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Swift's ‘Gulliver's Travel’ and Voltaire's ‘Candide’

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Swift's ‘Gulliver's Travel’ and Voltaire's ‘Candide’
Swift’s ‘Gulliver’s Travel’ and Voltaire’s ‘Candide’

Swift’s ‘Gulliver’s Travel’ and Voltaire’s ‘Candide’ are typical literature works during the Enlightenment period. Both authors use satire in their works. Satire is literary form which means irony. Therefore, they have some similarities. They both want to expose human vices through satiric tone. Due to different personal styles, there are many differences between two novels.
Two novels use satire to criticize human weakness. In ‘Gulliver’s Travel’, Swift makes up a horse society Houyhnhnm and a brutal animal Yahoo. Gulliver has to admit that human beings are yahoos after a series comparison between human and yahoo. Vices of human beings are exposed by the Swift’s satiric tone. In ‘Candide’, Voltaire presents a story of the voyage of Candide. By describing how Candide travel around the world and the ridiculous circumstances he encounters, Voltaire also use satire to reveals the corruption of human beings. Both of them follow the philosophic thinking which is passion verses reason. They are questioning human nature. What’s more, both authors create an inexistent society by imagination, horse society Houyhnhnm and gold city Eldorado. By comparing to reality world, the civilization of imaginary societies is more rational for human beings. This is how satire works. Creating a perfect world and comparing to corrupted society, it’s easier to convince readers. Satire is the tool of two authors presents their essential purposes that criticize the human weakness and questioning the human nature.
The differences between two novels are significant. Although both novels are about characters’ travel, they are different styles. In ‘Gulliver’s travel’, Swift emphasizes the process how Gulliver realizes that he is a yahoo. No matter Gulliver description about the war among the princes of Europe, Queen Anne, and a first minister in the courts of Europe, or master’s observation about the characteristics of
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