"Gulliver´s Travels": Similarities and differences between the book and the movie.

In terms of setting, Gulliver’s Travels book is set in the early 18^th century, England, and the adventures that Gulliver, a surgeon and married man, experiences during his voyages are closely related to the historical events regarding the political changes and conflicts carried out into the English Crown and the English Parliament, and also the religious wars with France. To illustrate, when Gulliver is taken prisoner in the Lilliputians’ land, he is confined in a building that was emptied because a notorious murder was committed there; that building probably represents Westminster Hall where Charles I was sentenced to death. Another example is the war between Lilliputians and Blefuscians. That happening portrays the religious war performed by French and English; Blefuscu stands for France, who belonged to the Catholic Church, and Lilliput stands for England, who defended their protestant ideas.

On the other hand, the events developed in the movie are set in the 21^st century, and are not based on political and controversial facts of this current society. On the contrary, the film just shows the travel that a man called Gulliver, who is a single man working as a mailroom clerk for a newspaper, does as a result of a lie. He is assigned to write a travel piece about the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle. However, when he is on his launch, a storm catches and throws him into a portal that takes him to the land of Lilliput.  Besides, most of the events are connected to the entertainment world are not to the real events that the original novel tells such as the performance of movies and concerts of famous rock bands, the building of malls, theatres, etc.

Another difference is concerning to the language, in the novel Gulliver speaks English, and the Lilliputians speak their own language, as a consequence, Gulliver has difficulties to communicate with the tiny people. In contrast, in the movie both Gulliver and the Lilliputians speak English.

Regarding the similarities, the book and the film show faithfully that the people from Lilliput are ruled by a monarchy, and the war between the kingdoms: the kingdom of Lilliput and the kingdom of Blefuscu. Another resemble event is when Gulliver sets outs the flames of the royal palace by urinating on it. Finally, the size of both Lilliputians and Gulliver are not altered; Gulliver is constantly seen as a giant by the tiny inhabitants.

“Gulliver's Travels” 2010 Movie Plot

Lemuel Gulliver is a mailroom clerk at a New York newspaper. After Gulliver bluffs his way into assignment writing about the secrets of the Bermuda Triangle, he is hurtled to an undiscovered land, Lilliput. In this fantastical new world, Gulliver is a bigger-than-life figure -- in size and ego -- especially after he starts telling tall tales, taking credit for his world's greatest inventions, and placing himself at the center of its most historic events. Gulliver's position is enhanced even further when he leads his new friends in a daring battle against their longtime enemies. But when Gulliver loses it all and puts the Lilliputians in peril, he must find a way to undo the damage. Gulliver only becomes a true giant among men when he learns that it’s how big you are on the inside that counts.

Source: http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810107830/details

"Gulliver's Travels" 2010 Movie Trailer!

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph0XLhnTNNM

“Gulliver’s Travels” Key Facts

v    Author:  Jonathan Swift

v    Type of work:  Novel   

v    Genre:  Satire    

v    Language:  English

v    Time and place written: approximately 1712–1726, London and Dublin

v    Narrator:  Lemuel Gulliver

v    Point of view: Gulliver speaks in the first person. He describes other characters and actions as they appear to him.

v    Tone: Gulliver’s tone is gullible and naïve during the first three voyages; in the fourth, it turns cynical and bitter. The intention of the author, Jonathan Swift, is satirical and biting throughout.

v    Tense: Past

v    Setting (time):  Early eighteenth century

v    Setting (place):  Primarily England and the imaginary countries of Lilliput, Blefuscu, Brobdingnag, Laputa, and the land of the Houyhnhnms

v    Protagonist:  Lemuel Gulliver

v    Major conflict: On the surface, Gulliver strives to understand the various societies with which he comes into contact and to have these societies understand his native England. Below the surface, Swift is engaged in a conflict with the English society he is satirizing.

v    Rising action: Gulliver’s encounters with other societies eventually lead up to his rejection of human society in the fourth voyage

v    Climax: Gulliver rejects human society in the fourth voyage, specifically when he shuns the generous Don Pedro as a vulgar Yahoo

v    Falling action: Gulliver’s unhappy return to England accentuates his alienation and compels him to buy horses, which remind him of Houyhnhnms, to keep him company

v    Themes: Might versus right; the individual versus society; the limits of human understanding

v    Motifs: Excrement; foreign languages; clothing

v    Symbols: Lilliputians; Brobdingnagians; Laputans; Houyhnhnms; England

v    Foreshadowing: Gulliver’s experiences with various flawed societies foreshadow his ultimate rejection of human society in the fourth voyage.

Source: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gulliver/facts.html

"Gulliver's Travels" Plot Overview

Gulliver’s Travels recounts the story of Lemuel Gulliver, a practical-minded Englishman trained as a surgeon who takes to the seas when his business fails. In a deadpan first-person narrative that rarely shows any signs of self-reflection or deep emotional response, Gulliver narrates the adventures that befall him on these travels.

Gulliver’s adventure in Lilliput begins when he wakes after his shipwreck to find himself bound by innumerable tiny threads and addressed by tiny captors who are in awe of him but fiercely protective of their kingdom. They are not afraid to use violence against Gulliver, though their arrows are little more than pinpricks. But overall, they are hospitable, risking famine in their land by feeding Gulliver, who consumes more food than a thousand Lilliputians combined could. Gulliver is taken into the capital city by a vast wagon the Lilliputians have specially built. He is presented to the emperor, who is entertained by Gulliver, just as Gulliver is flattered by the attention of royalty. Eventually Gulliver becomes a national resource, used by the army in its war against the people of Blefuscu, whom the Lilliputians hate for doctrinal differences concerning the proper way to crack eggs. But things change when Gulliver is convicted of treason for putting out a fire in the royal palace with his urine and is condemned to be shot in the eyes and starved to death. Gulliver escapes to Blefuscu, where he is able to repair a boat he finds and set sail for England.

After staying in England with his wife and family for two months, Gulliver undertakes his next sea voyage, which takes him to a land of giants called Brobdingnag. Here, a field worker discovers him. The farmer initially treats him as little more than an animal, keeping him for amusement. The farmer eventually sells Gulliver to the queen, who makes him a courtly diversion and is entertained by his musical talents. Social life is easy for Gulliver after his discovery by the court, but not particularly enjoyable. Gulliver is often repulsed by the physicality of the Brobdingnagians, whose ordinary flaws are many times magnified by their huge size. Thus, when a couple of courtly ladies let him play on their naked bodies, he is not attracted to them but rather disgusted by their enormous skin pores and the sound of their torrential urination. He is generally startled by the ignorance of the people here—even the king knows nothing about politics. More unsettling findings in Brobdingnag come in the form of various animals of the realm that endanger his life. Even Brobdingnagian insects leave slimy trails on his food that make eating difficult. On a trip to the frontier, accompanying the royal couple, Gulliver leaves Brobdingnag when his cage is plucked up by an eagle and dropped into the sea.

Next, Gulliver sets sail again and, after an attack by pirates, ends up in Laputa, where a floating island inhabited by theoreticians and academics oppresses the land below, called Balnibarbi. The scientific research undertaken in Laputa and in Balnibarbi seems totally inane and impractical, and its residents too appear wholly out of touch with reality. Taking a short side trip to Glubbdubdrib, Gulliver is able to witness the conjuring up of figures from history, such as Julius Caesar and other military leaders, whom he finds much less impressive than in books. After visiting the Luggnaggians and the Struldbrugs, the latter of which are senile immortals who prove that age does not bring wisdom, he is able to sail to Japan and from there back to England.

Finally, on his fourth journey, Gulliver sets out as captain of a ship, but after the mutiny of his crew and a long confinement in his cabin, he arrives in an unknown land. This land is populated by Houyhnhnms, rational-thinking horses who rule, and by Yahoos, brutish humanlike creatures who serve the Houyhnhnms. Gulliver sets about learning their language, and when he can speak he narrates his voyages to them and explains the constitution of England. He is treated with great courtesy and kindness by the horses and is enlightened by his many conversations with them and by his exposure to their noble culture. He wants to stay with the Houyhnhnms, but his bared body reveals to the horses that he is very much like a Yahoo, and he is banished. Gulliver is grief-stricken but agrees to leave. He fashions a canoe and makes his way to a nearby island, where he is picked up by a Portuguese ship captain who treats him well, though Gulliver cannot help now seeing the captain—and all humans—as shamefully Yahoolike. Gulliver then concludes his narrative with a claim that the lands he has visited belong by rights to England, as her colonies, even though he questions the whole idea of colonialism.

Source: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gulliver/summary.html

"Gulliver's Travels" Context

Gulliver’s Travels was a controversial work when it was first published in 1726. In fact, it was not until almost ten years after its first printing that the book appeared with the entire text that Swift had originally intended it to have. Ever since, editors have excised many of the passages, particularly the more caustic ones dealing with bodily functions. Even without those passages, however, Gulliver’s Travels serves as a biting satire, and Swift ensures that it is both humorous and critical, constantly attacking British and European society through its descriptions of imaginary countries. 

 Late in life, Swift seemed to many observers to become even more caustic and bitter than he had been. Three years before his death, he was declared unable to care for himself, and guardians were appointed. Based on these facts and on a comparison between Swift’s fate and that of his character Gulliver, some people have concluded that he gradually became insane and that his insanity was a natural outgrowth of his indignation and outrage against humankind. However, the truth seems to be that Swift was suddenly incapacitated by a paralytic stroke late in life, and that prior to this incident his mental capacities were unimpaired.  

Gulliver’s Travels is about a specific set of political conflicts, but if it were nothing more than that it would long ago have been forgotten. The staying power of the work comes from its depiction of the human condition and its often despairing, but occasionally hopeful, sketch of the possibilities for humanity to rein in its baser instincts.

Source: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gulliver/context.html