slow to develop. The idea that one' s identity was showed in one' s place in society was, slowly coming to the public' s attention. The rise of the bourgeoisie coincided with an increase in public concern over the threat that the new rich are rich because they have inherited everything. Gay is in a way prejudiced for or against the bourgeoisie, although he chooses to avoid focusing on wealth. Gay sets a precedent in defining the demarcations between social classes, he establishes distinctions only in order to demolish them. He shows how society is just as unified as it is made up of diverse individual parts. The characters are united by their desire for financial gratification. Gay established a link between corrupted low classes and the equal aristocratic elite.

Gay spares no class, he is against the capitalism and the selfishness, and that what inspired him to write The Beggar's Opera. 

The rape of Helen of Troy and The Rape of the Lock

The Rape of the Lock and Helen of Troy. 

As you may know, Pope was educated by a private tutor, who influenced him with the classics Aeneid and Iliad. He was also interested in the classics because he translated them during his period as a translator. This influence is shown in his most famous poem, “The Rape of the Lock,” in which there are a great quantity of allusions to the classics. I am going to write about one of these allusions, which is the kidnapping or rape of Helen of Troy. 

First, I am going to deal with the story of the rape of Helen of  Troy. She was the daughter of Zeus and Leda, and she was famous because of her beauty. When she was a child, she was kidnapped by Theseus, but she was returned to her mother to be educated. The “real” rape took place after Helen’s marriage with Menelaus. Aphrodite promised Paris that he will marry Helen; for that reason, he undertook a trip to Sparta with a small fleet. When Paris arrived at Sparta, Helen's husband, Menelaus was not there. There are several versions of the rape: the first one says that Helen was taken away by force by Paris, the other one says that he seduced Helen and they escaped from Sparta. It is also said that Aphrodite exerted a great influence and for that reason Helen was in love with Paris and they went away together. 

Now, I am going to compare the rape of Helen of Troy with the main theme or action of the poem “The Rape of the Lock”. Alexander Pope showed women at his time as a  symbol of beauty, but only beauty, not knowledge. He also showed the fragility that women’s beauty had. This can be seen in the way in which the Lord steals Belinda's lock. This fact can be compared with Helen of Troy's rape since both are produced in order to steal their beauty. In the case of Helen of Troy, Paris raped her because he wanted her at any price and I think it was the only way he could “own” her. He really wanted her and her beauty and she asked Aphrodite to make a kind of charm to get it. But in the case of the Lord, he only steals Belinda's lock by force, without doing any kind of damage. In the first case, I think Paris steals Helen's freedom literally and in the second one, the Lord steals Belinda's freedom as a woman , but he does it in a lighter way. We can also compare them in the way that the Lord does it with his proper hands and Paris appeals to a goddess to get it.

Oroonoko and Cinque

Hi guys!

I'm going to write about the movie we saw on Monday. The purpose of that post is show the parallelisms that Oroonoko has with the movie Amistad.

First of all, I'm going to inform you about the movie. It was directed by Steven Spielberg, as you may know, one of the best directors of Hollywood. The movie had its premiere in 1997. It was nominated in four different categories of the Oscar awards.

Now, I am going to compare both stories. I think Oroonoko has much to do with that movie because in a way, the story of Cinque is the same story as the Oronooko's. It is, Cinque in his tribe is quite popular, his countrymen love him and they treat him as a prince; in fact, he wears different clothes than “ordinary” people. This is the first parallelism in both stories, both characters are treated as slaves; but I think that they are not treated as “real” slaves, because Cinque is seen as one of the less hurted of his tribe and also Oroonoko in the plantation, together with Imoinda.

The second one is that some people of Cinque's tribe betray him and they capture them to be sold as a slave. This can be compared with the betrayal of the evil captain that “betrays” Oroonoko. The third similarity is the fact that both Cinque and Oroonoko try a revolt when they are treated as slaves.

To finish up, I think it was really useful because it has lots of parallelisms with Oroonoko, so we can reflect the book in the movie, that is always easier watching thing than reading it.

  

Welcome, Ladies and Gentlemen!

The name of this blog is because kings in the time of the Restoration used to live in The Whitehall Palace. It is surrounded by Northumberland Avenue in the North, Downing Street and Derby Puerta in the South and the House Guards' road by the East. It is near the Thamesis River.

I have chosen this name because I want you to feel like kings and queens when visiting my blog, and I hope it will be a good place to discuss all the themes we find interesting in the lectures and it also can be a good instrument to help each other with some information of the English Restoration.