What was Gulliver's occupation during his early travels?
Lemuel Gulliver begins the book as a surgeon on a ship. He has a great knowledge of medicines, truly a doctor by training.
In the light of his later character development, Gulliver's original profession is interesting, even ironic. A surgeon's occupation is to help people and save lives. As a ship surgeon, he would have helped quite a good number of people too. After his time among the "enlightened" Houyhnhnms, Gulliver becomes disgusted with the human race as a whole. He doesn't even want to lodge in the same house as his wife and children, let alone deal with other people on any kind of friendly basis.
So, he goes from being someone whose life goal is to save lives to someone who views humanity as not worth much of anything.
He was a surgeon aboard a ship. It would classify him as both sailor and surgeon, but the fact that...
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the story includes many instances of criticisms against medicine and doctors in general, you can conclude that surgeon was his first and foremost career. He signed up as a ship surgeon and then shipwrecked in Lilliput.
When he was young, Gulliver was apprenticed to a noted local surgeon, or doctor, in London, and he remained in this post for four years. Then he studied "physic," or medicine, at Leyden, "knowing it would be useful in long voyages." His first post as a ship's doctor is aboard the Swallow, under Captain Abraham Pannel, and this lasts three and a half years. When he returns, he gets married and sets up a medical practice, but it fails, he says, because he would not "imitate the bad practice" of his peers. Again, he goes to sea as a ship's doctor on two more voyages, and upon his return, he tries to go into practice again, but it too fails. So, he takes "an advantageous offer" to be the ship's doctor aboard the Antelope, under Captain William Prichard. When the ship hits a rock and begins to sink, Gulliver makes it into a life boat with a few other men. The life boat is overtaken by the waves, and he believes all the other men to be lost to the sea. He swims until he can swim no more, and then he finds that he can touch bottom. He walks to the land ahead and falls quickly to sleep.
What profession was Gulliver trained for in "Gulliver's Travels"?
Gulliver was originally trained as a surgeon under the tutelage of Mr. James Bates, a London-based surgeon. While studying under him as an apprentice for four years, Gulliver also spent time learning about navigation and mathematics, since he always planned on traveling. He also studied "physic" for just under three years. Overall, Gulliver appears to have had quite the multi-faceted education, which ultimately serves his offbeat career well because he ends up becoming the go-to surgeon on several sea voyages.
After years at sea, Gulliver returns home in the hopes of setting up his own medical practice so he will no longer have to travel. However, his attempts to do so are thwarted by several factors, chief among them being the death of his master, Mr. Bates, and a lack of the proper social connections that would allow his practice to flourish. Now having a wife to support, Gulliver goes back to his career at sea, where he proves far more successful, even though he had originally hoped to have his own surgical practice in London so he could be settled. However, throughout the novel, the failure of these hopes does not appear to grieve Gulliver too much. Despite his training as a surgeon, he seems much happier traveling, learning new languages (for which he claims he has "great facility"), and observing strange cultures.