In Gulliver's Travels the author comes back after taking all of the enemy's boats with him back to the city. As he approaches, however, the king and the people of the city of Lilliput become scared because they see that the enemy boats are approaching but only the head of the giant is seen, so they believe he is dead. "The emperor and his whole court stood on the shore, expecting the issue of his great adventure. They saw the ships move forward in a large half moon, but could not discern me, who was up to my breast in water." pg 36. The immediate reaction these people had was one of complete horror. The one thing they thought was undefeatable was below water and the enemy ships were coming their way. The situation is very similar to what happened to Theseus during his trip to kill the Minotaur under Aegeus's command. He decided to leave the city with black sails, and promised his father that if he was to return victorious, he would change the sails to white ones. Theseus actually did come out victorious, but when returning from his voyage he forgot to change the sails, so when his father saw the boat coming back with the black sails, he thought his son had died and killed himself.
.
It is very similar between the two because in both cases the people who were waiting on the hero to come back with the good news get scared because they see something that is not true from the distance. The result is something completely different, but how are they to know? They think one of the things that were most important to them came out wrong. The only difference is that in Gulliver's Travels the people of Lilliput realize after a bit that the situation they thought was happening wasn't really what they thought, while in the other case the king kills himself because he doesn't get to see that what he thought was happening was really the completely opposite of what it really was. Both stories should have had a happy ending, but in one of them the situation changed completely because one of the characters interpreted a thing in the wrong way.
.
It is very similar between the two because in both cases the people who were waiting on the hero to come back with the good news get scared because they see something that is not true from the distance. The result is something completely different, but how are they to know? They think one of the things that were most important to them came out wrong. The only difference is that in Gulliver's Travels the people of Lilliput realize after a bit that the situation they thought was happening wasn't really what they thought, while in the other case the king kills himself because he doesn't get to see that what he thought was happening was really the completely opposite of what it really was. Both stories should have had a happy ending, but in one of them the situation changed completely because one of the characters interpreted a thing in the wrong way.
No comments:
Post a Comment