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How does Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift relate to George I?
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Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels satirizes King George I through the character of the Lilliputian emperor. The emperor's preference for low-heeled individuals symbolizes George I's favoring of the Whig party, while high heels represent the Tories. The rope dance reflects the courtly maneuvering required to gain favor. The emperor's grandiose view of his dominion and his obsession with defeating Blefuscu parallel George I's pro-Whig stance and military conflicts, notably with France.
The Emperor of Lilliput is a satirical version of King George I. The Lilliputian emperor's preference for people who wear low heels symbolizes his favoring of the Whig party, which preferred what was referred to as the "low church" (the church stripped of Catholic elements). The high heels that the king does not favor are representative of the opposition party in England at the time, the Tories, who favored the "high church," the Church of England. Candidates for public office in Lilliput must literally carry out an elaborate rope dance, which they are trained for since birth. The rope dance symbolizes the way in which people in the royal court in England had to curry favor with the king to gain favor or office.
The Emperor of Lilliput is also convinced of his own grandness. He is described as a sovereign "whose dominions extend five thousand blustrugs (about twelve miles...
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in circumference) to the extremities of the globe." In this sense, the emperor is similar to the king of England, whose powerful navy extended his country's reach to different parts of the globe.
Swift's Lilliput is a satirization of England at the time of his writing (1725-6). Therefore, it follows that the Lilliputian emperor is a satirical representation of the King of England at that time, George I, and that the two political factions in Lilliput, the Tramecksans and the Slamecksans, represent the two main political parties in England, the Tories and the Whigs, respectively. The Tramecksans wear only high heels on their shoes—a reference to the Tories, the conservative party in England that favored the Catholic influence in the Church of England (the “high church”). On the other hand, the low-heel Slamecksans are a reference to the the low-church (pro-Protestant) supporting Whigs. Like George I, who was strongly pro-Whig, the Lilliputian emperor only appoints Slamecksans to important government posts; also like George I, the emperor is obsessed with destroying neighboring Blefuscu, a reference to England’s war with France over Spanish territories in the War of Spanish Succession (1701-1714).