Lilliputian Is a term that applies to people who are very small, being a denomination that comes from the famous book Gulliver's Travels .
This work, a prose satire on human nature and travel accounts, is a classic of English literature and was written by the Irishman Jonathan Swift and published on October 28, 1726 by the Benjamin Motte Publishing House.
According to the author, a Lilliputian is an inhabitant of the island of Liliput and these inhabitants are characterized by the following:
- They are incredibly small, measuring about 15 centimeters or 6 inches tall.
- They are characterized by being extremely arrogant and arrogant, as much as a person of normal size, can even be considered vicious, morally corrupt, hypocritical, jealous, envious, full of anger and ingratitude, among other characteristics. In fact, because of all this, they are completely human.
- They were always in constant war with the inhabitants of the neighboring island of Blefuscu (equally extraordinarily small and arrogant beings).
Liliput
It is an island or fictional island nation created by the writer Jonathan Swift where it develops the first part of his novel Gulliver's Travels .
Liliput has a circumference of 5,000 blustrugos (17,312 km) and has a channel of 700 meters wide that separates it located to the southeast of Blefuscu.
The location is not specified in the book, but it is reported about a shipwreck that was located northwest of the then called Van Diemen Land, which at the moment is known as Tasmania, at 30 ° 2 'south latitude.
Although this geographic position indicates that it is in the interior of Australia, this zone was unknown at the time that the book was written.
The capital of Liliput is Mildendo, which is formed by a perfect square of 170 meters and its population is made up of half a million Lilliputians, although there are also other cities and towns nearby.
The main feature that describes Liliput is that it is inhabited by tiny people and everything that compose it according to the super small size of its inhabitants, including flora and fauna.
They have a neighboring island and rival that bears the name of Blefuscu.
Gulliver
The book tells the stories of a voyager of Lemuel Gulliver, who was at first surgeon and then a captain of various ships.
The text is developed in first person and the name 'Gulliver' only appears in the title of the book.
Gulliver meets the Lilliputians on the first island they visit (Liliput). This island is ruled by an emperor who names all its high officials according to their skill in the rope dance and never by their real abilities.
The government is not being led according to rational principles and even often the rulers conspire among themselves. One of the main aims of the conspiracies by the government was Gulliver.
As for his characteristics, Lemuel Gulliver was enormous with respect to the Lilliputians. However, it has many things in common with them.
His enormous size made the emperor think that it was expensive and dangerous to keep him, so even though it was useful to win the war against Blefuscu, he is forced to flee the country to avoid being killed and to get the Eyes.
Among other characteristics, he was quite flexible in class and languages, possesses great skill in the mechanical arts and his mind worked mechanically.
Structure and Politics
Liliput and Blefuscu (both called empires) are in permanent war, being the main reason of the same the dispute on how to shell the eggs boiled.
The Lilliputians assure that they must cascara by the narrower side and the blefuscuenses think that they must be cascaded by the thicker side.
It is generally accepted that Liliput represents England and Blefuscu to France.
The author, Swift, used the Lilliputians to satirize specific events and people of his life. He wrote this iconic novel to strongly criticize European society of the eighteenth century and the almost perennial war that existed between England and France throughout the Middle Ages and much of the modern era.
For example, Swift modeled Flimnap based on Robert Walpole, the English prime minister in the modern era.
Walpole was a very clever politician, making him see in his story as the most agile of string dancers. In addition, the next most skilled dancer is likely to represent Viscount Townshend or Lord Carteret, both Walpole's allied politicians.
He wrote the story in a way that showed the Lilliputians as English politicians, bloodthirsty and treacherous. He records cruel methods used by the Lilliputians to plan the death of Gulliver, and then ironically the piety, decency, generosity and justice of kings.
The Lilliputian emperor, devoid of pity, planned to murder, blind, and starve Gulliver. This is a direct reference to Lord George Murray's treatment of the captured Jacobites (whom he executed).
Swift himself was also involved in politics. He was a prominent Irish Anglican minister and had faith in the national church even though he was against the use of religious differences (broadextremist vs. straighextremist) or politics (high heels vs. low heels) as pretexts for war and for persecution Of noble and honest public servants.
High heels vs. Low Heels
Within history, politics had two divisions marked to identify the men of Liliput: those who wear high heels and those who wear low heels.
Those in high heels are known as"Tramecksan"and support the emperor and the Liliput constitution.
Those who wear low heels or the so-called"Slamecksan", are in power.
The emperor only puts low heels on the high ranking people in government, regardless of whether or not they are qualified for this.
The most curious case is that of the son of the emperor, which is more difficult to classify because he wears a high heel and a low one, nobody knows his posture.