৪৯তম বিসিএস ⎯ ইংরেজি [১২১]

Gulliver Awarded High Honor for Naval Victory
Lemuel Gulliver, the protagonist of Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels," earned the distinguished title of "Nardac" in Lilliput by single-handedly capturing the naval fleet of the rival nation, Blefuscu. This feat was considered a monumental service to the Emperor of Lilliput.
The title of Nardac represents the highest honor that can be bestowed upon an individual in the Lilliputian kingdom. Gulliver's successful capture of the Blefuscudian fleet amazed the Emperor and the entire court, solidifying his status as a powerful ally to Lilliput.
Initially, Gulliver was viewed as a curiosity and a potential threat due to his immense size. However, by devising and executing a plan to seize the enemy's ships, he demonstrated his loyalty and immense value to the Lilliputian cause. Wading into the channel separating the two islands, Gulliver used a cable to tow the entire fleet of Blefuscudian warships to Lilliput, a spectacle witnessed by the expectant Emperor and his court from the shoreline. Upon his triumphant return, the Emperor immediately conferred upon him the title of Nardac.

Lilliputians opt for Blinding and Starvation as Punishment for Gulliver-
Instead of an immediate execution, the Lilliputians devised a more drawn-out and cruel punishment for Lemuel Gulliver, sentencing him to be blinded and then slowly starved to death. This decision came after Gulliver fell out of favor with the Emperor and was charged with treason.
The articles of impeachment against Gulliver included urinating in the royal palace (despite this act extinguishing a fire), refusing to enslave the Blefuscudians, cordially interacting with Blefuscudian ambassadors, and planning a visit to Blefuscu.
During the court's deliberations on his punishment, some officials argued for his death. However, a supposedly more lenient sentence was proposed: to first put out his eyes and then gradually reduce his food rations, leading to his eventual starvation. This method was also seen as a practical solution to the problem of disposing of his giant corpse.
Fortunately for Gulliver, a friend in the court secretly warned him of the impending punishment. This allowed Gulliver to escape to the rival island of Blefuscu before the gruesome sentence could be carried out.

During his visit to the island of Glubbdubdrib in Part III of Gulliver's Travels, Gulliver was given the privilege of summoning the spirits of the dead. He spent a total of five days conversing with various historical figures, including Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Caesar, Brutus, Homer, and Aristotle, to learn the true nature of history.

Gulliver's Travels is divided into four distinct parts, each describing a different voyage to a remote nation of the world:
Part I: A Voyage to Lilliput
Part II: A Voyage to Brobdingnag
Part III: A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib, and Japan
Part IV: A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms

This famous phrase comes directly from a letter Jonathan Swift wrote to his friend, the poet Alexander Pope, in 1725 while he was finishing the novel. Swift stated that his primary intention in his writing was not merely to entertain or amuse his readers, but to provoke, challenge, and irritate them into seeing the follies and vices of humanity. This quote perfectly encapsulates the sharp, critical, and misanthropic tone of his satire in Gulliver's Travels.

When Gulliver visits the Grand Academy of Lagado in Part III of Gulliver's Travels, the first "projector" he meets is a man who has been working for eight years on a project to extract sunbeams from cucumbers. His goal was to bottle the sunbeams and release them to warm the air during cool summers. This is one of the most famous examples of the absurd and impractical scientific experiments Swift satirized in the book.

After his final return to England from the land of the Houyhnhnms, Gulliver is filled with a profound disgust for humanity, whom he sees as despicable Yahoos. He cannot stand the presence of his own family.
To cope, he buys two horses and spends at least four hours a day conversing with them in the stables. His other main occupations, as he states at the end of the book, are managing his household and working in his garden at his home in Redriff. This allows him to avoid human contact as much as possible.

Allegorical Work: An allegory is a story in which the characters, settings, and events are symbols for abstract ideas or real-world issues. Gulliver's Travels is a classic example of this. The different lands Gulliver visits are not just fantastical places; they are allegorical representations used to satirize and comment on aspects of English society, politics, science, and human nature itself.
Political Work: While the book is absolutely a political work (and a brilliant satire of the Whig government of the time), this is a more specific description. Its status as an allegorical work is the broader literary classification that allows it to function as a political satire. The allegory is the method Swift uses to deliver his political commentary.

Therefore, while (A) is true, (C) is a more fundamental and comprehensive description of the book's literary nature. 
​N.B: If there is an option of Political Allegory, that will the answer. 

In Part I of Gulliver's Travels, the Lilliputian empire is divided into two hostile political parties distinguished only by the height of their heels.
The Tramecksan, or High-Heels, are an allegorical representation of the Tory Party in England.
The Slamecksan, or Low-Heels, represent the Whig Party, which was the ruling party at the time Swift wrote the book.
Swift uses this absurdly trivial difference—the height of a shoe heel—to satirize the often petty and meaningless disputes that created deep and bitter divisions between England's political parties.

In Chapter 6 of Part I, Gulliver describes the peculiar customs and laws of Lilliput. He explains that the Lilliputians believe parents are the last people who should be trusted with the education of their own children.
Therefore, they have a system of public nurseries where children are sent at a very young age. These institutions, run by the state, are responsible for their entire upbringing and education, which is tailored to the child's social status and future role in society.

The Grand Academy of Lagado, which Gulliver visits in Part III, is a direct and biting satire of the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge.
In Swift's time, the Royal Society was the foremost scientific institution in England, promoting experimental science. However, Swift and other satirists of the era viewed many of its experiments as absurd, pointless, and completely detached from practical human benefit. The "projectors" in the Academy of Lagado, with their bizarre projects like extracting sunbeams from cucumbers or turning human waste back into food, were Swift's way of mocking what he saw as the useless and foolish pursuits of some of the Royal Society's members.

On his fourth voyage, Gulliver is the captain of his own ship, the Adventure. However, several of his sailors fall ill and die. The new sailors he hires turn out to be pirates who had corrupted his original crew. They conspire against him, seize control of the ship in a mutiny, and hold him prisoner. Eventually, they abandon him on the shore of an unknown land, which turns out to be the country of the Houyhnhnms.

The Houyhnhnms are a race of highly intelligent, rational, and civilized talking horses who rule the land. Their name, in their own language, means "the perfection of nature."

- The Yahoos are the degenerate, animalistic creatures Gulliver encounters in the land of the Houyhnhnms. They are a stark and horrifying satire of humanity at its worst. Gulliver describes them as:
Filthy: Covered in their own excrement and living in squalor.
Vicious: Prone to mindless violence, greed (they fight over worthless shiny stones), and selfish desires.
Brutish: Lacking reason, language, or any form of civilized society. They are driven entirely by their base instincts.
Gulliver is initially repulsed by them and is horrified to eventually recognize that they are a grotesque parody of his own species.

The entire Houyhnhnm society is built upon the bedrock of pure, uncorrupted Reason. It is the sole guiding principle for all of their actions, laws, and social structures. They are presented as creatures who live as nature intended, governed by logic rather than emotion, vice, or selfish desires.
In Part IV, Chapter 8, Gulliver explains this directly:
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"As these noble Houyhnhnms are endowed by nature with a general
​ disposition to all virtues, and have no conceptions or ideas of what is 
​evil in a rational creature, so their grand maxim is, to cultivate reason,
​ and to be wholly governed by it."
​
This means they have no need for laws to punish wrongdoing, as they are incapable of acting unreasonably. They do not understand lying ("the thing which was not"), greed, or any of the other vices that plague humanity. Their debates and decisions are always aimed at finding the most logical and truthful solution for the good of the community, making Reason the absolute foundation of their existence.

Mildendo is the metropolis, or capital city, of Lilliput. Gulliver describes it as being an exact square, five hundred feet on each side, with a wall surrounding it. He is granted permission to visit the city after he gains his liberty.
Here's why the other options are incorrect:
Blefuscu is the rival island empire to Lilliput.
Tramecksan is the name of one of the two political parties in Lilliput (the High-Heels).
Luggnagg is another island that Gulliver visits on his third voyage.

When the Lilliputians search Gulliver, they are mystified by his watch. They hear its constant ticking and observe that Gulliver never does anything without consulting it. They conclude from this that "it was either some unknown animal, or the god that he worshipped," but lean towards the latter, calling it his "oracle."

In Chapter 1 of Part I, Gulliver describes the first Lilliputian he sees clearly as being -
​
​"a human creature not six inches high." 
​
​He later confirms that the general scale of the country is about one inch to a foot, making an average six-foot human (like Gulliver) twelve times the size of a six-inch Lilliputian.

When Gulliver visits Glubbdubdrib, the island of sorcerers, he is given the power to summon the ghosts of anyone from history. His conversations with these spirits reveal a stark contrast between the official historical record and the truth.
He learns:
​
"That many noble family lines are not noble at all, but descended from "usurers, fiddlers, pages, and pickpockets."
That historical events were often caused by petty, corrupt, or cowardly motives, not the grand reasons given in books."
​
That many famous figures died in mundane ways (like Alexander the Great dying from a fever and excessive drinking) rather than the dramatic ways reported.
Through this experience, Gulliver becomes deeply disillusioned with history books, concluding that they are nothing more than propaganda and flattery written by "prostitute writers" to please the powerful. The great lesson is a profound skepticism towards accepted historical narratives.

When Gulliver first hears of the immortal struldbrugs, he is ecstatic. He imagines that eternal life would allow him to accumulate infinite wisdom and become a living treasure for the world. His fantasy reflects the common human desire to escape death. However, he is horrified to learn that the struldbrugs do not have eternal youth; they simply continue to age, becoming senile, physically decrepit, and miserable forever. Swift uses this to satirize the wish for immortality, suggesting that it would be a terrible curse, not a blessing.

This humiliating ritual is required of everyone granted an audience with the King of Luggnagg. It is a powerful symbol of the King's absolute authority and the abject submission of his subjects.
Swift adds a dark, satirical twist to this custom: if the King wishes to execute a courtier, he will have the floor secretly sprinkled with a brown, poisonous powder. The victim then unknowingly ingests the poison while performing the required licking ceremony and dies a short time later.

When Gulliver comes down from the floating island of Laputa to the land of Balnibarbi below, he is hosted by Lord Munodi. Munodi is a unique figure in the country for several reasons:
He is a man of common sense: Unlike the rest of the nobility who are obsessed with the impractical "projects" from the Grand Academy of Lagado, Lord Munodi uses traditional and effective methods for farming and building.
His estate is prosperous: As a result of his practical approach, his lands are fertile, his house is well-built, and his people are not starving. This is in stark contrast to the rest of the country, which lies in ruins because of the new, failed scientific theories.
He is out of favor: Because he does not follow the absurd new fashions dictated by the Academy, he is looked down upon by the court and is in danger of having his lands and house "reformed" according to the new, disastrous models. He represents the voice of reason and tradition being oppressed by foolish and destructive "innovation."

While Gulliver narrates his own story and might seem honest in his reporting of events as he sees them, his interpretation of those events is flawed and changes dramatically. This makes him unreliable.

Naivete and Gullibility: Gulliver often fails to see the absurdity of the situations he describes. He reports the ridiculous customs of the Lilliputians, for example, with a serious, straightforward tone, missing the satirical implications that Swift intends for the reader to see.

Shifting Bias: His perspective is entirely dependent on his circumstances. In Lilliput, he feels proud and powerful. In Brobdingnag, he is humbled and sees the physical flaws of humanity in detail.

Extreme Misanthropy: By the end of the novel, his admiration for the rational Houyhnhnms and his disgust for the Yahoos (who represent humanity's base nature) have turned him into a misanthrope. He can no longer see any good in humanity and is repulsed by his own family. This extreme, warped perspective means his final judgments on society cannot be taken as objective or trustworthy.
Swift uses Gulliver's unreliability as a key satirical tool. The reader is meant to see beyond Gulliver's limited understanding to grasp the deeper critique of politics, science, and human nature.

Juxtaposition is a literary technique where two or more ideas, places, characters, or their actions are placed side by side in a narrative for the purpose of developing comparisons and contrasts.
In Gulliver's Travels, Swift deliberately juxtaposes Gulliver's experience as a giant in Lilliput with his experience as a tiny creature in Brobdingnag. This stark contrast forces the reader to think about the relativity of concepts like power, importance, and perspective. Gulliver's pride and sense of self-importance are built up in Part I only to be completely dismantled in Part II, effectively satirizing human vanity.

The complete, original title of the novel is:
"Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships." So, the protagonist and narrator of Jonathan Swift's novel Gulliver's Travels is named Lemuel Gulliver. 
​
​Lemuel Gulliver is the protagonist and first-person narrator of the story. He is presented as an educated, middle-class Englishman from Nottinghamshire. By profession, he is a surgeon who studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and served as an apprentice to an eminent London surgeon. To round out his education, particularly for a life at sea, he also studied navigation and mathematics. His career as a surgeon proves difficult, and his honest nature prevents him from cheating patients to make a better living, which leads him to take positions as a ship's surgeon. This decision sets the stage for his extraordinary voyages.

Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin, Ireland, to English parents, which is described as Anglo-Irish. He is regarded as one of the most prominent prose satirists in the English language.
While Swift penned several notable works, including "A Modest Proposal" and "A Tale of a Tub," his most celebrated and widely recognized masterpiece is "Gulliver's Travels". Published in 1726, this satirical novel critiques human nature and society through the voyages of Lemuel Gulliver to fictional lands. It has endured as a classic of English literature.

In Part IV, the final and most famous voyage of the book, Gulliver arrives in the Country of the Houyhnhnms. The society is structured around two distinct species:
The Houyhnhnms: A race of highly intelligent, rational, and virtuous horses who are the masters of the land. They live in a perfectly ordered society governed by pure reason.
The Yahoos: Vicious, filthy, and savage brutish creatures that are physically identical to humans. They are subservient to the Houyhnhnms and represent humanity's base, animalistic instincts.

The people of Laputa, the floating island Gulliver visits in Part III, are entirely consumed by abstract, theoretical thought. Their minds are "wholly taken up" with the study of these two fields.
This obsession is so profound that it dictates their entire culture and disconnects them from practical reality. Their food is cut into geometric shapes and musical instruments, their clothes are adorned with astrological symbols and musical figures, and their architecture is clumsy because they despise practical geometry.

Scatology is a literary device or type of humor that deals with excrement, urination, and other bodily functions. It's often used for shock value and to create a tone of crude satire.
Swift employs scatology frequently in his work for a specific purpose: to deflate human pride. By constantly reminding the reader of the base, physical, and often disgusting realities of the human body, he satirizes humanity's lofty pretensions to being purely rational or divine creatures. The act of Gulliver urinating on the palace fire is a perfect example—a "low" bodily function is used to solve a "high" problem, much to the embarrassment of the Empress.