Satire In Gulliver's Travels

3 Pages 666 Words

SATIRE OF GULLIVER’S TRAVELS

Jonathan Swift’s satirical prose, Gulliver’s Travels, is the subject of
a wide variety of literary critique and social interpretation. Although
many readers, at first glance, take this tale to be simply a fantastic
narrative of a common man and his encounters with unusual locations and
people through several journeys, further inspection reveals Swift’s true
purpose of creativity--satire. Using the contemporary style of the Travel
Narrative, Swift is able to insert his own personal criticisms of modern life
into the experience of Gulliver. Swift focuses entirely on satirizing
humanity in Book IV of Gulliver’s Travels.
Gulliver, representing a common man, encounters a wide variety of
characters along his travels, each representing a subject Swift wishes to
criticize. His satire ranges from relatively simple political criticism in his
experiences in Book I and II to a socio-political criticism in Book III, to
the social, philosophical criticism of man in Book IV.
If Book IV is read literally, with no knowledge of satire, it appears
to be another bizarre journey of Gulliver, no more unusual than his other
travels. It is obvious, however, that Book IV criticizes the nature of man
as a rational being. Of interest to the readers of today is Swift’s choice of
creatures inhabiting this land; There is a barbaric, man-like creature
dubbed the Yahoo and the civilized, good-natured horse-like creature, the
Houyhnhnms. “Upon the whole, I never beheld in all my Travels so
disagreeable an Animal, or one against which I naturally conceived so
strong an Antipathy” (IV,193). His opinion of the Yahoos contrasts with
his opinion of the Houyhnhnms.
The Houyhnhnms think Gulliver is another Yahoo capable of
outstanding intellect, but Gulliver is offended that they want to classify
him as a Yahoo. “I expressed my Uneasiness at his giving me so often the
Appellation of Y...