| "It began upon the following occasion. 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 majesty's grandfather, while he was a boy, going to eat an egg, and breaking it according to the ancient practice, happened to cut one of his fingers. Whereupon the emperor his father published an edict, commanding all his subjects, upon great penalties, to break the smaller end of their eggs. The people so highly resented this law, that our histories tell us, there have been six rebellions raised on that account; wherein one emperor lost his life, and another his crown. These civil commotions were constantly fomented by the monarchs of Blefuscu; and when they were quelled, the exiles always fled for refuge to that empire. It is computed that eleven thousand persons have at several times suffered death, rather than submit to break their eggs at the smaller end. Many hundred large volumes have been published upon this controversy: but the books of the Big-endians have been long forbidden, and the whole party rendered incapable by law of holding employments. During the course of these troubles, the emperors of Blefusca did frequently expostulate by their ambassadors, accusing us of making a schism in religion, by offending against a fundamental doctrine of our great prophet Lustrog, in the fifty-fourth chapter of the Blundecral (which is their Alcoran). This, however, is thought to be a mere strain upon the text; for the words are these: 'that all true believers break their eggs at the convenient end.'
MY ANALYSIS OF "THE WAR WITH BLEFESCU"(FROM "GULLIVER'S TRAVELS") BY JONATHAN SWIFT:
This is a satire: there is a war about the way of breaking eggs. The image of eggs is used in other forms of allegory, such as painting. There is a reference to two important edicts: the Act of Uniformity(passed by Charles II) and the Act of Supremacy(with Henry VIII, who makes a schism and Thomas More was beheaded). The people complained about the law of breaking eggs on the smaller end of them. For this reason, there have been six rebellions:
- With Bloody Mary, who persecuted Protestant;
- The Civil War(due to religious questions);
- The Gunpowder Plot(made by Catholics when James I came to the throne of England);
- The Glorious Revolution;
- With Mary Stuart(she was Catholic and she was supported by France, that plot against her)
These civil commotions were quelled and the exiles always fled for refuge to France( that gave hospitality to Catholics. France tried to make English Catholic), such as Mary Stuart, Charles II and Thomas Becket. Swift wrote that eleven thousand people died for religious pretexts: Swift thought that dying for useless pretexts was unhelpful and it is silly, according to him, to give life for pretextuous wars. The books of Catholics have been forbidden with the Test Act. Then, he says that Christians shouldn’t help politicians and they shouldn’t kill each others. He is attacking Puritans(who fought Civil War, that was an economical and political war), Aristocratic people(who entered that war) and the king(who wanted that war). At the end of the text, the priest(Swift) says that “true believers break their eggs at the convenient end”: it means that they could interpret God’s words as they want, but they “hadn’t to fight in the name of religion”, because he dislike wars between Catholics(in Ireland) and Anglicans(in England). We are in the Age of Reason, where reason was considered superior to the emotions.
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