THE MEANING OF THE PALACE ON FIRE SCENE IN GULLIVER’S TRAVELS AND ITS ADAPTATIONS IN SELECTED ENGLISH AND POLISH ABRIDGED VERSIONS OF JONATHAN SWIFT’S NOVEL
THE MEANING OF THE PALACE ON FIRE SCENE IN GULLIVER’S TRAVELS AND ITS ADAPTATIONS IN SELECTED ENGLISH AND POLISH ABRIDGED VERSIONS OF JONATHAN SWIFT’S NOVEL

Summary/Abstract: The palace on fire scene in the first part of Gulliver’s Travels, when the mainprotagonist extinguishes the flames by urinating on them, has become the symbol of Swift’spersonal criticism of authority and the institution of monarchy. For obvious reasons, inchildren’s version of the novel, the scene is remade and reinterpreted in a multitude ofmanners to remove the embarrassing physiological element that both young readers andtheir parents might find outrageous or simply offensive. The aim of the present article is todiscuss the critical meaning of the scene in relation to Jonathan Swift’s political views andto demonstrate the great miscellany of variants of the scene in selected abridged versions ofGulliver’s Travels in Polish and English.

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