The tales of Gullivers Travels, by Jonathan Swift, is a wide known story. For more then two and a half centuries, Gullivers Travels has been read by children for pleasure. Terry Gilliams The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is much the same. It can be compared to Gullivers Travels in many ways. The Adventures of Baron Munchausen has been given the subtitle Gulliver Revived for the following reasons; the adventures both Gulliver and Munchausen partake, political hierarchy, and satire. The adventures Gulliver experienced were much like those of Baron Munchausen.
The adventures of Munchausen, as well as the adventures of Gulliver, were very outrageous. The stories described by both are hard for the reader to believe. Although very entertaining, they are so farfetched that one would find it difficult to consider as true. Baron started off by telling his tales as he remembered them. He took off in his hot air balloon in search of his magical friends. He first went to the moon to look for Berthold. This was much like Gullivers travels to Lilliput, however, Gulliver did not go there intentionally. Once on the moon, Munchausen set out to look for Berthold. He discovered many things in his search.
While being locked up for trying to romance the queen, Munchausen accidentally stumbled upon Berthold. He then moved on to search for the next of his companions. Munchausen fell off of the moon into a vulcano where Vulcan, who was a Greek God, lived. He then sat down to drink tea with Vulcan and discovered that Vulcans servant was none other then Albrecht. While in the home of Vulcan, Munchausen was introduced to his wife, and fell in the love with the sight of her. Vulcan saw this, disliked it very much, and became jealous. The same thing happened to Gulliver, who had many enemies in Lilliput.
Flimnap, Treasurer of the Realm, long suspected, with absolutely no grounds, that Gulliver was his wifes lover, This Lord, in Conjunction with Flimnap the High Treasurer, whose Enmity against you is notorious on Account of his Lady (Swift 56 ). Gullivers enemies plotted against him, and accused him of treason. Gulliver then fled from Lilliput. Munchausen, on the other hand, was thrown into a black hole by Vulcan. This took Munchausen to an ocean, where he was swallowed by a big whale. Upon being swallowed by this great fish he discovered the other two of his companions, Adolfus and Gustvus.
Munchausen and Gulliver were very much alike. Both were on their adventures to do well. Munchausen wanted to stop the war with the Turks. He promised to help Sally. Gulliver was a surgeon, he did not help people in the same way as Munchausen, but he did help people. Munchausens companions were very unrealistic in the way of their abilities. Berthold was able to run great distances in small amounts of time; Albrecht was the strongest man in the world; Adolfus could see great distances, and had very good aim; and Gustvus had very good hearing and powerful lungs.
With the help of his magical friends, Munchausen stopped the war. This was related to Gulliver in a few different ways. Throughout Gullivers travels he met many different people. First in Lilliput he was in a land of small people. These people were only about five to six inches tall to him. The next place he went was to a place where everyone is much larger than he was, to Gulliver, they seemed to be about sixty feet tall. The third place he traveled to was a floating island, called Laputa. This island could float around in the sky. Lastly he went to an island that was ruled by horses.
In these ways the travels of Baron Munchausen are very similar to those of Gulliver. Political hierarchy plays a large role in both the travels of Munchausen and Gulliver. Throughout the novel and the movie one can see the different situations in which political hierarchy is shown. These are related through the characters, and their reactions to the governments. When Munchausen went to the moon, he ran into the King and Queen. Both of them had detachable heads, which represents a political symbol. This represents political people in high ranks losing their heads.
This could be due to stress or the fact that they are trying to get to a higher position, and in the process losing their heads. People always want more then what they have. Munchausen promised the Sultan the best bottle of wine that he had tasted, within an hour, in exchange for as much of the Sultans treasures as the strongest man could carry. And if the wine was not the best, Munchausen was to have his head cut off. With the help of his magical friends, Munchausen got the bottle of wine from many miles away. To the Sultans surprise it was the best wine he had tasted.
He allowed Munchausen to take as much as the stongest man could carry. Albrecht helped Munchausen take all but one golden coin of the Sultans treasures. When the Sultan found out he tried to stop Munchausen, and in the process cut off the guard of his treasures head. This also represents the losing of ones head. Throughout the book, as well, one can see the political involvement. Each place that Gulliver went to had a government of some sort. In Lilliput there were two political factions: the High Heels and the Low Heels. These corresponded to two religion factors: the Big Endians and Little Endians.
Ones membership in one or the other of these depended upon whether he broke his eggs on the large or small end. It is allowed on all Hands, that the primitive Way of breaking Eggs before we eat them, was upon the larger End: But his present Majestys Grand-father, while he was a Boy, going to eat an Egg, and breaking it according to the ancient Practice, happened to cut one of this Fingers. Whereupon the Emperor, his father, published and Edict, commanding all his Subjects, upon great Penalties, to break the smaller End of their Eggs (Swift 36). This separates the two different political groups from each other.
The last place the Gulliver went to, he was astounded to discover that the horses were the masters of the island. There were no humans on the island at all. These remarkable horses had their way of communicating between themselves, and Gulliver learned to understand some of it. He was able to dictate to the horses what he wanted. Throughout Gullivers Travels and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen one can see a lot of satire. All through the movie, death is continually chasing Munchausen. After the real Munchausen was introduced everyone left the theatre. Munchausen tried to go out the back and Sally followed him.
Sally saw the angel of death hovering over Munchausen, she threw a candlestick at it and it burnt to death. Sally went over to Munchausen and began to talk to him, Am I dead? No Blast Who are you really? Baron Munchausen isnt real, only in stories. Go away I am trying to die. (Gilliam ). Sally then followed Munchausen to the town gates, telling him that he had to help stop the Turks and win the war. Munchausen tried to shoot a canon ball at the Turks, instead of it going off at the Turks, it caught Munchausen and he flew on it. As he was flying he saw the angel of death, for the second time, and passed by it.
When Munchausen was eaten by the big whale, he found the rest of his magical friends; he sat down with them and began to play cards. Sally got mad and demanded that they got out of the fish and got back to the town to help stop the war. She saw the angel of dead again. By throwing the cards in Munchausens face she got him to realize that he did not want to die. Thereby escaping the angel of dead for the third time. When the Sultan cut off the head of his treasurer, it symbolized the killing the messenger. The Sultan took out his aggression on the treasurer.
However, it was not the treasurers fault, it was the Sultans fault that all of his treasures were gone. There was also a lot of satire in Gullivers Travels. The breaking of the egg on the smaller end was a religious act. . . .while he was a Boy, going to eat an Egg, and Breaking it according to the ancient Practice . . . (Swift 36). Swift is mocking the religion here. While Gulliver was in Lilliput, when things went wrong or bad, he was at fault. . . . the grand Justiciary, have prepared Articles of Impeachment against you, for Treason, and other capital crimes (Swift 56).
The people of Lilliput believed that fraud was a greater crime then theft. Theft was not punished by the Lilliputians. They look upon Fraud as a greater Crime than Theft, and therefore seldom fail to punish it with Death: For they alledge, that Care and Vigilance, with a very common understanding, may preserve a Mans Goods from Thieves; but Honesty hath no Fence against superior Cunning . . . (Swift 46). Gulliver committed fraud in the eyes of his enemies. Blefuscudians, Flimnap, and Bolgolam were Gullivers three main enemies.
The three plotted against him, accusing him of treason, and condemned him to death. Satire was a big issue in both the novel and the movie. Both Swift and Gilliam had stories to tell, not necessarily trying to be amusing, but in the end turning it to humor. Gullivers Travels and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen have many things in common. The most obvious being their travels and adventures. Munchausen follows in the footsteps of Gulliver, thereby earning the subtitle Gulliver Revived. Munchausen was in many ways very much like Gulliver in the sense that they both had adventures that were exaggerated.