Capabilities and The Downfall in Gulliver's Travels Upon reading “Gulliver’s Travels” I investigated the nature of man, his weaknesses, his capabilities, and the way of life that was fitting for him. Swift constantly stressed the evil of human pride as the greatest defect in human nature. Showing the dangerous consequences of our refusal to recognize our limitations as human being. In the first part of the “Travels”, Swift takes a simple, agreeable, man named Gulliver who has thought very little about life, and places him into a situation where he becomes victim of the uncontrollable pride of tiny creatures who act as if they were masters of the universe. The Lilliputians behave as if they were lords and masters of the universe, appearing to be unaware how ridiculous their ways are in relation to their size. Gulliver sees that pride is a basic human sin, the causes of all other evils. Political corruption in Lilliput causes Gulliver to leave disillusioned about the good of man. This book begins Gulliver’s “education.” In Book II Swift tricks us into identifying with Gulliver, and realize how morally inferior we are to “giants.” The Brobdingnagians were far from perfect. As we saw through the actions of the farmer they were capable of greed and exploitation. He can be contrasted to King who represents the highest of moral development we have yet encountered. He is aware of the limitations of man. We see this when the King refuses the gunpowder because he believed it is too much power to be put in the hand of such imperfect a creature as man. This is so true; it is evident when Gulliver describes the destructive potential of a cannon without showing the pain and terror they can create. When the King refuses the gunpowder he also refuses absolute control over his subjects. This is unlike the Lilliputian Emperor who was mad at Gulliver for putting the Blefuscudians under his authority. Ironically, it appears that Gulliver has embraced the belief of the Lilliputian Emperor; he believes the Brobdingnag King is foolish not to want to be a tyrant.
Past the political satire and laughable motifs in the book Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, the purpose of this story is to show everything ignoble and tactless of the human species in general and that humans are truly disgusting. Also exploring the idea of a utopia. Swift uses the literary device of political satire to show how childish and ignorant human acts were. This is because during Swift's time in the eighteenth century, Britain was modernizing at this time. The reader follows the four narrative travels of the main character, Lemuel Gulliver. Each of the four voyages Gulliver has traveled to, is a different society that portrays one of the main ideals of the eighteenth century in Britain. The four places Gulliver has traveled to were Lilliput; being Gulliver's first voyage, Brobdingnag; his second voyage, Laputa; the third voyage, and lastly to the land of the Houyhnhms; being his last voyage and afterwards traveling back home to England. The experience from being exposed to these four societies has had a huge impact on how Gulliver now sees humans.
From the start of leaving his family to began the voyage, Gulliver had no idea that he would be dealing with such complex issues and facing such challenges that he was first confronted with and the evils of human kind as his crew locks him in his cabin and takes over his ship. As we will later see, the first goal of the new captain is to "turn pirates and plunder the Spaniards" (P192). Here we can see that it is the desire of man to do unjust things and these actions do no lie within the concept of a species that truly understand reason.
Corruption of political systems in one of the primary themes in Gulliver's Travels. This corruption is a result of selfishness as well as the inability to see things from any other perspective rather than one’s own.
Swifts Gulliver’s Travels enables us to critically and harshly analyse our world and encourages us to evaluate the customs of early 18th century English society in relation to an ideal humanity. In order to address the injustices prevalent in human constructs and behavior, Swift uses literary techniques to induce a state of extreme self-doubt. The satire's assessment of humanity's positive and negative traits is developed through Gulliver's awkward process of identifying with the loathsome Yahoos and idolising the rational Houyhnhnms. The allegory of a domestic animal portraying more "humanity" than humans exemplifies the flaws of human nature and the tumultuous, uncertain philosophical, ethical, and scientific thought, of Swifts period. The portrayal of the Houyhnhnms involves a direct attack on human nature. Although Gulliver's Travels Book IV makes a satirical attack on human nature in general, it does have specific targets in mind: namely, war and its associated destruction, the verminous, lying, criminal activities of lawyers, and the cruel shallowness of consumerism and wealth disparity. In intellectual terms the text leaves the reader feeling quite disturbed despite the use of humor and adventure telling. This essay will analyse Gulliver’s Travels Part 4 in terms of genre and will explore how the satire uses rhetorical means to provide commentary on rational humanity. In addition the essay will examine how Swift promoted change to early 18th century England by constructing an intricate attack on the philosophical position of his political adversaries.
In Gulliver’s Travels, knowledge seems to be a source of happiness, but also a hindrance depending on its breadth and distribution. When Gulliver is in Brobdingnag, he is surprised by the ignorance of the King and his people. The King is astounded by Gulliver’s description of cannons and gunpowder and wishes not to know anymore about it or to spread this knowledge to his people. Gulliver criticizes the King for his
Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver’s Travels. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol C. 9th ed. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012. 2492-2633. Print.
Gulliver's Travels is one of the most beloved satires of all time (Forster 11). Yet, careful analysis shows it to be very complex with not one definite interpretation. A very surface reading may leave one feeling that the point of the book is "don't be Yahoo." This is the message that David Ward feels Gulliver the character is giving and says that it is no more complex than Orwell's, "four legs good, two legs bad." But this grows out of the fact of Gulliver's nature. A synthesis of the opinions of the writers I read paints Gulliver as an average man of average courage, honesty, compassion, and intellect, a typical Englishman. But there is nothing typical about Gulliver's Travels.
Another example of satire against England, in Gulliver’s Travels, in Lilliput is Gulliver compared to the Lilliputians. In the novel, Gulliver is shown to be “… Greeted by great acclaim and be made a nobleman” (Dawson), for “offering his services to the emperor… and [bringing] back [Blefuscu’s] entire fleet” (Dawson). However, the emperor of Lilliput wanted them to be made slaves, while Gulliver wanted a peace agreement: “The pro-Gulliver forces prevai...
To begin, Gulliver’s initial realization of other imperfect world’s comes when he lands on the shores of Lilliput as a giant, being disadvantaged and ungrateful for his change. Gulliver is soon taken over by Lilliputians as he st...
In the fourth voyage, Swift presents a case study for opposing states of nature, with the Yahoos representing the argument that man is governed by his passions, seeking his own advantage, pursuing pleasures and avoiding pain, and the Houyhnhnms representing the argument that man is governed by reason. If this is the case, then Swift’s misanthropy was such that he saw men as the foul and disgusting Yahoos, and made it plain that reform of the species was out of the question. A major fault with this theory is that it leaves no place for Gulliver. When attention is drawn to the figure of Gulliver himself, as distinct from his creator, Swift, he is taken to be the moral of the story. If you can't be a Houyhnhnm you don't need to be a Yahoo; just try to be like Gulliver. The trouble with this idea is that when taking a closer look at Gulliver, he isn't worth emulating. The final picture of him talking with the horses in the stable for four hours a day, unable to stand the company of his own family, makes him look foolish. Another theory is that Gulliver made a mistake in regarding the Houyhnhnms as models to be emulated: so far from being admirable creatures they are as repulsive as the Yahoos. The Yahoos might be ruled by their passions, but these have no human passions at all. On this view, Swift was not advocating, but attacking reason.
In the fourth book of Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift uses satire to draw reader’s attention towards his concerns about humanity and uses irony to reveal his cynical views towards human kind. According to the Great Chain of Being, a term developed by the Renaissance that describes a divinely hierarchical order in every existing thing in the universe, human beings are placed a tier higher than animals (http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english /melani/cs6/ren.html). However, by comparing human traits with unpleasant qualities of animals, Swift blurs the definition of human being and questions the hierarchical place of human. In the fourth book of Gulliver’s Travels, Gulliver starts his journey as a well-educated European person who is considered to be a decent example of humanity. The first group of inhabitants Gulliver finds on the island where he is dropped off on are the Yahoos. Gulliver is disgusted by the behaviours of these wild creatures at first and he considers them to be animals that are owned by the dominate beings on this island. Gulliver then discovers the Houyhnhnms whom he perceives as brute beasts (Swift 2420) and animals (ibid.) because they share similar physical qualities compare to the horses in England. After a brief interaction with the two Houyhnhnms, Gulliver is taken to the house of a Houyhnhnm whom he will later refer to as his master. Through the interactions with the Houyhnhnms, Gulliver is able to show the ability to reason even though he shares some physical similarities with the Yahoos. Due to this quality and the fact that the Houyhnhnms cannot see his bare skin under his clothes, he is able to live with the Houyhnhnms. Gulliver starts to relate himself more to the Houyhnhnms than the Yahoos becau...
The Importance of Perspective Revealed in Gulliver's Travels According to Gulliver, "Undoubtably philosophers are right when they tell us that nothing is great or small by comparison. " This quotation sums up the knowledge a person would gather after doing a vast study of different societies. The nature of humanity is being discussed, rather than physical size. The Lilliputians are narrow-minded people who become angry over trivial matters, while the Brobdingnagians are deeper people, in contrast.
Gulliver’s first voyage is to Lilliput. The ship that Gulliver travels on capsizes, and Gulliver finds himself on a strange unknown island. He falls asleep, and upon waking up, Gulliver finds himself surrounded and bound by numerous little people who come to be known as the Lilliputians. Gulliver describes the strange people who bound him as being “a human Creature not six inches high,” (Swift 17).
In part one of the novel, Gulliver sets sail for the Pacific Ocean, and dramatically, a storm sinks his ship, washing him onto an island. On the island, the Lilliputians, who are one twelf...
The first book covers Gulliver’s encounters with the Lilliputians. The Lilliputians are a race of small and peculiar humanoids with oddly specific particularities. For example, rather than electing government officials based on merit and