"In Gulliver's Travels 1 Swift satirized everything the Eighteenth century held dear." I am going to discuss this assertion with special reference to the way in which the idea of man's rationality is handled. I will divide my discussion into four parts:.
1. The English political system and the England's foreign policies.
2. The Europeans pomps and vanities .
3. The new theoretical science.
4. Man's rationality.
Politics were held dear in the Eighteenth century. A political career could be pursued by two social classes, the aristocracy, and the new wealthy middle class. The ministers of the governing party were given power, status and money, and the chiefminister had supreme power to dismiss members. There were two political parties in England, the Whigs and the Tories. In 1710, Swift abandoned his old party, the Whig, and became a member of the Tory party. He served the Tory government as editor of the party organ, the Examiner, and as author of its most powerful articles. 2 With the fall of the Tory party in 1714, Swift became an important critic of the new Whig government and its chiefminister Sir Robert Walpole. Swift accused the party of extreme corruption. He was concerned with the way many of its members favoured their own personal interests. An ironic comparison to the battle which takes place in the British Parliament when a office is vacant, takes place in chapter 3, when Gulliver gives a description of the rope-dancers:.
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.
Swift, here satirizes the candidates for a vacant office who will say anything, irrespective of their political conviction, in order to convince the chiefminister. There are also several descriptions of Flimnap, .