FREE ESSAY ON SATIRE OF GULLIVER'S TRAVELS

SATIRE OF GULLIVER'S TRAVELS

In Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift makes a satirical attack on humanity. In the final
book, Swift takes a stab at humanity by simultaneously criticizing physiological, mental,
and spiritual aspects of humans. Literary critics Ronald Knowles and Irvin Ehrenpreis
both agree that the last book focused entirely on satirizing humanity. The Yahoo brutes
that inhabit Houyhnhnm Land are a despicable species that have the physical appearance of
humans. Though their behavior seems to be decadent and irrational, Swift shows that most
of their behavior have parallels in the life of civilized humans. The Houyhnhnms seem to
embody virtue and all the perfections that humans seek, but there are inconsistencies in
their behavior that are reflective human faults. The Houyhnhnms do not look human in
appearance, so Swift uses them to reveal hypocrisies of human thought. Throughout the
book, Swift makes attacks on the religious perception of man; He also expresses
disagreement with deist ideology. Ehrenpreis and Knowles have very similar opinions
concerning Book IV of Gulliver's Travels, but Knowles expresses a more concrete
interpretation of the satire.
According to Ehrenpreis, Swift lived in John Locke's time, and takes many ideas of
humanity from him. Locke said that humans tend to classify species as man by their
physical appearance. If there was a man without reason, he would be a dull irrational
man, and if there was an animal could express reason, they would be an intelligent and
rational animal. To Ehrenpreis, the Yahoos embody an ironical reflection upon the fact
that the bulk of unthinking men do in practice treat external shape as a sounder guide to
humanity than reasonable conduct. Besides being more primitive than humans, Yahoos behave
and function like civilized humans. Knowles points out that Yahoos fight with other
groups and each other without apparent reason. Their avarice for certain shiny stones of
no practical use lead to more fighting and theft. In more contemporary or civilized
societies, those shiny stones can be paralleled to material possessions such as jewelry.
Knowles observes that like humans, Yahoos suck the juice from a particular root that
produces the same affect as alcohol. Similar to many humans, the Yahoos consumed the
juices without temperance. Ehrenpreis thinks that Swift uses the Yahoos to as an example
of Locke's suggestion that humans are more easily identified by vice than virtue.
The Houyhnhnms seem to be reasonable, rational characters. They also seem to embody good
virtues that humans strive to achieve. Ehrenpreis and Knowles both find inconsistencies
in the depiction of Houyhnhnms. Ehrenpreis believes that the paradoxes in the writing are
supposed to reflect paradoxes of human thought. When Gulliver first meets the inhabitants
of Houyhnhnm Land, they are curious about the covering on his body. The Houyhnhnms are
surprised when they first see him take off his hat; It is a reasonable and natural
reaction since the Houyhnhnms do not wear clothing. Ehrenpreis argues that repeated
occurrences show that Houyhnhnm thought revolves around being a horse. He thinks that is
reflective of the anthropocentricity of humans. An example of the anthropocentricity of
humans is the attempt to communicate with babies. A newborn does not know any human
languages, but adults often assume that the baby is trying to talk to them when they make
meaningless noises. Knowles thinks that the Houyhnhnms are not ideal characters, but
reflections of humans. If the whinny, neighing like sounds are eliminated from Houyhnhnm,
the word Hounum is a jumbled pronunciation of human. According to Knowles, the Houyhnhnm
society implies that their beliefs ore founded on self-deception. The limits of my
language mean the limits of my world. The Houyhnhnm language did not have negative words
like war, deceit, and evil. By the quote above, Ludwig Wittgenstein suggests that
Houyhnhnms could not have a true sense of good if they did not know what evil was. The
Houyhnhnms also embody a sense of arrogance and bias that exists in humans. Their only
sense of evil is in terms of the Yahoos. That is reflective of some governing
institutions that blame others as the source of corruption and evil. Historically, groups
like gypsies, Armenians, and Jews have fallen under that category of scapegoats. When the
Houyhnhnms observe Gulliver, they immediately classify him as a Yahoo. By doing so, they
do not act as rational creatures because they ignore the great number of differences and
only observe superficial similarities. The idea of not being able to understand good
without understanding evil can be explained in religious terms as well.
Throughout Book IV, there are many links to Christian ideas. Ehrenpreis thinks that
Swift's writing plays off a debate between Locke and Stillingfleet over the definition of
man. Stillingfleet uses a Trinitarian argument that defines man as a creature that enjoys
a special 'subsistence'. This definition is not practical because the special subsistence
is not defined. Locke defines it as that faculty, whereby man is supposed to be
distinguished from beasts, and wherein it is evident he much surpasses them. It seems
that Swift does not support either argument, because the physical subsistence of man is
embodied in irrational creatures, while the intellectual subsistence is embodied in a
rational beast. Knowles shows that by giving a beast reason, Swift can point out the
fallibility of Deist thought. Anthony Collins wrote, whosoever live by reason are
Christians. Since the Houyhnhnms live by reason, then it can be implied that they are
Christians. The ending of Book IV is another attack on Deist thought. The Deists thought
that every Man is bound to follow the Rules and Directions of that Measure of Reason
which God hath given him... It is the mistake of wise and good men that they expect more
Reason and Virtue from human nature, than taking it in the bulk, it is in any sort
capable of. When Gulliver returned to England, he measures humans by Houyhnhnm standards
of reason and virtue, and becomes disappointed because he expects Yahoo brutalism.
Ehrenpreis has a different interpretation of the ending. He believes that the kind of
influence the Houyhnhnm's ideal virtues had on Gulliver is similar to the strict and
perfect obedience to Christian ideals as would have been done in eighteenth century
society. So Swift is saying, if men did practice Christianity in such a manner, they
would destroy civilization as they knew it, in the same way Gulliver destroyed his
family.
Jonathan Swift uses a lot of satire in writing Gulliver's Travels. Some of the satire is
blunt and apparent. The Yahoos, with their exact likeness to humans in form, conveyed the
degenerative nature of humans without civilization. At the same time, their presence also
brings about the realization that even under the guise of civilization, humans are
corrupt and decadent. The use of the ideal Houyhnhnms is deceiving. The apparent reason
for using reasonable animals is to make the human-like Yahoos seem more irrational. From
literary criticisms by Knowles and Ehrenpreis, it seems like the Houyhnhnms were used as
objects of satire. What was not apparent, but pointed out by both critics was the fact
that inconsistencies in the Houyhnhnm character are reflective of paradoxes in human
thought. The only support Ehrenpreis gave was the parallel between the hippocentricity of
the Houyhnhnms and the anthropocentricity of humans. Knowles used many examples from the
book to support his ideas. The most subtle criticisms were made on religion. Ehrenpreis'
explanations mostly used supporting evidence from Locke. He used an argument against
Trinitarianism and another on Christianity in general. Knowles' explanation of the
religious satire seemed more plausible because it was focused on Deism. He used works
from many authors to first convey Deist ideals, then from examples in the book, tried to
show the paradoxes.