Abstract

Gulliver goes on four separate voyages in Gulliver's Travels. Each journey is preceded by
a storm. All four voyages bring new perspectives to Gulliver's life and new opportunities
for satirizing the ways of England. The first voyage is to Lilliput, where Gulliver is huge
and the Lilliputians are small. At first the Lilliputians seem amiable, but the reader soon
sees them for the ridiculous and petty creatures they are. Gulliver is convicted of treason
for "making water" in the capital (even though he was putting out a fire and saving
countless lives)--among other "crimes." The second voyage is to Brobdingnag, a land of
Giants where Gulliver seems as small as the Lilliputians were to him. Gulliver is afraid,
but his keepers are surprisingly gentle. He is humiliated by the King when he is made to
see the difference between how England is and how it ought to be. Gulliver realizes how
revolting he must have seemed to the Lilliputians.
Gulliver's third voyage is to Laputa (and neighboring Luggnagg and Glubdugdribb). In a
visit to the island of Glubdugdribb, Gulliver is able to call up the dead and discovers the
deceptions of history. In Laputa, the people are over-thinkers and are ridiculous in other
ways. Also, he meets the Stuldbrugs, a race endowed with immortality. Gulliver discovers
that they are miserable.
His fourth voyage is to the land of the Houyhnhnms, who are horses endowed with
reason. Their rational, clean, and simple society is contrasted with the filthiness and
brutality of the Yahoos, beasts in human shape. Gulliver reluctantly comes to recognize
their human vices. Gulliver stays with the Houyhnhnms for several years, becoming
completely enamored with them to the point that he never wants to leave. When he is told
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that the time has come for him to leave the island, Gulliver faints from grief. Upon
returning to England, Gulliver feels disgusted about other humans, including his own
family.

CHAPTER ONE
Introduction
Gullivers Travels, a misanthropic satire of humanity, was written in 1726
by Jonathan Swift. Like many other authors, Swift uses the journey as the backdrop for
his satire. He invents a second author, Captain Lemuel Gulliver, who narrates and speaks
directly to the reader from his own experience. The original title of Swifts novel
was Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel
Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of several Ships.
Gullivers name probably is an allusion to King Lemuel of Proverbs 31, who was
a weak-minded prophet. Swift may also be connecting his character to a common mule, a
half-ass, half-horse animal that is known for being stubborn and stupid. A gull is a person
who is easily fooled or gullible. At the same time, Gulliver represents the everyman with
his average intelligence and general good humor. The reader is able to identify with him
and join him in his travels.
Even though Swift constantly alludes to events that were happening while he was
alive, the story rings true today, bringing light to our own societal issues and to patterns
of human nature. Throughout Gullivers voyages, Swift goes to great lengths to
scrutinize, parody, and satire various aspects of human, and often English, society. He
does this in two ways, first by comparing humanitys ways with those of cultures
decidedly beneath it (such as the Yahoos and the Lilliputians); second, by comparing

humanity with cultures that are far superior in intellect and political ideals (such as the
Houyhnhnms).
Gulliver embarks on four distinct journeys, each of which begins with a
shipwreck and ends with either a daring escape or a congenial decision that it is time for
Gulliver to leave. The societies Gulliver comes into contact with help him (and the
reader) to examine his own culture more closely. When Gullivers Travels was published
in 1726, this examination of English culture was not appreciated. The novel was highly
controversial because of the light in which it presented humanity-and more specifically,
the English. When the novel was first published, Swifts identity was hidden because of
the novels volatile nature. The people who saw that the book made it into print also cut
out a great deal of the most politically controversial sections, about which Swift became
extremely frustrated. In a letter written under the pseudonym of Gulliver, Swift shows his
annoyance with the edits made to his novel without his consent: I hope you will be ready
to own publicly, he writes, whenever you shall be called to it, that by your great and
frequent urgency you prevailed on me to publish a very loose and uncorrect account of
my travels . . . . But I do not remember I gave you power to consent that anything should
be omitted, and much less that anything should be inserted. The version of the novel
read today is complete.
Part of what has helped Gullivers Travels to persevere since Swifts time has
been its appeal to people of all ages. The book has been read by countless children and
has been made into more than one childrens movie. At the same time, it has been widely
critiqued and studied by literary scholars and critics, politicians, and philosophers. In

addition, much like the works of Shakespeare, the comedy of the novel has something for
people of all intellectual levels, from toilet humor to highbrow satires of political
processes and of ideas.

CHAPTER TWO
2.1 Jonathan Swift's Sources and Influence
Though Swift's voice was his own, his greatest works are satires: his relationships
with literary precursors are as a consequence complex and frequently obscure. His oeuvre
was influenced, as Pope's and Johnson's would be, by the works of the classical authors,
the great "Ancients" whom he revered, but it owed a great deal, as well, both to the works
of friends and contemporaries like Addison, Steele, and Pope, whom he admired and
collaborated with, and to the works of enemies like Defoe, whose pseudo-matter-offactness in Robinson Crusoe he satirized in the first book of his own Gulliver's Travels.
He was well aware of the ironies inherent in the extent of his indebtedness: it has been
pointed out that though he wrote, of himself, "that what he writ was all his own," the line
itself is a parody of a line--"Yet what he wrote was all his own"--which appears in
Denham's "Elegy on Cowley." The real sources of his works, in any event, lay not in
literary originals but in contemporary events--political events in England, which he
satirized in the Lilliputian episode in Gulliver, or socio-economic events in Ireland,
which he satirized in "A modest proposal.
Swift died a great, a famous, and an enormously respected man, though his last
years were melancholy ones and though he lapsed, finally, into senility. His literary
influence on subsequent authors has been incalculable. His values, however were those of
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his age, and the Romantics and the Victorians reacted against his work even more
strongly than they did against Pope's. Pope they merely relegated to the dust-bin, but they
perceived Swift, particularly the Swift who had brought Gulliver to the Country of the
Houyhnhnms, as a threat, and they savaged him. Thomas De Quincey wrote in 1847 that
"the meanness of Swift's nature and his rigid incapacity for dealing with the grandeurs of
the human spirit, with religion, with poetry or even with science when it rose above the
mercenary practical, is absolutely appalling. His own Yahoo is not a more abominable
one-sided degradation of humanity than he himself in under this aspect. . . ." In 1851 the
great Victorian novelist Thackeray grew positively hysterical in his denunciation of
Swift: he declares that the moral of Gulliver is "horrible, shameful, unmanly,
blasphemous," and insists that in the fourth book Swift reveals himself as "a monster
gibbering shrieks, and gnashing imprecations against mankind--tearing down all shreds
of modesty, past all sense of manliness and shame; filthy in word, filthy in thought,
furious, raging, obscene.
Even in the midst of Victorian England, however, Swift had defenders -- Ruskin,
for example, in 1871, could name Swift, with Guido Guinicelli and Marmontel, as one of
three persons in past history for whom he felt "most sympathy," and wrote that "anyone
who can understand the natures of those three men can understand mine." What was it
about Swift's portrait of mankind in Gulliver's Travels that provoked these outbursts from
De Quincey and Thackeray (who would, to his credit, later change his mind about
Swift)?
In our own century he has been analysed and reinterpreted, but though the old
slanders continued to plague his memory -- D. H. Lawrence referred in 1929 to his

"insolent and sickly squeamish mind" -- he has regained his place as one of the great
English authors, and certainly as the greatest satirist in the English language. Yeats helped
us to begin to appreciate his poetry once more; he was a strong influence on Joyce; and T.
S. Eliot could write, in 1923, in an essay on Joyce's Ulysses, that Swift's vision of the
country of the Houyhnhnms was "one of the greatest triumphs that the human soul has
ever achieved." What is it about his work that has enabled him to regain, in our century,
the reputation he had lost in the preceding one?

2.2 A Critical Review of Gulliver's Travels

Jonathan Swift's story, Gulliver's Travels, is a very clever story. It recounts the
fictitious journey of a fictitious man named Lemuel Gulliver, and his travels to the
fantasy lands of Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa, and Houyhnhnm land. When one first
reads his accounts in each of these lands, one may believe that they are reading humorous
accounts of fairy-tale-like lands that are intended to amuse children. When one reads this
story in the light of it being a satire, the stories are still humorous, but one realizes that
Swift was making a public statement about the affairs of England and of the human race
as a whole.
In the beginning of the story, Gulliver explains to the reader a bit about his
background, why he was on these journeys to begin with, and where he finds himself at
the beginning of his tale. The story begins with Gulliver recounting how he was
shipwrecked the land of Lilliput. He awakens to find himself tied down and held captive
by a tiny race of people. To the inhabitants of Lilliput, Gulliver is something of a giant.
He could not move, because he was tied down, but he notices a a race of tiny people
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moving about him. These people take all of his possessions for inspection, for they are in
awe and fear of his great size. They feed him, and soon untie him butstill keep him in
confinement. While in his confinement, he is visited by the emperor who likes Gulliver.
Gulliver learns there language and the customs of the people of Lilliput. In this book
Swift, by describing the ludicrous system that Lilliput's government fashions in, is
satirizing the English system of governing. He uses parallels that seem absurd at first
glance but make more senses when looked at carefully.
When Gulliver reaches the land of Brobdingnag, he finds himself in the exact
opposite situation that he was in when in Lilliput. In Brobdingnag, it is Gulliver who is
the tiny person, and the inhabitants of that land who appear to be giants. Gulliver expects
these "giants to be monsters", but soon finds that they are a peaceful race of people, who
live in a sort of peace-loving land. Swift was playing on all people's fear of being
frightened by those who appear different looking or more powerful.
In recounting third journey, Gulliver visits the land of Laputa. The stories that are
contained within are a satire on specific figures and policies of the British government of
the period in which Swift lived. This is probably, out of all of the parts of this story that
are commonly read today, the least widely read. This is because most people today do not
know of whom Swift is referring to.
When Gulliver reaches the land of the Houyhnhnms, we read a very fine story
that we can still relate to today. There is a distinction made between the two type of
people Gulliver encounters in this land. The Yahoos, who are considered to be uncivilized
Neanderthals, and the Houyhnhnms, who Gulliver's considers to be civilized. Gulliver
8

contends that the Houyhnhnms are civilized because they are similar to him, the people
remind him of English people, and they have the most complex language he has run
across in his travels. We also read in this part of his travels of a war between the BigEndians and the Little-Endians, who are at war with one another over which end of a hard
boiled egg should be cracked on. Swift is satirizing the futility of wars over things like
religion.
Gulliver soon returns home in wonder over his journeys to these lands. Swift did a
excellent job of hiding a biting criticism of the government and society in which he lived.
He did this by making the characters in the story so fantastic and foreign to the reader
that the story could only be a fairy tale, written for children. The actions of the people he
runs across are so absurd, and Gulliver seems so innocent, that at first read many people
didn't even get what Swift was trying to say. There were, however, people who knew
Swift's intentions from the start, and got all of the symbols in the story.
2.3 Jonathan Swift's Political Beliefs
Politics seems to have been of interest to Swift early in his career chiefly to the
extent that it affected the strength and stability of the Anglican Church (in both England
and Ireland) of which he was a member. The restoration of the Catholic monarchy, which
was a real threat during his lifetime, would, he feared, result in "Papist" absolutism; in the
loss of the liberties, privileges, and freedoms which the English Constitution granted to
Protestants, if not to Catholics or Dissenters. Between the Restoration and James II's final
flight to France, it had appeared not at all unlikely, to members of Swift's social class in
England as in Ireland that the English monarchy might relapse into a religious and

political despotism. When James II succeeded his brother Charles II in 1685, and began
gradually to reintroduce Catholics into key positions in the government and the army-and when, in 1688, he produced a male heir, thereby raising the possibility of an English
Catholic Dynasty, the result was the bloodless Glorious Revolution, which Swift
supported: William of Orange, proclaiming himself the defender of English freedoms,
landed in England with 15,000 troops, while James, his popular support evaporating, fled
to France.
The Revolution made English constitutionalism much more secure: the powers of
the monarchy were severely limited, while those of parliament were strengthened.
Supreme legislative power derived from a complex alliance between the King, the House
of Lords, and the House of Commons: executive power resided with the king, but had to
be lawfully exercised, while governmental ministers were liable to prosecution and
impeachment if they behaved improperly. Respect for the civil and religious liberties of
the subject (the loyal subject) was strongly emphasized.
Early in his life Swift was a member of the Whig party. The Whig government's
flirtation with the Dissenters, however, helped to drive him, at at time when it seemed, in
any case, to be a change which might advance his career, into the Tory camp. When
Queen Anne died, however, and the Tory Government fell, he lost forever the chance of
religious preferment in England which he had coveted for so long. The political
pamphlets, however, which he would ultimately produce while he lived in what was for
him a strange kind of exile in his native Ireland--the tracts and satires like "A Modest
Proposal" in which he defended the interests of his church and his class (and, by

10

implication, his country) against what he had come increasingly to recognize as English
colonialism--made him enormously popular, late in his life, in a country which he
despised. He was idolized by a people the vast majority of whom, since they were Roman
Catholics, he would have denied religious and political freedom. After his death he
became a national hero and, more importantly, was perceived as having been a nationalist
leader--which, in a real though limited sense, he certainly was.
2.4 Jonathan Swift's Religious Beliefs
Swift was a clergyman, a member of the Church of Ireland, the Irish branch of the
Anglican Church; and as such he was a militant defender of his church (and his own
career prospects) in the face of the threats to its continued existence posed by Roman
Catholicism at home in Ireland (which was overwhelmingly Catholic) and in England,
where Swift and his peers saw the Catholics (and, at the other religious and political
extreme, the Dissenters) as threatening not only the Anglican Church but the English
Constitution.
Swift was ostensibly a conservative by nature: he instinctively sought stability in
religion as in politics, but stability which insured personal freedoms. Indeed, so far as he
was concerned, religion, morality, and politics were inseparable: he consistently attacked
theological attempts (even within Anglicanism itself) to define and limit orthodoxy-attempts which, he felt, led ultimately to anarchic dissent. The divisive tendencies of
Mankind had, he believed, over the centuries, promoted the general decay of Christianity
itself, which had lost its original clarity, simplicity, and coherence. The Truth had been
mishandled, corrupted, by men who had behaved like Yahoos. He adhered to the tenets of

11

the Anglican Church because he had been brought up to respect them, because the
Church of Ireland was the church of his social class, and because his own ambitions were
involved in its success, but also because he saw the Church as a force for rationality and
moderation; as occupying a perilous middle ground between the opposing adherents of
Rome and Geneva.
Underlying all of Swift's religious concerns, underlying his apparent
conservatism, which was really a form of radicalism, was his belief that in Man God had
created an animal which was not inherently rational but only capable, on occasion, of
behaving reasonably: only, as he put it, rationis capax. It is our tendency to disappoint, in
this respect, that he rages against: his works embody his attempts to maintain order and
reason in a world which tended toward chaos and disorder, and he concerned himself
more with the concrete social, political, and moral aspects of human nature than with the
abstractions of philosophy, theology, and metaphysics.
2.5 Swift's Attitudes toward Science and Technology
Swift was an upper-class conservative who undoubtedly looked down upon, and
frequently derided, mechanists and scientists of the sort exemplified by the members of
the Royal Society--disciples of Francis Bacon, who were even then threatening to remake
the world in their own image. He lived in a time when a great deal of what passed for
science was, at best, pseudo-science. He had little use for abstract science or technology-which he satirized unmercifully in the third book of Gulliver's Travels, the voyage to
Laputa--but he was not opposed to science or to scientific experiment if it could be
genuinely useful to mankind: he read and approved of Bacon's The Advancement of

12

Learning, for example. He was not, that is, anti-intellectual, but he was passionately
opposed to the useless follies of the charlatans, the quacks, the cheats, the speculators,
and the virtuosi--to the "aerial studies" of the chymists, mathematicians, projectors, and
the rest of that speculative tribe"--who lost themselves in useless abstractions, who
wasted time and money (their own, and more importantly, that of gullibles) in vain or
extravagant experimentation.
Most importantly, however, he perceived--long before others realized it--that
science was ethically and morally neutral; that it could be put to evil uses as easily as to
good. Swift insisted that human beings be reasonable, and that their efforts be be both
useful and moral, and he found too little practicality and too little morality in the science
of his day. He was unwilling to sacrifice moral and ethical considerations to scientific
abstractions: it seems unnecessary to remark that subsequent events seem to have proven
many of his assumptions correct.

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CHAPTER THREE
3.1 Definition of Satire
Satire: A satire is a literary device in which the author exposes to ridicule the
follies absurdities and incongruities of individual or society. There are two types of satire.
1. Comic Satire (this is a mild and gentle satire)
2. Corrosive Satire (kind in which invective is greater and has bitter undertones)
Swift is adept at using both these types in his satirical masterpiece Gullivers travels
Literary devices used in the satire are irony humor invective exaggeration mockery
parody allegory etc.
In part 1 there is allegorical satire. Swift has given numerous allusions of the
English politicians and their manipulations and tactics. So in general the satire is aimed at
politics and politicians of swifts time. There is also a satire on the strife between religious
and political factions on hairsplitting matters. Through the Lilliputians swift mocks the
pride of mankind in general.
In part 2 there is satire of more general kind. At times it seems a satire on human
physiognomy and at times through the king of Brobdingnag swift ridicules the running of
British parliament.
In part 3 swift aims his fling at the abuses of science. He satirizes all philosophers
scientists and people involved more in speculative philosophy and mere theories and who
do not do any practical work.

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In part 4 there is corrosive satire not only on various professions such as lawyers
doctors etc but on human beings in general. We can say that in this book there is a satire
on four aspects of man political social moral and philosophical.
3.2 Perceptions of Satire in Gulliver's Travels
In 1726, Jonathan Swift published a book for English readers. On the surface, this
book appears to be a travel log, made to chronicle the adventures of a man, Lemuel
Gulliver, on the four most incredible voyages imaginable. Primarily, however, Gulliver's
Travels is a work of satire. "Gulliver is neither a fully developed character nor even an
altogether distinguishable persona; rather, he is a satiric device enabling Swift to score
satirical points" (Rodino 124). Indeed, whereas the work begins with more specific satire,
attacking perhaps one political machine or aimed at one particular custom in each
instance, it finishes with "the most savage onslaught on humanity ever written," satirizing
the whole of the human condition. (Murry 3). In order to convey this satire, Gulliver is
taken on four adventures, driven by fate, a restless spirit, and the pen of Swift. Gulliver's
first journey takes him to the Land of Lilliput, where he finds himself a giant among six
inch tall beings. His next journey brings him to Brobdingnag, where his situation is
reversed: now he is the midget in a land of giants. His third journey leads him to Laputa,
the floating island, inhabited by strange (although similarly sized) beings who derive
their whole culture from music and mathematics. Gulliver's fourth and final journey
places him in the land of the Houyhnhnm, a society of intelligent, reasoning horses. As
Swift leads Gulliver on these four fantastical journeys, Gulliver's perceptions of himself
and the people and things around him change, giving Swift ample opportunity to inject
into the story both irony and satire of the England of his day and of the human condition.

15

Swift ties his satire closely with Gulliver's perceptions and adventures. In
Gulliver's first adventure, he begins on a ship that runs aground on a submerged rock. He
swims to land, and when he awakens, he finds himself tied down to the ground, and
surrounded by tiny people, the Lilliputians. "Irony is present from the start in the
simultaneous recreation of Gulliver as giant and prisoner" (Reilly 167). Gulliver is
surprised "at the intrepidity of these diminutive mortals, who dare venture to mount and
walk upon my body" (I.i.16), but he admires this quality in them. Gulliver eventually
learns their language, and arranges a contract with them for his freedom.
However, he is bound by this agreement to protect Lilliput from invasion by the
people of Blefuscu. The Lilliputians relate to him the following story: In Lilliput, years
ago, people once broke eggs on the big end. However, the present king's grandfather once
cut himself breaking the egg in this manner, so the King at the time, the father of the
present king's grandfather, issued an edict that all were to break the eggs on the small
end. Some of the people resisted, and they found refuge in Blefuscu, and "for six and
thirty moons past" the two sides have been at war (I.iv.48). Of course, to Gulliver, such
an argument would be completely ridiculous, for he could hardly distinguish the
difference in the ends of their eggs. For Swift, Lilliput is analogous to England, and
Blefuscu to France. With this event of the story Swift satirizes the needless bickering and
fighting between the two nations.
Also vehicles of Swift's satire were the peculiar customs of the nation of Lilliput.
The methods of selecting people for public office in Lilliput are very different from that
of any other nation, or rather, would appear to be so at first. In order to be chosen, a man

16

must "rope dance" to the best of his abilities; the best rope dancer receives the higher
office. While no nation of Europe in Swift's time followed such an absurd practice, they
did not choose public officers on skill, but rather on how well the candidate could line the
right pockets with money. Gulliver also tells of their custom of burying "their dead with
their heads directly downwards...The learned among them confess the absurdity of this
doctrine, but the practice still continues" (I.vi.60). At this point in the story, Gulliver has
not yet realized that by seeing the absurdity of the Lilliputians' traditions, that he might
see the absurdity in European ones. With this Swift satirizes the conditions of Europe.
As Swift's story of Gulliver unfolds, the satire begins to take a much more general
focus: humanity as a whole. Gulliver manages to escape the land of miniature, and after a
brief stay in England, returns to the sea. Again, he finds himself in a strange land, but this
time, he is the small one, with everything around him many times the normal size. Unlike
the Lilliputians, however, he is alone in this world. When he encounters the first natives,
he fears for his life, "for as human creatures are observed to be more savage in proportion
to their bulk" (II.i.96). This is but one of the many attacks on humanity that Swift's satire
will perform. While in Lilliput Gulliver had been treated with respect, largely due to his
size; here in this land of giants, Brobdingnag, he is treated as a curiosity, forced to
perform shows for public amusement, until the royalty of this nation learn of his
presence. During the time Gulliver spends at this court, he relates much of the situation of
Europe to the king, who listens with much eagerness. Gulliver tells us:
I would hide the frailties and deformities of my political
mother, and place her virtues and beauties in the most

17

advantageous light. This was my sincere endeavor in those

many discourses I had with that mighty monarch, although it
unfortunately failed of success (II.vii.156).

However well he tried to speak of England, he did not manage to tell only "her virtues."
Instead, much of what he so faithfully speaks to the King is actually the vice and
immorality to be found in England. This is what the King of Brobdingnag learns from
Gulliver's stories:
My little friend Grildrig, you have made a most admirable
panegyric upon your country; you have clearly proved that
ignorance, idleness vice may sometimes be the only
ingredients for qualifying a legislator; that laws are best
explained, interpreted, and applied by those whose
interests and abilities lie in perverting them ... I am
dwell disposed to hope you may hitherto have escaped many
vices of your country. But by what I have gathered from
your own relation ... I cannot but conclude the bulk of
your natives to be the most pernicious race of little
odious vermin that ever suffered to crawl upon the surface
of the earth (II.vi.153-154).

Gulliver excuses the King for these remarks, believing that "great allowances
should be given to a king who lives wholly secluded from the rest of the world"

18

(II.vii.156). Although the reader may find the king to be correct, Gulliver does not, even
though he should "admit that the workings of the parliamentary government is vitiated by
the method of selecting peers ... so that ... the original idea of the institution is 'blurred
and blotted by corruptions" (Firth 10), and so Swift must take him on another voyage to
shed light upon the matter for him.
Before embarking on his third voyage, Gulliver returns home. However, he is
"confounded at the sight of so many pygmies, for such I took them to be," speaking of the
men who rescued him, having for so long been accustomed to viewing people many
times his own size (II.viii.170). They return him home; however, Gulliver's restless spirit
will not allow him to remain long. Again he left home, and this time he ended up in the
realm of Laputa, the floating island. His first impression of the people is not very good;
for although they are highly skilled in mathematics, Gulliver has "not seen a more
clumsy, awkward, and unhandy people, nor so slow and perplexed in their conception of
other subjects" (III.ii.191). By this point in the story, Swifts own views of humanity begin
to show through Gulliver, as Gulliver relates, "But rather I take this quality to spring from
a very common infirmity of human nature" (III.ii.192). Gulliver doesn't remain long on
the island of Laputa. He instead goes down to the surface, and in time makes his way to
Glubbdubdrib, the Island of Sorcerers. The Governor of this island allows Gulliver to
listen to numerous people from history, both the distant and near past. In this place,
Gulliver comes face-to-face with the negative aspects of human nature. Up to this point,
he began to see these qualities; now, he is directly confronted with them as he listens to
the great men of the past. "I was chiefly disgusted with modern history," Gulliver tells,
and "How low an opinion I had of human wisdom and integrity, when I was truly
19

informed" (III.viii.236). Swift, by "drawing our attention repeatedly to this idea of steady
human degeneration and the natural depravity of human nature, Swift seems to suggest
broadly that man must realize that he is degenerate in order to strive for moral
regeneration" (Lee 119). At this point in the story, Gulliver, as well as the reader, are
plainly aware of Swift's understanding of human nature and his negative view of it.
It is during Gulliver's fourth journey that Swift's satire reaches its pinnacle, where
"Swift put his most biting, hard lines, that speak against not only the government, but
human nature itself" (Glicksman). In this journey, Gulliver comes to the land of the
Houyhnhnms, which are creatures that look like horses but have the ability to reason.
Also in this land are the Yahoos, of which Gulliver could only say that "Upon the whole,
I never beheld in all my travels so disagreeable an animal, nor one against which I
naturally conceived so strong an antipathy" (IV.i.263). With great irony, Swift brings
Gulliver into contact with a Yahoo once again. "My horror and astonishment are not to be
described, when I observed in this abdominal animal a perfect human figure" (IV.ii.269270). Indeed, Gulliver finds that the only difference between himself and the Yahoo to be
the Yahoo's lack of cleanliness and clothes; otherwise, a Yahoo would be
indistinguishably human. With this line, Swift's satire achieves its goal, and shows that
the flaws of humanity are overwhelming, and let to continue, result in a total degradation
of the human.
Taken on four voyages, Gulliver's ultimate travels are to a greater understanding
of human nature and its flaws. Matthew Levy argues that as the "visited society" has an
effect on Gulliver, "he no longer can be said to function as a constant or impartial

20

measure" (Levy 2); however, this is the point: that Gulliver's perceptions change, and so
do his narrations, as a result, and through this Swift can convey his satire and social
commentary. After the first voyage, his image of humanity is little changed, likewise for
the 2nd, although after this point, Gulliver's image steadily declines until the fourth
voyage, when he meets the Yahoos. In this way, Swift presents his commentary on the
human condition through Gulliver's Travels.
3.3 Satirical works in Gullivers Travels
Gulliver's Travels was written during an era of change known as the Reformation
Period. The way this book is written suggests some of the political themes from that time
period, including the well-known satire. These themes are displayed throughout
Gulliver's

Travels,

and

even

sometimes

reflect

upon

today's

society.

Many things in the book Gulliver's Travels prove that it was set in the Restoration Period.
Some of the ways you can tell this are: the clothing, the speech, the governments, and of
course, the lack of technology. But these things do not prove that the book was written in
the Restoration Era. Any writer from any time period after the Reformation Period could
write a book similar to Gulliver's Travels, which was set in the Reformation Period. What
sets Swift's masterpiece apart and actually proves it was written in the time when many
things were changing is the use of satire and political ideas relating to the era.
One of the forms of political satire is embodied in the first culture that is met by
Gulliver. The Lilliputians are the embodiment of England of the time period. The
Lilliputians are small people who control Gulliver through means of threats. "...when in
an instant I felt above a hundred arrows discharged into my left hand, which pricked my
like so many needles; and besides they shot another flight into the air, as we do bombs in
21

Europe" (Swift, 24). England was a small country that had Europe (represented by
Gulliver) and many other parts of the world under their control. This example of
comparing the political situation in Europe at the time to the story is further demonstrated
by using Gulliver against the Blefescan nation, much like a European nation would use a
political ally. Another way that Swift uses satire against the society of the time is through
the medium of science. During the Reformation period, people were beginning to
questions superstitions and theories by using science to explain things. The most famous
of these explanations was when Halley discovered that a comet (later named for him)
made a predictable orbit around the sun. During the voyage to Laputa, Gulliver
commends the Laputians on their study of comets, even saying that "...it is much to be
wished that their observations were made public, whereby the theory of comets, which at
present is very lame and defective, might be brought to the same perfection with other
parts of astronomy."(Swift, 190) But then, on his voyage to Lagodo, he emphasizes on
the multiple scientists engaging in trivial experiments such as trying to extract sunlight
from a cucumber. By this passage, Swift means to attach the scientific community's need
to analyze everything, as they did at that time, mainly to prove superstitions (and
religious worries) wrong. All of these examples help to prove that Gulliver's Travels was
written during the time period in which it was set.
This book not only reflects upon the time of the Reformation, but also can be
interpreted to relate to some modern day issues as well. The best example, in my mind, of
this is portrayed in the first section of Gulliver's Travels. There is a direct connection
between the story and the Middle East problems. In the story, Gulliver is attacked by the
Lilliputians' arrows. Then he proceeds to help them against the Blefescan nation for

22

political favor, and continues to remain a very imposing threat to anyone who would
attack the Lilliputians. America is much like Gulliver. We were attacked by Israel in
1967, and during the attack one of our ships and killed American troops
"accidentally"(U.S.S. Liberty), which didn't hurt us overall, and we continued to side
with

Israel,

and

also,

like

Gulliver,

remaining

an

imposing

ally.

Gulliver's Travels had many examples of life in the Reformation Era and even pertained
to an issue in today's world. Many books also reflect upon issues of the time and current
day issues. Shakespeare's works are some good examples; but that is for another essay I
am sure. Gulliver's Travels is one of those books that will remain a classic because it
portrays some universal issues that will continue to have effects on people's lives in the
future.

23

CHAPTER FOUR

4.1 Satire in Gullivers Travels Part I

As we know, the first part of Gullivers Travels is a story about Gullivers journey
to the country of the Lilliputians. From the very beginning we can see some strange
similarity between what is being narrated by the author and what was happening in the
foreign policy of England at that time. At the moment when Swift was writing Gullivers
Travels England was very active in respect of colonization of other countries. Despite its
small size, it was very powerful and strong because of its formidable fleet. This allowed
England to get to know new places, people, ways of living, even some very exotic ones
and totally different to their own culture, for example, the Americas. So, one of the
possible interpretations of Gullivers arrival at Lilliputians land is the parallel between
him and other Englishmen who were going to unknown places and were meeting other
nations that were shockingly dissimilar to them.

24

However, this difference that Swift shows between Gulliver and the Lilliputians
the difference in size has its important consequences. We can see that Gulliver is much
stronger than the nation where he has become a prisoner. He has power to do whatever he
wants in this new land he has discovered by chance (it is important to notice that the
power is not only physical but it is also based on the technological achievement of
Gullivers culture). But despite this fact, Gulliver seems to be afraid of the Lilliputians
arrows and he condescends to be held prisoner. Probably here Swift makes an allusion to
the policy of England in relation to the countries it was colonizing: though it is more
powerful, it condescends not to destroy their native identity.
Besides this, there are some resemblances that concern places that Gulliver
describes at arriving to Lilliput. Thus the temple polluted some years ago by an
unnatural murder may remind us of the Banqueting-House at White-Hall where King
Charles I was beheaded. However many other critics argue that there has been no hint in
the narrative that features of the Lilliputian landscape should be taken as allusions to
contemporary England. From the earliest commentaries it has been suggested that this
refers to Westminster Hall in which Charles I had been condemned to death, but the real
explanation may be, John Chalker sensibly notes, that Swift had to justify the existence
of an empty building large enough to contain Gulliver.
In the following chapters of Part I Gulliver describes the political structure and
customs of Lilliput. It is easy to notice satire on British government in many cases. For
example, the fact that the officials are chosen by their skill at rope-dancing seems to be
ridiculous. In order to get a powerful position in society people are ready to literally jump

25

through hoops. Obviously enough, there is an insinuation here at the British system of
political appointments and at the fact that it is more important to be adroit than wellqualified to obtain a position in the government.
It is worth noticing, however, that Gulliver never mentions that he finds some
Lilliputians traditions ridiculous. Nor does he point out the similarities between what he
sees and what happens in England. Swift leaves the reader to perceive the satire and to
interpret it himself.
In further chapters the parallel drawn between the Lilliputians and the British
becomes even more obvious. Lilliput and Blefuscu represent England and France. The
violent conflict between Big-Endians and Little-Endians stands for the centuries of
warfare between Catholics and Protestants. As far as the Tramecksan and the Slamecksan
are concerned, there is no difficulty to recognize the Whigs and Tories of English politics.
Gulliver reports Reldresals description of Lilliputian party politics:
You are to understand, that for above seventy Moons past, there have been two struggling
Parties in this Empire, under the Names of Tramecksan, and Slamecksan, from the high
and low Heels on their Shoes, by which they distinguish themselves.
It is all edged indeed, that the High Heels are most agreeable to our ancient
Constitution: But however this be, his Majesty hath determined to make use of only low
Heels in the Administration of the Government, and all Offices in the Gift of the Crown;
as you cannot but observe; and particularly, that his Majestys Imperial Heels are lower at
least by a Drurr than any of his CourtWe compute the Tramecksan, or High-Heels, to

26

exceed us in Number; but the Power is wholly on our Side. We apprehend his Imperial
Highness, the Heir to the Crown, to have some Tendency towards the High-Heels; at least
we can plainly discover one of his Heels higher than the other (1, p.39-40. From now
on I will use this edition as a reference for the quotations).
In this passage there are not only clear pointers alerting us to a possible parallel
between Lilliputian politics and British politics, there are also good reasons why Swift
should wish to allude to the state of the nation this way. In the early eighteenth century,
there were indeed two parties in the nation. Alternative names for Tories and Whigs
were the High Church and the Low Church parties. The preservation of the constitution in
Church and State was a fundamental tenet of Tory dogma, yet the government of George
I was dominated by Whigs. Despite being nominal head of the Church of England,
George was not an Anglican, and therefore most decidedly not a High Churchman. The
Tories were generally thought to comprise the majority of Englishmen. And finally the
Prince of Wales, the future George II, was thought in 1726 to favor the Tories to a certain
extent. (2, p.344).
We see that Swift in his book satirically describes the real situation in Europe, and
in England in particular, and many times this description consists of a number of useless
and shallow conflicts. All the confrontation between High-Heels and Low-Heels, Big and
Little Endians, between Lilliput and Blefuscu are meaningless in their essence. But does
this mean that the questions of religion, national identity, politics were of no importance
to the author? In all times they have been significant for everyone and they continue to be
such nowadays. Did Swift reject their importance? The text does not say much about it,

27

but the story about Big and Little Endians antipathy may shed some light on the authors
idea. As we know, their conflict centres around the way it is legitimate to crack an egg.
However, this reason seems to be ridiculous because there cannot be right or wrong form
of breaking an eggshell. Everyone does it as he pleases. So, probably, what Swift was
insinuating in this allegory was that there cannot be right or wrong way of worshipping
God. Big Endians and Little Endians have the same religious text, but they disagree on
interpretation of one passage which says that all true believers must break eggs at the
convenient end. Obviously enough, this phrase can be understood in two different ways,
and it is not possible to prove that one is correct and the other not. Similarly, one
religious text Christian Bible can be interpreted differently, and no one can be sure
that his comprehension of it is the right one, simply because there is no, and never will
be, proof of it. That is why it is useless and meaningless to argue about something that is
so relative and cannot have any conclusive answer.
And what about the Emperor of Lilliput? Are there any similarities between him
and the king of England, George I? The Emperor of Lilliput is called by Swift a
renowned Patron of Learning (p.21) and an excellent Horseman, strong and
masculine, with an Austrian Lip, and arched Nose, his Complexion olive (p.24). He is
twenty-eight Years and three Quarters old, of which he had reigned about seven, in great
Felicity, and generally victorious (p.25). Gulliver thinks him to be a most
magnanimous Prince (p.30).
Swift, as we know, was not in the habit of praising the king, and this does not
immediately strike us as a description of George I, who was 66 when Gullivers

28

Travels appeared. No juggling with Swifts figures can make the Emperor of Lilliputs
age correspond meaningfully with George Is. It is of course possible to resort to the old
device of the political satirist, irony. As Swift advised in his Directions for a Birthday
Song:
Thus your Encomiums, to be strong,
Must be applyd directly wrong:
A Tyrant for his Mercy praise,
And crown a Royal Dunce with Bays:
A squinting Monkey load with charms;
And paint a Coward fierce in arms.
Is he to Avarice inclind?
Extol him for his generous mind
So, it seems that the Emperor was described as almost the exact antithesis of George I.
He is not meant to portray the King of England, nor is he drawn from him. However
Swift forces us to compare the two. There is no need for the author to present a consistent
allegory to score his political point. In this case his method is one of analogy: reasoning
from parallel cases.

29

Another interesting episode in Part I is a moment when there is fire in the

empresss rooms, and in order to prevent a disaster Gulliver extinguishes the fire by
urinating on the palace in flames. Despite the fact that this action was considered a crime
in Lilliput, Gulliver was pardoned.
However the empress did not want to return to her rescued apartments. When we
start thinking about this humorous episode the first thing that comes to mind is that this
may be a disguised way to show Swifts real attitude towards the politics and royalty. He
expresses his respect to them and indicates their insignificance for him. Besides, this
passage can be interpreted as an allusion to certain events in Swifts own life: for
example, if we take the empress of Lilliput for Queen Anne of England and Gullivers
public urination for his work A Tale of a Tub, this idea may make sense. A Tale of a
Tub (published in 1704) is one of the most famous satires written by Swift where he
ridicules religion, politics, literature, medicine. At the time it was written, politics and
religion were still linked very closely in England, and the religious and political aspects
of the satire can often hardly be separated. This work made Swift notorious, and was
widely misunderstood, especially by Queen Anne who took it as profanity. The
Lilliputian empresss disgust at Gullivers urination is analogous to Queen Annes
criticism of Swifts work and her attempts to limit his prospects in the Church of
England.
Close to the end of Part I Swift becomes more serious and his satire changes into
something positive: the author describes certain customs in Lilliput that he himself
sympathizes with. For example, treating fraud as a worse crime than theft and making

30

false testimony a capital crime seem to be reasonable as the whole society depends on
trust. Dishonesty and corruption can be extremely damaging to the country. Though in the
beginning this unusual Lilliputian tradition may look like another instance of Swifts
irony, from the favourable way that he describes it we can infer that, actually, he approves
of it.
Other examples of some strange but sensible customs are those that are connected
with the contribution to the good of the nation. Here, as in the case of the description of
the Emperor of Lilliput, we may notice the opposition between the way things are in
Britain and in Lilliput. This is a contrast between individualistic and communal form of
living. Apparently, Swift is in favour of the latter. So, again, despite being funny and
exaggerated at first sight, these traditions contain some grain of reasonableness if we
think about them: anyone who treats his benefactor badly must be a public enemy, that is
why ingratitude is punished by death; children must be raised by the whole community
because parents think only about their own interests when bringing up babies, so the best
citizens can be reared only in public nurseries; there are no beggars at all, since the poor
are well looked after.
However, in the use of all these customs it is easy to notice the tendency of each
society to assume that these customs are natural. The Lilliputians do not question their
cultural norms because they have no reason to believe that there is any other way to
behave and conduct affairs. When alternatives are proposed, as in the case of the eggbreaking controversy, the discussion ends in violent conflict. The same may be true to
every country, England as well. Swift here may be speaking ironically of British self-

31

assurance and feeling of prepotency, because things can be arranged differently (and not
worse than in England) and the Lilliputian society is a possible example of it.
4.2 Satire in Gullivers Travels Part II
In the second part of the book which deals with the Brobdingnag, we find quite
interesting and mirthful descriptions, which increase the comic episodes and the corrosive
satire carries far more weight than in part-I of the book. Because in this part, the comic
effect is achieved, where people were like giants about sixty feet height, which is Lilliput
in reverse. Everything was humiliating for Gulliver in this land. He was put in charge of a
nine year old girl who grew very fond of him. The girl was very good-natured. Her height
was forty feet and she was considered to be undersized for her age. Gulliver, who is no
bigger than a mouse in this land becomes famous throughout the country. In this way
Gulliver is made a comic butt in several other episodes. The corrosive effect is achieved
when the king of Brobdingnag discusses the mankind with Gulliver. The King describes
the bulk of mankind as the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that Nature has
ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth. This is, without any doubt is a
corrosive criticism, which the king of Brobdingnag has made against the mankind. It is
definitely not comic. Gulliver positively expresses his great surprise and embarrassment,
when he listens all this against his beloved country so badly described. Even listening to
these disgraceful remarks, Gulliver still suggests that the king may be given great
allowance because he lives a scheduled life from the rest of the world. This comment
further worsens the status of mankind. Swift does not stop with this much taunt and
lashes another attack when Gulliver divulges the secret of gunpowder to the king who is

32

completely horrified with its fatal results. He forbids Gullivers not to mention it again.
Gulliver passes his most astonishing remarks that the king possesses short views and
narrow principles.
It is thus clear that Part I, in which all the above episodes occur, is largely a
satirical representation of the English political and religious life of the time. In Part II, the
satire becomes general. Here, Gulliver first gives us his reaction to the coarseness and
ugliness of the human body. In Part II we meet the people of Brobdingnag who are giants
in stature and who thus present a glaring contrast to the pigmies of Lilliput. If, in the
description of the Lilliputians, Swift was looking at mankind through the wrong end of a
telescope, in his account of the Brobdingnagians he is looking at mankind through a
magnifying glass. Not only are the men and women here huge in size, but the animals
like cats, rats, and monkeys, and insects like bees and wasps are also of enormous sizes.
We are particularly repelled by the description of the huge, monstrous breasts of a woman
which are revealed when she begins to suckle her child. We also get a brief satire on the
great scholars of this new country when they offer their different explanations to
their King about Gullivers diminutive height as compared with the people of this
country. The philosophers, however, agree about one point: that Gulliver could not have
been produced according to the regular laws of nature, and that he is a freak product.

When Gulliver has given to the King an account of the life in his own country, of
the trade, the wars, the conflicts in religion, the political parties, the King has a hearty
laugh and asks Gulliver whether the latter is a Whig or a Tory. Then, turning to one of his
ministers, the King observes how contemptible a thing is human grandeur which could be

33

mimicked by such diminutive insects as Gulliver. In other words, the King mocks at the
human race of which Gulliver is a representative, a race which, as compared to the people
of Brobdingnag, consists of insects. Swift is here ridiculing human pride and pretension.
Human beings who have such lofty ideas about themselves are no better than insects in
the eyes of the King of Brobdingnag.
The description of the crowd of beggars whom Gulliver happens to see in the
metropolis of this country is intended as a satire on the beggars who actually existed in
the city of Dublin. The sight is, indeed, horrible and disgusting. Among the beggars is a
woman with a cancer in her breast; there is a man with a huge tumour in his neck; another
beggar has wooden legs, each about twenty feet high. But the most hateful sight is that of
the lice crawling on their clothes. This description reinforces Swifts view of the ugliness
and foulness of the human body.
The bitterest satire in this part of the book comes when the King comments on
Gullivers account of the English parliament, the English courts of justice, and other
institutions in England. The Kings view is that the history of Gullivers country seems to
him to be only a series of conspiracies, rebellions, murders, massacres, revolutions,
banishments, etc. According to the King, all these are a result of hypocrisy, perfidy,
cruelty, rage, madness, hatred, envy, lust, malice, and ambition. The King concludes his
comment by expressing the view that the bulk of the people of Gullivers country are the
most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the
surface of the earth. These comments of the King almost sum up Swifts own cynical
views about mankind in general.

34

But the satire in Part II does not end here. We have some more of it when the
King reacts with scorn and disgust to Gullivers account of the destruction which can be
caused by means of gunpowder. The Kings reaction is also significant when Gulliver
informs him that in his country hundreds of books are written on the art of government.
According to the King, only common sense, reason, and justice, and not books, are
needed to run a government.

4.3 Satire in Gullivers Travels Part III

When we turn over the pages of the book to its third part we find Gulliver in
another strange country called Laputa. This is the funniest part of the book, especially
when we come across flappers or servant who carries a blown bladder in their hands
fastened to a short stick. It is done basically to attract the attention of their master who are
intensely busy in their inventions and mathematical calculations. They can neither speak
nor listen to others unless they are aroused by these flappers. This is all very comic and
amusing. On the dinner table, there are different dishes, in which the mutton is cut into an
equilateral triangle, pudding in geometrical shapes. What to speak of these descriptions,
we are amused when the beauty of a woman is describe in geometrical terms such as
circles and parallel grams. We are further surprised when their women indulge in extramarital activities with the strangers in the presence of their husbands because they are so
busy that they do not find time to make love to their wives. It is a social hit and at the
same time a more corrosive than comic satire. We are further amused when we read about
various projects being experimented at the academy in Lagado where research work is

35

carried out how to extract sunbeams out of cucumber and silk out of cobwebs. Similarly,
how to build houses from the roof downwards. This is a satire on the kind of work which
the Royal Society in England was engaged in extremely stupid as well as useless projects
in those days. Another corrosive satire is made by Swift when he tells us how a visitor
wanting to meet the king had to creep on the floor and lick it when approaching the King.
All this, in short is a satire on the human desire for immorality. It is passively a bitter
satire.
The satire in Part III is not so bitter as in the closing chapters of Part II. The satire
in Part III is, indeed, light-hearted. Here Swift amuses us by making fun of the people
whose sole interests are music and geometry and who do not even have the time to make
love to their wives. We are also greatly amused by the useless experiments and researches
which are going on at the Academy of Projectors in Lagado. The Projectors here are busy
finding methods to extract sunbeams out of cucumbers, to convert human excrement into
its original food, to build houses from the roof downwards to the foundation, to obtain
silk from cobwebs, and to produce books on various subjects by the use of a machine
without having to exert ones brain. All this was intended as a satire on the kind of work
the Royal Society in England was doing in those days. Swift here ridicules scientists,
academics, planners, intellectuals, in fact all people who proceed according to theory and
are useless when it comes to actual practice.
In the account of the life in Laputa, Swift also satirizes the English system of
administration, especially with regard to the Ireland of the time. The English government
ruled Ireland from a long distance, and was thus not in direct touch with its Irish subjects
even though some of the English politicians held property in Ireland. Swift also here

36

gives us an allegorical account of the successful resistance of Ireland to William Woods

half-pence. There is, furthermore, an oblique reference to the Act of Settlement which
had been passed in 170 I. The new agricultural methods in vogue in England at the
beginning of the eighteenth century are also attacked by Swift.
There are two other noteworthy targets of satire in Part III. Swift satirizes
historians and literary critics through Gullivers interviews with the ghosts of the famous
dead. The point of the satire here is that historians often distort facts and even
manufacture facts, and that literary critics often misinterpret great authors like Homer and
Aristotle. In the portrayal of the Struldbrugs, Swift satirizes the human longing for
immortality. The immortal persons have grown so old, feeble, and infirm that they want
to die but death does not come to them.
To remind people about the fundamental moral duties to society and fellow
beings, Jonathan Swift has brought science in Book- III of Gullivers Travels. In
this book Swift satirizes the scientists science and the intellectuals. It does not mean that
he was against scientific experiments. Many of Swifts critics misunderstand when he
ridicules scientist and science. He was adequately aware of the values of pure science. He
has attacked science for a moral purpose. If we read, analyse and justify the third book of
Gullivers Travels, we will be able to understand the fact.
Gulliver makes his third voyage to a flying land called Laputa which is a satire on
science. It is governed by scientific rules rather than moral ones. As it is a flying land, it
shows how far it is from the concrete values and reality. Thus Swift is not satirizing
reason but the wrong use of reason. This is an island inhabited by men who are able to
put their island into a progressive nation as they please. The Laputans pride in their

37

scientific progress is quite vain since they are totally detached from common humanity,
normal standard of life and reality.
The science that perverts man from his normal self and moral self is not wanted
by Swift. The people of Laputa are very strange as regarding their shapes are faces. Their
hands are all reclined whether to the right or the left. One of their eyes turns inward and
the other directly up to the zenith. The first one signifies their engrossment in their won
theories and abstract speculation. The latter shows their absorption in the stars and space.
Their

chief

preoccupations

are science, mathematics, astronomy and music.

These

intellectual pursuits make their outlook narrow and insensible. These pursuits engross
even their practical life so much that they love their aesthetic sense. They express
everything in terms of rhombus, circle and parallelograms so on. They are so unmindful
and callous to the realities of life that their wives leave them to seek physical
gratification. In this regard we can remember the wife of the prime minister who lives
with a footman.
Next we find Gulliver in Lagado, the capital city of Balinbarbi. He finds no
difference between Laputa and Lagado. The people of Lagado are also run by the system
of science. Here he visits the Academy of Projectors where he finds a man who has
been engaged in a project for eight years for extracting sun beam out of cucumbers and
finds another man who has been employed for a long time to restore human excrement to
its original food and other meaningless projects. But Gulliver is quite surprised that
although the people are starving, the lands are left uncultivated. By mentioning the
absurd experiments, Swift has created an atmosphere of useless activities, aimless

38

researches, perverted causes and distorted reason.Here swift is pointing out the crimes
committed against humanity. The moral teaching of Swift is that intellectual pursuit is not
governed by self-control and humanitarian zeal for public care. The scientist will easily
forget his moral responsibility. They will think for thinking sake, not for human sake.
They will work only to satisfy their vanity causing a huge loss of money, energy and
time. These kinds of activities are sure to be destructive and damaging to human
potentialities.
Swift is very much realistic when we see that the progress of science ushers in a
moral decadence. With the advancement of science the age of Swift began to lose her
ground on moral strength. Swift portrays this moral decadence with the example of the
immoral life of the Laputan women.
Swift also satirized the astronomical researches of his time without becoming
aware of the future success of the astronomers in exploring different stars and planets and
ascending the moon.
Moreover, he ridiculed those scientists who pretended to be scientists but they are
actually vain, dull and non-creative. It is clear that Swifts satire on science is perfectly
realistic. He feels that science deserves moral contempt for its neglect of social and moral
duties. Therefore, he condemns it by witty manipulation of the scientists and their
experiments which amuse us. He perfectly exposes the futility of the scientific activities
which are far from reality of life.

39

4.4 Satire in Gullivers Travels Part IV

Part IV of Gullivers Travels contains some of the most corrosive and offensive
satire on mankind. In this part the Yahoos are intended to represent human beings. The
very initial description of the Yahoos given to us by Gulliver is repellent. Gulliver
describes them as abominable, and he is both astonished and horrified on seeing the
physical resemblance between them and persons of his own race. By contrast with the
Yahoos, the Houyhnhnms are noble and benevolent animals who are governed by reason
and who lead an orderly life. It is, indeed, a bitter criticism of the human race to represent
the Houyhnhnms (who are horses) as being superior mentally. and morally to the Yahoos
(who represent human beings). The Yahoos are brutal, unteachable, and mischievous. The
Houyhnhnms, on the contrary, are morally so good that there is no word in their language
for lying or falsehood.
The satire deepens when Gulliver gives to the master Houyhnhnm an account of
the events and happenings in his own country and in other European countries. Gulliver
tells his host that war in European countries was due sometimes to the ambition of kings
and sometimes to the corruption of ministers. Gulliver speaks of the numerous deadly
weapons which the European nations employ for destruction purposes. Gulliver then tells
his host about the law-suits that are fought in English courts, and he speaks disparagingly
about lawyers and judges. The whole of this account by Gulliver is an exposure of the
evils of war and the wickedness of lawyers and judges. Gulliver also says that many

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people in his country ruin themselves by drinking, gambling, and debauchery; and that
many are guilty of such crimes as murder, theft, robbery, forgery, rape, and sodomy.
The account which Gulliver gives of the political life in his country is really a
bitter criticism of the evils that prevail not only in England but in all countries of the
world. The prime minister, according to Gulliver, is a person wholly free from joy and
grief, love and hatred, pity and anger; and he is a person with a violent desire for wealth,
power, and titles, and with no inclination ever to tell the truth about any matter. The vast
numbers of the people of his country, Gulliver says, live by begging, robbing, stealing,
cheating, pimping, forging, whoring, and so on. Indeed, this is not just satire but
denunciation and invective.
The master Houyhnhnm tells Gulliver of the habits and the way of life of the
Yahoos. He speaks of the Yahoos love of shining stones, their gluttony, and their
weakness for liquor. The master also speaks of the lascivious behaviour of the female
Yahoos. This criticism of the Yahoos is also intended as a criticism of the human race.
By contrast, the Houyhnhnms are excellent beings whose grand principle is to cultivate
reason and be wholly governed by it. The Houyhnhnms hold periodical meetings at
which the difficulties of various sections of the population are discussed and solved. The
Houyhnhnms regulate their population and do not indulge in sexual intercourse merely
for pleasure. Swifts purpose here is to attribute to horses certain qualities which would
normally be expected in human beings but which are actually lacking in human beings.
The main quality is reason or the rational quality which human beings, according to
Swift, do not value enough.

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Gullivers reaction to what he has seen in the land of the Houyhnhnms fills him
with so much admiration for them and with so much hatred and disgust for the human
race that he has no desire even to return to his family. This reaction shows that Gulliver
has become a complete cynic and misanthrope, thereby further emphasizing the follies
and faults from which the human race suffers and on which Swift wanted to focus our
attention. Gulliver concludes his account with a severe condemnation of human pride, so
that pride may be regarded as yet another target of Swifts satire in this book.
Swift shows himself as a great satirist in this book by giving us comic satire and
corrosive satire, by his successful exposure, sometimes witty and sometimes indignant, of
human irrationality, by his clever use of irony, and by other devices to make us acutely
conscious of the defects of mankind. If he omits the good side of mankind, it is because a
satirist cannot afford to weaken the effect of his attacks by admitting the attractive
features of his target or his victims. Still, it is possible to allege that Swifts vision of
mankind is too dark and pessimistic and that his counsel is the counsel of despair. Swifts
scornful and incisive satire on humanity is, indeed, a masterpiece even though it has a
depressing and disheartening effect on us.

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CHAPTER FIVE
Conclusion
This book not only reflects upon the time of the Reformation, but also can be
interpreted to relate to some modern day issues as well. The best example, in my mind, of
this is portrayed in the first section of Gulliver's Travels. There is a direct connection
between the story and the Middle East problems. In the story, Gulliver is attacked by the
Lilliputians' arrows. Then he proceeds to help them against the Blefescan nation for
political favor, and continues to remain a very imposing threat to anyone who would
attack the Lilliputians. America is much like Gulliver. We were attacked by Israel in
1967, and during the attack one of our ships and killed American troops
"accidentally"(U.S.S. Liberty), which didn't hurt us overall, and we continued to side
with

Israel,

and

also,

like

Gulliver,

remaining

an

imposing

ally.

Gulliver's Travels had many examples of life in the Reformation Era and even pertained
to an issue in today's world. Many books also reflect upon issues of the time and current
day issues. Shakespeare's works are some good examples; but that is for another essay I
am sure. Gulliver's Travels is one of those books that will remain a classic because it
portrays some universal issues that will continue to have effects on people's lives in the
future.

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Works Cited
Bullitt, John M. Jonathan Swift and the Anatomy of Satire. Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1966.
Davis, Herbert. Jonathan Swift: Essays on His Satires and Other Studies. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1964.
Dobree, Bonamy. English Literature in the Early Eighteenth Century. Oxford, Great
Britain: Oxford University Press, 1959.
Downie, J. A. Jonathan Swift: Political Writer. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul,
1984.
Eddy, William A. Gulliver's Travels: A Critical Study. New York: Russell & Russell Inc.,
1963.
Ewald, William Bragg. The Masks of Jonathan Swift. Oxford, Great Britain: Basil
Blackwell, 1954.

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Firth, C.H. The Political Significance of Gulliver's Travels. London: Oxford University
Press, 1919.
Glicksman, David. Gulliver's Travels. Internet document.
Lee, Jae Num. Swift and Scatological Satire. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico
Press, 1971.
Levy, Matthew. Measurement, Irony, and the Grotestque in Gulliver's Travels. Internet
document. http://www.uta.edu/english/dab/baud/fatal/malone.html. 1995.
Lock, F. P. The Politics of Gulliver's Travels. Oxford, Great Britain: Oxford University
Press, 1980.
Murry, J. Middleton. Swift. London: F. Mildner & Sons, 1970.
Quintana, Ricardo. The Mind and Art of Jonathan Swift. Gloucester, Mass: Peter Smith,
1965.
Reilly, Patrick. The Displaced Person. Modern Critical Interpretations: Gulliver's
Travels. New York: Yale University Press, 1986.
Rodino, Richard H. The Study of Gulliver's Travels, Past and Present." Critical
Approaches to Teaching Swift. New York: AMS Press, 1992.
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Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver's Travels. Mahwah, NJ: Watermill Press, 1983.

Tuveson, Ernest. (Ed.) Swift: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, New
Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1964.
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