Swift's Moral Satire in Gulliver's Travels.docx

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1、Swifts Moral Satire in Gullivers TravelsIn its most serious function, satire is a mediator between two perceptions-the unillusioned perception of man as he actually is, and the ideal perception, or vision, of man as he ought ot be, (Bullitt, 3). Likewise, misanthropy can be understood as being the p

2、roduct of one of two world views: 1) The Pure Cynic or Misanthropist has no faith in human nature and has given up on any notion of ideals. This type lies and manipulates as a matter of course and these are the types that tend to run the world. 2) The Burned or Disillusioned Idealists misanthropy ar

3、ises out of disappointment in humankind. In many ways, the second type exhibits more bile as he is constantly frustrated by what men do as opposed to what they ought to do. Jonathon Swift is the second type of misanthropist and Gullivers Travels is arguably his greatest satiric attempt to shame men

4、out of their vices (Ibid., 14) by constantly distinguishing between how man behaves and how he thinks about or justifies his behavior in a variety of situations. Pride, in particular, is what enables man to deceive himself into the belief that he is rational and virtuous when, in reality, he has not

5、 developed his reason, and his virtue is merely appearance, (Ibid., 66). This satire works on so many levels that a paper such as this allows me to deal with only three elements, and in a necessarily superficial way: the ways in which the structure and choice of metaphor serve Swifts purpose, a disc

6、ussion of some of his most salient attacks on politics, religion, and other elements of society, and his critique on the essence and flaws of human nature. Swifts purpose was to stir his readers to view themselves as he viewed humankind, as creatures who were not fulfilling their potential to be tru

7、ly great but were simply flaunting the trappings of greatness. Gullivers Travels succeeds in this goal brilliantly. The form and structure of the whole work enhanced Swifts purpose, as did the specific metaphors in each of the four voyages. Firstly, Swift went to great pains to present Gullivers Tra

8、vels in the genuine, standard form of the popular travelogues of the time. Gulliver, the reader is told, was a seaman, first in the capacity of a ships surgeon, then as the captain of several ships. Swift creates a realistic framework by incorporating nautical jargon, descriptive detail that is rela

9、ted in a factual, ships-log style, and repeated claims by Gulliver, in his narrative, to relate plain matter(s) of fact in the simplest manner and style. This framework provides a sense of realism and versimilitude that contrasts sharply with the fantastic nature of the tales, and establishes the fi

10、rst ironic layer of The Travels. As Tuveson points out (58), In Gullivers Travels there is a constant shuttling back and forth between real and unreal, normal and absurd.until our standards of credulity are so relaxed that we are ready to buy a pig in a poke. The four books of the Travels are also p

11、resented in a parallel way so that voyages 1 and 2 focus on criticism of various aspects of English society at the time, and man within this society, while voyages 3 and 4 are more preoccupied with human nature itself, (Downie, 281). However, all of these elements overlap, and with each voyage, Gull

12、iver, and thus the reader, is treated not only to differing but ever deepening views of human nature that climax in Gullivers epiphany when he identifies himself with the detestable Yahoos. As such, the overall structure also works like a spiral leading to a center of self-realization. Or, as Tuveso

13、n puts it, Swifts satire shifts from foreign to domestic scenes, from institutions to individuals, from mankind to man, from others to ourselves, (62). The choice of metaphor in each voyage serves more particularly the various points of Swifts satiric vision. The effect of reducing the scale of life

14、 in Lilliput is to strip human affairs of their self-imposed grandeur. Rank, politics, international war, lose all of their significance. This particicualr idea is continued in the second voyage, not in the picture of the Brobdingnagians, but in Gulliver himself, who is now a Lilliputian, (Eddy, 149

15、). And where the Liiliputians highlight the pettiness of human pride and pretensions, the relative size of the Brobdingnagians, who do exemplify some positive qualities, also highlights the grossness of the human form and habits, thus satirizing pride in the human form and appearance. In the voyage

16、to Laputa, the actual device of a floating island that drifts along above the rest of the world metaphorically represents Swifts point that an excess of speculative reasoning can also be negative by cutting one off from the practical realities of life which, in the end, doesnt serve learning or soci

17、ety (Downie, 282). And in the relation of the activities of the Grand Academy of Lagado, Swift satirizes the dangers and wastefulness of pride in human reason uninformed by common sense. The final choice of the Houyhnhnms as the representatives of perfect reason unimpeded by irrationality or excessi

18、ve emotion serves a dual role for Swifts satire. The absurdity of a domestic animal exhibiting more humanity than humans throws light on the defects of human nature in the form of the Yahoo, who look and act like humans stripped of higher reason. Gulliver and the reader are forced to evaluate such b

19、ehavior from a vantage point outside of man that makes it both shocking and revelatory, (Tuveson, 62). The pride in human nature as superior when compared to a bestial nature is satirized sharply. However, the Houyhnhnms are not an ideal of human nature either. Swift uses them to show how reason uni

20、nformed by love, compassion, and empathy is also an inadequate method to deal with the myriad aspects of the human situation. Within this framework, very little of human social behavior, pretensions, or societal institutions escape the deflating punctures of Swifts arrows. Ewald statesthat, As a sat

21、ire, the main purpose of Gullivers Travels is to show certain shortcomings in 18th century English society. (151). Much of the first voyage lampoons court intrigue and the arbitrary fickleness of court favor, (Eddy, 110). The rank and favor of the Lilliputian ministers being dependent on how high th

22、ey can jump over a rope literally illustrates this figurative point. Gulliver himself falls out of favor because he does not pander to the Kings thirst for power. The two political parties being differentiated by the height of their heels points out how little substantive difference there was betwee

23、n Whig and Tory, (or today between Democrat and Republican), and similarly, the religious differences about whether the Host was flesh or symbol is reduced to the petty quarrel between the Big-Endians and the Small-Endians. Swift also highlights the pretensions of politics by informing the reader of

24、 some of the laudable and novel ideals and practices of Lilliputian society such as rewarding those who obey the law, holding a breach of trust as the highest offense, and punishing false accusors and ingratitude, but shows that, like humans, even the Lilliputians do not live up to their own standar

25、ds when they exhibit ingratitude for Gullivers help and accuse him of high treason, (Downie, 278). Of course, the perspective shifts in the second voyage, where Gulliver finds himself in the same relation to the Brobdingnagians as the Lilliputians were to him, which not only leads to some different

26、kinds of satiric insights, but many which are sightly darker in tone. Most of the social and political criticism occurs in Chapters six and seven. Gulliver describes European civilization to Brobdingnags King, including Englands political and legal institutions and how they work, as well as some of

27、the personal habits of the ruling class. Yet, even though Gulliver subsequently confesses to the reader that he cast this information in the most favorable light, the King still deduces that every strata of society and political power is infested with rampant corruption and dismissively concludes th

28、e 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. This echoes a basic message of the first voyage but the attack here is more direct and corrosive. The relative size of the Brobdingnagians adds a physical d

29、imension to the Kings judgment and enhances its veracity. Also, all the transactions of life, all passion, and all social amenities, which involve the body, lose their respectability in Brobdingnag, (Eddy, 150), from Gullivers description of the odious breast to his viewing of a public execution. In

30、 contrast, Brobdingnagian society has many things to recommend it such as excellence in morality, history, poetry, and mathematics, although Gulliver ironically laments that these are only applied to the practical aspects of life and not used for abstractions. However, much of Swifts political writi

31、ngs indicate that he, like the Brobdingnagians, favored a conception of government and society based on common-sense, (Lock, 132-134). The supreme moment of ironical criticism of European civilization occurs in Chapter seven when, after offering the secret of gun powder to the King and his subsequen

32、t horrified refusal, Gulliver declares the King to possess narrow principles and short views! Of course, mankind would never be so short-sighted as to turn away from learning a new method of injuring, torturing, or killing ones fellows! Aside from this sharp comment on human nature, Swift is also al

33、luding to the eagerness with which European nations would leap at such an offer as an aid to waging war against their neighbors. The main focus of social criticism in the voyage to Laputa is on intellectuals, such as scholars, philosophers, and scientists, who often get lost in theoretical abstracti

34、ons and conceptions to the exclusion of the more pragmatic aspects of life, in direct contrast to the practical Brobdingnagians. Many critics feel Swift was satirizing the strange experiments of the scientists of the Royal Society, but may also have been warning his readers against the political pro

35、jectors and speculators of the time, (Davis 149-150). The Laputians excel at theoretical mathematics, but they cant build houses where the walls are straight and the corners are square. Instead, they constantly worry about when the sun will burn out and whether a comet will collide with the earth. T

36、his misuse of reason is hilariously elaborated on in Chapters five and six, where the various experiments occuring at the Grand Academy of Lagado are described. Of course, the point is highlighted as Gulliver professes his sincere admiration for such projects as extracting sunbeams from cucumbers an

37、d building houses from the roof down. The satire in Voyage three attacks both the deficiency of common sense and the consequences of corrupt judgment (Quintana, 317). Most of the criticism in the Voyage to the Houyhnhnms is directed at human nature itself, although the trend to more particular targe

38、ts begun in the third voyage is continued with glancing, but increasingly direct blows to the subjects of war, (destruction clothed in the pretext of valour and patriotism), lawyers, (social parasites who measure their worth by their excellence at deception and therefore, actually inhibit justice),

39、and money, (the greed of a few is fed by the labor and poverty of the many, as well as the relative uselessness and corruption of these priveleged few). In addition, Swift makes some very cogent observations on imperialism in the concluding chapter which point out the arrogance and self deception of

40、 European nations when they claim to civilize, through brutality and oppression, groups of indigenous people who were often mild and harmless. Of course, as Swift implies, the real goal of imperialism is greed. The most ironic point occurs when the author disclaims that this attack on imperialist co

41、untries does not include Britain, which history shows was equally as brutal as its European rivals and, in many cases, even more so, considering its Empire became at one time the largest of any European country. What I found most interesting was how many critics took this disclaimer seriously as an

42、expression of the authors patriotism, (Ewald, 143-144, Bullitt, 64). It seems obvious that Swift is making the point that Gullivers naive patriotism, the last remnant of identification he has with his own kind, is misplaced and it is Swifts final, palpable hit. The main object of the satire in Gulli

43、vers Travels is human nature itself, specifically Mans pride as it manifests in pettiness, grossness, rational absurdity, and animality, (Tuveson, 57). Gullivers character, as a satirical device, serves Swifts ends by being both a mouthpiece for some of Swifts ideals and criticisms and as an illustr

44、ation of them (Ewald, 138-9); Thus, critiques on human nature are made through Gullivers observations as well as through Gullivers own transformation from a naive individual.into a wise and skeptical misanthrope, (Ibid.,142). Chapter seven of the first Voyage, where Gulliver is informed that he is a

45、bout to be indicted for high treason by the Lilliputian Court, provides the most bitter satiric attack on hypocrisy, ingratitude, and cruelty (Tuveson, 75), yet Gulliver, and the reader, are able to distance themselves from these qualities by concluding that though these tiny creatures are aping hum

46、an behavior, they are still not human. In the second voyage, both the human pride in physical appearance is attacked through Gullivers perspective of the Brobdingnagians, and Gullivers own pride in himself and his country is reduced to ridiculousness as Gulliver becomes the object of comic satire (I

47、bid., 76). Gullivers offer of the secret of gunpowder only underscores that he is a typical member of his race. From Gullivers theme of the excellence of mankind, begun in Chapter six, the episode concludes with the shocking demonstration of what mans inhumanity is capable of (Ibid., 78). One of the

48、 most interesting comments on the human condition is the description of the immortal Struldbrugs in Voyage Three. Swifts treatment of the subject of immortality is characteristically practical and down to earth. What would it really be like to live in perpetuity? His answer: A living death. The main

49、 problem is that the human body ages and is not a fit vessel to house a perpetual consciousness. In relating this episode, Swift affirms with cutting precision that we have much in common with the rest of earths creatures; any superior reason we may possess, and the pride we take in it, does not exempt us from the natural laws of physical death and regeneration. In Book Three, Swift not only shows the possible perversions of reason in the doings at the Academy of Lagado, b