Gulliver's Travels - "Johnathan Swift as a “Misanthrope” in Gulliver’s Travels" by Sanjeedeep Mishra .

 

When Gulliver gives brief description of the political and legal institutions of England to Brobdingnagian King, the King dismissively concludes "the bulk of your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth." In Chapter Four of Gulliver’s Travels, Swift described Yahoos, human like creatures, as "the most filthy, noisome, and deformed animals which nature ever produced . . . " and they are "restive and indocible, mischievous and malicious Gulliver, when he is told he must leave Houyhnhnmland, exclaims “that the certain prospect of an unnatural death was the least of my evils, for…how could I think with temper of passing my days among Yahoos”. At the same time, The Houyhnhnms, on the other hand, are “Perfection of the nature” “endued with a proportionable degree of reason” and “orderly and rational, acute and judicious”. They are presented as utopian creatures. However, this is not the case.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth century, the utopian mode was chiefly used to explore the question of how to live a good life with a view of offering its reader the prospect of the ideal society. This was not the case with Gulliver, who only became miserable, absurd and pathetic after returning from the Houyhnhnmland. He behaved unreasonably with Captain Don Pedro who was nothing but kind and generous to him, who offered his best line of suits, a cabin, food, later money to return to his home and reunite with his family. Gulliver even abhorred the presence of his wife and children in the same room, his wife who has been “faithfully” waiting for his return.

The fourth part of Gulliver’s Travel has been directed against the extension of the political and social philosophy of John Locke, as implemented by the Whigs. Locke’s “Two Treatise of Government”(1690) precludes any consideration of feelings and emotions as factors in determining the conduct of people concerned. Whigs, who have adopted these new principles, may well be represented by Swift’s Houyhnhnms. But, Houyhnhnms were far from being perfect. It should not be ignored that apart from making Yahoos as their slaves, they have class system within their own race, that is of Mater-class and Servant-Class. They justified slavery in their social order. The inferior horses are allowed to breed more because masters need more servants. Little personal freedom or rights were given, for example, servant class horses were given only two hours to graze the grasses as they might be needed by their masters. These horses who live in gentle accord, free from all those instincts and institutions, have created inequality among them, have created their own aristocracy and their own slaves.

They are also not free from fear and doubt do exist among their species. The decision of the assembly, to send Gulliver back to his country, is the result of fear and ignorance. They failed to recognize that Gulliver does not possess the predatory instincts of the Yahoos, that he is tame and rational. Assembly failed to evaluate his testimony correctly and all this were stressed by Gulliver’s master, who must have been believed since he cannot “say the thing which not”. Houyhnhnm’s moral superiority creates the striking difference between them and Yahoos, making them even more miserable than explained. Why, then, point lacunas in their character ? Why introduce a character as kind and generous as Don Pedro, if misanthropy was in his mind ? Why make his wife wait faithfully when she had every reason to believe Gulliver was dead?

The Genius of Swift lies in his art of detailing, a reader of his any work would agree. If he would have been misanthropic, he would have described it acutely. Introducing characters like Don Pedro and his faithful wife would work against his misanthropic ideals, especially when his abhorrence for Yahoos were at climax, after he was ousted from the Houyhnhnmland. The Satirist, here, clearly sees the condition of his hero and the sources of his trouble. Throughout his journey he has met with disillusion and disappointment. He has been subjected to fear and physical privation. He has seen the inhumanity and injustice of man not only perpetrated against his fellows but most violently against himself. Without any recrimination or serious complaint he has endured everything. The barbarity and cruelty of human life and the degenerate animality of man have destroyed him.

Swift allowed Gulliver to become absurd. Gulliver represents his horror of what a poor unaccommodated man is if he does not use his own reason. The purpose of writing part four has been to expose Gulliver, his pride, and to show how damaging the life of reason can be for ordinary mortals. Swift intended to satirize Locke’s theory of Primary Qualities, where not the rationality or thinking but shape and size is the basis of categorization of animals. Gulliver who found his perfect society at the last, could not integrate among them for a basic fact that he was not of the same size and shape. Gulliver and Houyhnhnms, both were well reasoned. After spending some time in the island and observing the Yahoos, he started acting like a horse and developed a deep hatred for Yahoos. When everyone came to know that Gulliver’s master had a “Perfect-Yahoo “, as his master used to call him, they were still not convinced and Gulliver was still deemed to be a threat by them and was asked to leave Houyhnhnmland.

Similarly, Swift’s “A Tale of a Tub”, considered as his best allegory by some scholars, even by Swift himself, was highly misunderstood. Queen Anne herself mistook its purpose to be profanity and disbarred him from preferment to the Church Of England. Swift was a priest in church of England for more than 50 years, more than half of his life. He took his job as pastor more seriously than anything. He visited temple before anyone else, reformed worship in his cathedral and even wrote to his friends some prayers which were in traditional religious expression. He was a devout Anglican who fought against the deistic philosophy, a view where everything is based on reason including the presence of God. He even donated more than half of his wealth to charity for creating an asylum for those who are mentally challenged. Nevertheless, he had suffered so many accusations of impiety from his mis- interpreters

His satires are brutal, his criticism of mankind is harsh and his words are ruthless , but that is the only way for his satire to come out as strong attack, seeking for reformation.

 

 

CITATIONS-

Zimansky, Curt A. “Gulliver, Yahoos, and Critics.” College English, vol. 27, no. 1, National Council of Teachers of English, 1965, pp. 45–49, https://doi.org/10.2307/373709.

DIRCKS, RICHARD J. “Gulliver’s Tragic Rationalism.” Criticism, vol. 2, no. 2, Wayne State University Press, 1960, pp. 134–49, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23090917.

Ehrenpreis, Irvin. “The Origins of Gulliver’s Travels.” PMLA, vol. 72, no. 5, Modern Language Association, 1957, pp. 880–99, https://doi.org/10.2307/460368.